From Leeside to Merseyside - Discovering Liverpool

It is amazing how quickly cities can turn themselves around, if they just have the will to do so. New York has done so, Bristol has done so, Dublin was trying to do it when the economy collapsed, and Cork would like to try but can't really be bothered to do so. A really prime example of how such a turnaround can look, however, is Liverpool. Traditionally a gateway to the industrial centres of northern England, and an industrial powerhouse in its own right, the city suffered immensely when the shipyards and heavy industry finally collapsed in the late 1970s. Some of the older german readers of this blog may remember a devastating report by ZDF, one of Germany's two state-run TV stations, that showed scenes from Liverpool reminiscent of the first "Mad Max" movie. 

You'll be hard pressed to find anything of that nature in Liverpool today. The city has changed almost beyond recognition, the old docks are alive again, the inner city has been rejuvenated, and to top it off, Liverpool has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site due to its rich mercantile and industrial architecture and history. No longer a barren industrial wasteland devoid of employment and hope, Liverpool once again holds it's head high, and stands tall like the Royal Liver Building that has become synonymous with the city.

I think it goes without saying that with my interest in industrial architecture, I had to check out that city sooner or later.

Getting There

My trip to Liverpool started just as you might have expected it would - With a bike ride. I was only hopping over for a short stay, only had my light overnighter bag, and my flight left late enough that I could take the bus, both cheaper and more interesting than a taxi ride. So the first leg was a bike ride through the deserted streets of Cork at 6 AM on a Saturday morning. It really is a rare occurrence that you can feel like the king of the road while riding a Coca Cola Zero Bike.

Breaking the cycle? Better not, these things are far too convenient.

Not really busy....

Any questions?

The Experience at Cork Airport was as comfortable and pleasant as I've come to expect, even more so in fact, as I didn't have to check in. I breezed through security and was airside in less than five minutes. I was flying Ryanair this time, and despite their newly revamped website and new "softer" image, I was a bit apprehensive about the flight to come. For the moment however, my priority was breakfast, and it would later turn out that the Full Irish at the Last Call pub at the airport was a good idea after all.

As far as the flight itself was concerned, well, it was Ryanair. My aircraft, EI-EKZ, wasn't really that old, it was delivered from Boeing to Ryanair in 2010, however the high number of cycles the company forces onto their aircraft really showed. Plus, it was still an aircraft belonging to an older order the airline had placed with the Seattle-based manufacturer, and still had the drab standard interior. What's more, the flight was PACKED. How I managed to score a 68€ roundtrip just two weeks before is a mystery to me. The cramped seating, as well as the low position of the windows in comparison to the Airbus A320 or other aircraft did their part to make this a not really memorable flight. Still, with my iPhone in flight mode, I did get some rest and relaxation, plus, there's nothing like taking off from Cork Airport with Harold Faltermeyer's Top Gun Anthem in your ears.

Competition about to push back.

I just love the architecture

And there it is, my flight to Liverpool

Yep, Cork can definitely use more flights.

Aer Lingus Regional getting ready for their flight to Birmingham.

Ryanair - Do I have to say more?

Speaking of Top Gun, the landing was something straight out of the US Navy Playbook, and wouldn't have looked out of place on an aircraft carrier. Granted, the runway in Liverpool isn't much longer than the one here in Cork, still that landing was a bit too rough for comfort. Getting out of Liverpool Airport wasn't too hard, flights from Ireland have their own little segregated arrivals section together with arrivals from the Channel islands, and I only had my carry-on anyway, so I was out in a flash.

The cloudscapes were just amazing, during both flights.

This must be a first, the first time I've captured a hotel I'm staying in from the air.  Iv you open the image, you'll see it right under the wingtip. the former link taxiway linking the old Speke airfield to the present facility is also visible.

On the stand at Liverpool. Hardly a bustling mega hub...

That's not to say there's no traffic at all...

Landside at Liverpool. We'll get back to this image later

Getting to the hotel wasn't really that difficult, but it was my first inkling that public transport in the Merseyside area wasn't really that user-friendly. There was no clear plan of bus networks, and things like electronic passenger information displays were pretty much unknown at the bus stops, even the central ones. And it was soon pretty clear that Arriva, the bus company operating the majority of lines in Liverpool, was a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn: Looking much more modern than they are, not really that comfortable, and lacking WiFi. It seemed suspiciously like Bus Éireann.

Base Camp

I am not really a fan of sleeping under bridges or in airports, and value a room of my own, so staying in a hostel was pretty much out. That led to my first severe shock when planning this trip. Hotel prices in Liverpool were through the roof. Even an Ibis Hotel, not really the epitome of high class accommodation, came in at a whopping 250£ per night, breakfast not included, naturally. Other hotels were similar or even higher. A stay in the city center was out of the question. So, if I had to take a bus to the city, I might as well go for a hotel that appealed to my inner aviation geek. I decided to book myself into the Crowne Plaza Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which "only" set me back by 90£.

View of the hotel. The two wings are new additions, but the central tower, and everything behind it  is part of the original terminal building.

This view might not be to everyone's taste, I love it.

The hotel is housed in the original 1930s era terminal building of Liverpool Airport, then known as Liverpool Speke, named after the manor house on whose grounds the airport had been built. The facility had lain dormant since all aviation activity had been transferred to the present day site at the airport in the 1990s, but was taken over first by Marriott and then in 2008 by Crowne Plaza.

I had arrived rather early, at 11 AM, but my room was ready. The hotel does not shy away from the aviation heritage of the site, with old advertisements of British Imperial Airways and other classic air transport companies from the 1930s. This stretched all the way to the rooms, which were decorated to invoke these grand days of air travel. This stretched even outside, where a local enthusiast group took care of several historic aircraft parked there, among them the first prototype for the British Aerospace Jetstream 41, the last airliner fully designed and built in the UK and an obscure liaison aircraft called the Percival Prince. Several other aircraft were scattered around the site, but I'll get to those later. Suffice to say, some things make for grim viewing for aviation enthusiasts like me (a.k.a. plane nuts, or just plain nuts).

Into the city

Once I had dropped off my stuff, gotten myself sorted and grabbed my trusty camera, it was off into the city, once again via bus. There were some docking stations for Liverpool City Bikes in the area, but I didn’t know my way around, plus the hotel was 10 kilometers away from the city center, a bit long on a bike you’ve never ridden and in a city you don’t know. I’ll go into details about these bikes a little later. The bus dropped me off at a large shopping centre in the middle of Liverpool, Liverpool One. It is, quite simply, one of the most interesting urban regeneration projects I’ve seen so far.

The modern face of the Liverpool Docklands.

And this is the original face...

... Miles and miles of quays and warehouses.

My main interest however were the docks of Liverpool, the source of so much of the city’s wealth. These had undergone a massive transformation progress since the 1980s, and that process was plain to see as soon as you had managed to find your way out of the city centre. What was equally impressive was the sheer size of the docks, which stretch for miles and miles along the bank of the Mersey. It was pretty obvious that just one weekend is nowhere near enough to cover even the essentials, even if you leave out all the Beatles “Museums”, “Experiences”, and “Tours”, which was definitely my plan. You could loose yourself for days just exploring the rich maritime heritage of the city.

Nowadays, the Victorian era buildings house museums...

...or galleries. The warehouse on the right with the red colonnades houses the Liverpool branch of the Tate Gallery.

The waterfront truly is a world of contrasts... and reflections.

Looking down the Mersey towards the cruise terminal.

For some reason this reminds me of the Alps around the town I used to go to school in.

With so much to do, and so little time, I did what I believed was the best alternative. I dove right in and started exploring the waterfront. Every section had its own distinctive style and character. From the seemingly endless Victorian warehouses along Albert Dock, which would give Hamburg’s fabled “Speicherstadt” a run for its money, to the architectural wet dreams of the Mersey Ferries Terminal and the Museum of Liverpool in the Pier Head area, there was something for anyone there. Even neo-con tastes were catered for with bland non descriptive office blocks and half completed high rises along Princess Dock. 

Workhorses, Waterfront warehouses, wharves, the history of the port of Liverpool in a nutshell.

These horses literally were the workhorses of the port until well into the 20th century. But enough horsing around...

Schooner "De Wadden" drydocked in Liverpool. This cargo schooner was the last sailing ship to serve Liverpool commercially, operating into the 1960s.

Superlambanana - Any questions? Thought so, me neither....

Classic Liverpool Waterfront.

Chicago? Boston? New York? Liverpool? You be the judge.

The iconic Royal Liver Building. You can definitely tell that the architect used to work in the US.

Waterfront Panorama in front of the Royal Liver Building.

No matter how you look at it, it is impressive.

Building styles for every taste and epoch. Take your pick!

I just can't get enough of that waterfront.

Just like in Cork, you just can't escape the cruise ships...

Architecture Lesson 101 - How to turn a historic waterfront into a bland business park.

Not that there aren't any interesting perspectives off to the sides.

The very end of the pier. That high-rise is still partially clad in scaffolding, yet  already being lived in.

That part of the waterfront isn't accessible from the historic quayside, but who knows. Given that this is the Uk, they'll probably change that once they can squeeze some money out of it.

By the time I had reached The northern tip of Princess Parade, currently the end of the regenerated area of the waterfront, it was time to look for something to eat, as lunchtime had rolled around. So I decided to hop onto one of the Liverpool City Bikes and cycle back, I had registered for the system just after booking the flights and the hotel. So, I just entered my account number and PIN code into the terminal at one of the station, picked a bike, and released it. It was all pretty straightforward, and much like Coca Cola Zero Bikes in Cork - Except that it wasn't. 

Liverpool City Bikes. Doesn't look that bad at first glance.

Terminal is a bit minimalistic, but okay.

The bikes look fine from this perspective...

But once you get on them, you'll know how rickety they are. Seriously, I've seen paper planes that were sturdier....

Rock solid terminal controls, though.

While the number of stations far exceeded that of the Cork network, which isn't really that surprising, the stations themselves, as indeed the bikes, were much more rudimentary. In fact, the bikes were the biggest letdown of the entire system, small, rickety, and unstable. In addition, there was no feedback at the terminal when you returned a bike, so there was no way of telling whether the rent had been terminated as planned. Still, it beat walking, and unlike the bikes in Cork, the Liverpool City Bikes actually had a strap to secure bags in the basket on the handlebar, which is something that I find sorely lacking in the Coca Cola Zero Bikes.

Ferry Cross the Mersey

After a quick lunch and attending to some much needed "human" business, I was back on the prowl, back down to the waterfront. During my first foray to the waterfront, I had noticed a rather colourful ship departing the Mersey Ferry terminal at Pier Head. Indeed, with that paint job, she wasn't hard to miss. She looked like she had been painted by a gang of drugged up expressionists. Turns out that description isn't that far off the mark. The ship in question was the Mersey Ferry Snowdrop, and her paint scheme had been designed by Sir Peter Blake, the UK's premier pop artist. Remember the cover art for Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, by some obscure British band called the Beatles? Yep, the same guy. It was however more than just a fanciful coat of paint. It was meant as a tribute to the "Dazzle" paint schemes developed by the Royal Navy during the First World War, and which had adorned many of the convoys and warships operating out of Liverpool during that war. A quick check at the Ferry terminal revealed that she was operating 50 minute tourist cruises, and that the last cruise would be operating just about thirty minutes later. I quickly bought a ticket and literally waited for my ship to come in.

That picture again. We're looking towards the Pier Head ferry terminal. That coloured speck aft of the cruise ship is what I'm looking for.

You may have missed it's sailing time, but you certainly can't miss the ferry itself.

And there she comes, Mersey ferry Snowdrop approaching the Pier Head Landing.

Old and new, the Royal Liver Building and the Pier Head ferry terminal building. The top floor houses, what else?, a Beatles Exhibition,

One thing's for sure about the Mersey Ferry Snowdrop: She isn't one of those small, light tourist boats. she is a working ship through and through, a fact that is immediately obvious if you look at her. And quite frankly, she has to be. Tourist jaunts are only part of her daily workload, the Mersey ferries are an integral part of Liverpool's public transit system, a fact showcased by the large gangways leading to their floating landing stages.
Immediately after we left the Pier Head terminal at the Liverpool Waterfront, the speakers started blaring the song which is synonymous with the service: "Ferry Cross the Mersey". I just hope that they cut that out during the commuter services, otherwise there might soon be a new movie to shoot: Mutiny on the Snowdrop.
The other running commentary was quite good, highlighting the development of the city and the docks, as well as that of the cities on the other side of the Mersey on the Wirral peninsula, from the shipyard town of Birkenhead to the former smuggling haven of Wallasey.  One thing that surprised me was the German U Boat next to the Woodside ferry terminal. It is U 534, a Type IX U-Boat sunk off the Danish island of Anholt in 1945. Surprisingly, it is quite a fitting resting place, as one of the floating docks at Wallasey was the testing ground for Resurgam, one of the first submersibles, back in 1879.

Why hide it when you can style it? Liverpool side ventilation tower for the Kingsway Road tunnel under the Mersey.

Currently still standing empty and unused, this used to be the largest warehouse in the world. It is still one of the largest brick structures.

I do have to say I like the style of these towers.

Approaching the Seacombe landing.

Once again, the skyline leaves it up to you to decide on which side of the Atlantic we're actually on.

I can't think of a better view to describe the modern day business at the Liverpool Waterfront.

Different style, same function. This is one of the ventilation towers for the old Queensway road tunnel, the first road tunnel underneath the Mersey.

Old, meet New. The Echo Event centre, and Liverpool Cathedral.

Slightly smaller church on the Seacombe side.

After years of decline, there's shipbuilding and outfitting at Birkenhead again. That's the RFA  Wave Knight, a supply vessel operated for the Royal Navy right there. Hey, you didn't expect me to write a blog article about a port city without at least one grey hull, did you?

Getting some air support....

View back to Pier Head. The 21st century is definitely leaving its mark.

Sailing under the Red Ensign. I don't think I've ever done that before.

Woodside Birkenhead ferry landing. Yep, that's a chopped up German U-Boat on the left.

What was most spectacular though were the views of the Liverpool Waterfront, which was one of the reasons why Liverpool successfully managed to apply for the status of UNESCO World Heritage site. Between the Victorian Warehouses, the docks, the Royal Liver Building and the modern high-rises, Liverpool appears from the water as a city that is equally at home on both sides of the Atlantic, and in the best possible way. For me however, the return to the Pier Head terminal meant the end of my first day in the city. My feet simply couldn't take any more walking. So, it was back to the bus station and onto the bus to the airport.

Returning to Base

My plan had originally been to drop down into the hotel bar for a quick informal dinner. However, finding the bar was pretty much impossible, and to top it all off, one of the hotel wings had been closed off for a wedding reception. Room Service did not really sound appealing to me, so I left the hotel in search of first an ATM, and then a decent restaurant, the latter of which could have been difficult, as the area around the hotel consisted mostly of business parks, which of course were all closing down by the time I arrived back from the city. There turned out to be a restaurant right next door to the hotel, which was just the informal place I had hoped for.

Dust settling over the old airport. You can almost here a lonely prop aircraft taxiing  in and shutting down after the last flight of the day.

After dinner, it was off for a final stroll through... the back lot of the hotel? What the hell is wrong with you? Well, I had mentioned earlier that my hotel had earlier been the first terminal of Liverpool Airport. Well, the back of the hotel actually encompassed some of the original apron of the airport, and while some sections were now used for staff/guest parking and as a coach park, there were still significant remnants of the site's aviation heritage around, not all in pristine condition, I have to add.

View of De Havilland Dragon Rapide G-AJCL, the former Gate Guardian of the Hotel. It is currently being disassembled and restored. The building in the back is one of the two original hangars of the airport. It is now being used as an office building.

G-BEJD, a Hawker Siddeley HS 748, currently being restored as well. The HS 748 was one of the last successful British built aircraft, with 380 aircraft being built. A number of them are still in commercial and military service around the world.

That's a juicy bit of aviation history right there. The Gloster Meteor was the first type of jet fighter to enter service with the Royal Air Force, back in World War 2. This particular example, WH291, belongs to a later generation, though.

This little fellow is symptomatic of the decline of the British aviation industry. The Percival Prince was, due to conflicting requirements and excessive government intervention, never built in sufficient numbers to generate a profit for the manufacturer.

This almost brought a tear to my eye. This aircraft is a Bristol Britannia, the UK's attempt to produce a competitor to the great long range piston aircraft, like Lockheed's Super Constellation. Only 85 aircraft were built, and only a few of those are still in existence. A quick internet research shows that there are people working on restoring this rare aircraft, and that the inside is actually in acceptable condition. One can only hope so.

Looking at this picture, you almost can't tell that this part of the airport is no longer an airport.  However, even this aircraft, a BAe Jetstream 41, in fact the first prototype of that type, is permanently on display here.

Resting after the last flight of the day?

The art deco style of the terminal in all its glory.

I don't know about you, but in my eyes, the Jetstream 41 is a very elegant design.

This used to be the control tower until the new runway went operational.

Say what you want, as far as a hotel is concerned, this is certainly a unique one.

Another view of the Percival Prince. It's a bit of a shame that sales for this type never  really took off. It looks practical enough.

The good thing is that almost all these aircraft, including the hotel's former Gate Guardian, a de Havilland D.H.89 Dragon Rapide, are being worked on by volunteers. The only exception  is the Bristol Britannia, which is lying on the ground in a forlorn state, and makes quite a sorry sight. Still, given the vigour with which international hospitality companies sometimes erase the past of their hotel sites, it is encouraging to see the apparent cooperation at work here. 

The day after...

Well, at least that's what my feet felt like. The motion tracker on my iPhone showed me that I had walked around 21 kilometres the day before. It took some time therefore to get going and check out of my hotel room. I hadn't booked any breakfast as I didn't want to spend too much time in the hotel in the morning, so I went straight for the bus stop after checkout, and headed back into the city. Breakfast would be a job for a certain Seattle based coffee company. However, the way into the city was blocked by the very reason for the atrocious hotel prices in Liverpool City on that weekend: Liverpool City Marathon. The bus was diverted to a train station with the decidedly British name of Brunswick, from where we would have to take the train to Liverpool Central.

I can hear the train a comin'...

I had taken care of the waterfront the day before, so now it was time for the "interior" so to speak, the city itself. Once again, Liverpool did not disappoint, and it is quite surprising how much of the old Georgian or Victorian architecture ist still standing or has been restored, considering the twin disasters of German air raids in the 1940s and the city planners of the 1960s. The one thing I noticed a distinctive lack of however was greenery. There really aren't all that many parks in Liverpool city centre. Sure, there are some treelined streets and squares, and a lot of the suburbs are built along Garden City principles, but real parks such as Bishop Lucey or Fitzgerald Park in Cork are quite rare. It does kind of make sense, the space was needed for business, as Liverpool was, for a long time as big a commercial center as London, without all those distracting palaces. The buildings really reflected this, some, like India Buildings or Exchange Flags being imposing, indeed almost Orwellian in their nature. 

Typical high street scene...

But there are always interesting views off to the side....

UK or US?

In its monstrosity, India Buildings still exudes an aura of power and wealth.

I love these kinds of contrasts.

I have my doubts whether this area would be as devoid of people on a workday?

This picture really demonstrates the former commercial power of Liverpool. View of Liverpool Town Hall from Exchange Flags.

And I can't think of a better picture to show the  metamorphosis of the city.

I'd like to linger with Exchange Flags for a minute. The building, together with its two flanking buildings Horton House an Walker House towers behind the old Liverpool Exchange Building, and it's sandstone facade wouldn't look out of place on Whitehall, the street of power in London, around which most major government ministries are grouped. Towering at 11 stories high, it is an imposing structure, and exudes the self confidence of a seemingly invincible empire. The Nelson memorial in front of it does little to change it. Exchange Flags of course wasn't built by the government, it was however used by it for much of WW2. Derby House, one of the buildings in the complex, served as the home of Western Approaches Command, and the nerve centre from which the Royal Navy conducted its operations during the Battle of the Atlantic. There is a museum set up in Derby House, however, due to my tight schedule, I decided against checking it out.

You couldn't possibly help avoid being confronted with the Beatles while in Liverpool. Not when the bus through the airport has a stop at Penny Lane. In fact, there's an entire quarter of the city named after the Cavern Club, where the Fab Four had some of their first major gigs. It is being touted as Liverpool's party district, a British version of Temple Bar, so to speak. Bizarrely enough, the original Cavern Club does not exist anymore. It had to be closed down when the structure was found to be unsafe. So, in typically enterprising British fashion, the basement vaults of the Cavern Club were filled in, and the area was covered over as a car park. Several years afterwards, when the area was beginning to be redeveloped, the old Cavern Club vaults were uncovered, but subsequently found to be too weak to support the large retail and residential structure that was to be built on top of them. So, what do you do when you have a significant site that is unable to take the weight of redevelopment? Why, you tear it down, and build a copy twenty meters down the street of course. What, should we let history get in the way of profit? This is the UK after all.

These narrow streets clearly show their medieval heritage.

The new development on top of the old Cavern Club. Improvement or not? I'll leave that up to you.

Where the entrance to the Cavern Club once stood, there is now only an emergency exit.

By the time I had left the Cavern Quarter, my feet were vociferously protesting against any more exploration, and it was getting rather late as well. So, I decided to backtrack along Whitechapel to Liverpool One, that urban regeneration project I had mentioned earlier. Even now, as I'm writing this article in early July, I find it hard to describe. Yes, it is a large shopping centre, but at the same time, it still sticks to the historic streets, and is mostly open air, so it doesn't feel as monstrous as some other similar developments, despite taking up two city blocks. In addition, Liverpool One retained some of the original buildings, and creating a link to the regenerated docklands. All in all, this is a development that city planners should keep in mind.

Doesn't look like a shopping centre now, does it?

Well, that's more like it.

Some of the architecture on display here is really interesting. Take a look at the stairs to the food court in the background.

Still, the developers have integrated some of the previous architecture into Liverpool One.

Especially as Liverpool One has several locations where it succeeds in making you forget that you're actually in a shopping centre, such as the food court on the top level, which borders Chavasse Park, one of the few open green areas in the city. Considering the time, I decided to quickly grab a lunch there, and being in Liverpool, of course I decided to go for Japanese food. Did you really expect anything exotic?

Nice ground level Food Court, or so it would seem.

Well think again...

Looking towards the waterfront.

Much of the development is open air. Whether that is a smart decision, given the weather in this part of the world.

The closest thing I've come to a real inner city park, Chavasse Park is part of Liverpool  One. We're standing on top of three levels of retail units as a matter of fact.

Passage over to the Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts, built on the site of the former Liverpool Castle.

Looking back at the food court.

Another view towards the Waterfront.

You can really find some quite corners 'round here.

Liverpool One is really a chameleon development, it has a different character depending on what angle you approach it from.

With lunch taken care off, I decided to take a stroll through Chavasse Park down towards the docks for the last time. I'm glad I did, as just as I had reached the bottom end of the park, I noticed the sound of four heavy turboprop engines rise above the street noise. I spotted the source of the noise, a C-130 Hercules of the Royal Air Force just in time to get my camera up and squeeze off two shots as the aircraft flew a low pass along the waterfront, probably an event related to the Liverpool City Marathon. 

Following that little surprise, it was time to make my way back to Lime Street Station to get my bag which I had put into storage there in the morning, and head out to the airport. Mind you, I still had well over an hour to do so. Much to the dismay of my feet, I decided on the long way, following Whitechapel all the way up to St. John's Garden. Purely by chance, I stumbled onto another remarkable piece of city planning, though admittedly from another era, the ensemble of St. George's Hall, the Museum of the World, Liverpool Central Library, Walker Art Gallery, and the County Sessions House, all built in truly splendid neo-classical style, and intended to turn the area around William Brown Street into a Roman forum. I'm still trying to figure out how Lime Street Station fits into these plans.

The "Roman Forum" Approach is definitely visible.

What definitely doesn't fit into this plan is the entrance to the Queensway Road Tunnel at the bottom end of this ensemble. However, despite naturally being underground for most of it's length, the tunnel is still noticeable by its large ventilation towers dotted throughout the city, and in one case even being integrated into an office building. 

Going underground - Entrance to the Queensway Road tunnel going underneath the Mersey.

Inside Lime Street Station. A Virgin Trains Pendolino is about to depart.

Impressive feat of engineering or not, for me it was across the road to Lime Street Station to get my bag. With it in hand, I made my way back to Liverpool One for the last time to catch the bus to the airport. I took my time, partially because I still had time, and partially because my feet simply wouldn't allow anything else. It turned out to be perfect timing, as I arrived at Liverpool One Bus Station with five minutes to spare.

What looks like a calculation error is actually the bus station of Liverpool One.

Best view in the house.

Liverpool South Parkway Station, the closest railway station to the airport.

One last look at the hotel.

I think I've come to the right place.

The bus ride was, quite frankly, shaky. Granted, I was on the top deck of a double decker bus, so any movement was amplified up there, but still, the roads were atrocious. I always thought the potholes in rural county Kerry or in Sligo were bad, but they have nothing on some of the roads in Liverpool. Still, for someone who has a keen interest in urban development, the journey was pretty interesting. Plus, I had the front row seat on the top floor of a double decker, the best seat in the house.

At the Airport

Liverpool's John Lennon International Airport is what I would call a typical regional UK airport. Linear terminal design, lots of glass, and with the usual mix of legacy airlines and low cost carriers like Ryanair, Easyjet, or Wizzair. In many ways, it resembles Bristol Airport, which I had the pleasure of flying from the year before. However, it would soon turn out that Bristol was in many ways a superior facility.

Your typical airport facade. If it wasn't for the sign, this could be any airport between Glasgow and Bristol.

The check-in hall was par for the course, very linear. Flying only with hand luggage, and having checked in and gotten my boarding pass online earlier, I didn't have to worry about all of that. So I made my way straight up to the security checkpoint. And up..., and up..., and up... For some reason the management at Liverpool Airport had decided to stick the security checkpoint all the way under the roof of the terminal. Once again, transit through security was easy and straightforward, I mean, it's not as if I haven't done this before, although some people were quite surprised at how easily I managed it. 

Yep, I've been here before.

I'm not sure what John Lennon would have to say about either having an airport named after him, or lyrics of his songs displayed all over the terminal.

Once airside, the usual blackmail of "buy duty free, or else" unfolded, with the security checkpoint opening up straight into the duty free shop of the airport. I mean I get that airports are trying to maximise non-aviation revenue, but shoving shopping opportunities down a passenger's throat like that can't really be conducive to that, can it? Anyway, I passed through the gauntlet of cheap perfume and overly expensive booze (Jameson Whiskey? Are you guys for real?) without problem and entered into the main lounge, only to be disappointed almost immediately. The only three places that had any view of the apron: A Burger King restaurant on the top level, as well as a Starbucks, and a restaurant on the main level of the departure lounge. However, the view from the latter two was obscured by a walkway to a number of gates located in a remote pier of the airport, behind three hangars that had been built in front of the terminal. 

Hangars in front of a Terminal. Well, whatever floats your boat.

The departure hall is standard fare for British airports.

Not really much going on on the ramp.

Ah, that's better.

Well, it looks as if my plane has arrived.

In addition, once you left the airy central part of the lounge, the reason for some of the architectural quirks of the airport immediately became clear. The core of the terminal was still formed by the original terminal building from the early 1980s, when flights were transferred from the old facility (my hotel). Basically, the modern glass frontage an sweeping roofs had been built around the existing terminal, so the security checkpoint, as well as the duty free shop were basically on the roof of the original building. And you didn't have to walk far to see the hallmarks of 1980s architecture: low ceilings, small windows, poor ventilation, and thin walls. It's moments like these that make you appreciate the world class facility that is Cork airport. Oh, and before I forget: there's only 30 minutes of free wifi at the airport.
Well, I wasn't going to be there for long. after a quick coffee to unwind a bit, and wandering around the airport for a time, I decided to grab something to eat, my arrival in Cork would be at around 9 PM, and I was in no mood to hunt around the city for dinner at that time. So I grabbed a table at the restaurant, "The Kissing Gate", and quickly found out that the "Ultimate Burger" on their menu lived up to its reputation. As disappointing as some aspects of the airport are from an aviation geek's perspective, the food is excellent. 
By now, the gate for my flight to Cork had been announced. In fact, I even watched it pull onto its stand from the restaurant. I made my way over to the departure gate. boarding was pretty well organised for Ryanair standards, even though the queue for priority boarding ended up being longer than the regular boarding queue, and we found ourselves standing in a windowless metal corridor above the ramp, as the aircraft hadn't been cleared for boarding yet.

On my way to boarding.

Company traffic on a neighbouring stand.

My ride back to Cork.

Looks like things are getting busier.

Turning onto the runway. The lighting was just incredible.

The flight itself was standard Ryanair fare, nothing out of the ordinary. There were some very interesting lighting conditions outside though, and I got some fascinating shots. One thing that did surprise me though, was the routing. Instead of flying a beeline towards the southwest, we flew straight west to Dublin first, before roughly following the path of the M9 motorway south. Then again, any direct routing would have taken us over Snowdonia and the training areas of the Royal Air Force in that area. Maybe some of the ranges there were "hot", and airspace restrictions in place, that would seem logical.

Coming home across the mouth of Cork Harbour.

We crossed the coast once again somewhere around Youghal, already well into our descent, and passed to the south of Cork harbour, which resulted in spectacular views of the harbour itself, and of the cliffs to the west of the harbour entrance. The landing was from the south, and was softer than the one which had gotten me to Liverpool. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

About to leave the active runway, and turn onto the stand.

Back home.

Let's face it. Cork Airport beats Liverpool without even breaking a sweat.

The last part of the trip was as mundane as the first one. I first took the 226A bus back to Parnell Place bus station, followed by one last bike ride back home, though I have no idea how I summoned up the strength for that, as I had clocked another impressive 19 kilometres on the step counter of my iPhone. I would find out the next day that going back to work directly after a strenuous weekend trip is generally a bad idea. 
Looking back at that trip now, it was definitely worth it, and I'll certainly go back to Merseyside some time in the future. Few cities in Europe have as many facets as Liverpool. You've got typical english suburbia existing next to splendid Victorian and Georgian streetscapes, the might and power of the British Empire right next door to buildings that wouldn't look out of place in Boston, New York, or Calgary. And of course, you've got miles of Victorian warehouses standing next to some prime examples of post-modernist architecture on the famous waterfront. In those two days, I wasn't even able to scratch the surface of this city, and I am sure that there is tons more to be discovered over there.