So we needed to go to England to return our trusty van. And we needed to take it back to its origin (Heathrow), or it would have been a way more expensive business.

Flights out of London to the Isle of Man were costly and/or inconvenient. So why don't we get the bus up to Liverpool, says Nigel, have a couple of days there, and go back on the boat? After all, in 2018, on our first trip to Liverpool for squillions of years, we'd pronounced it "definitely a place to come back to".

So that's what we did. We left Alfreton at 0630 on Wednesday, and we got back to the Island yesterday evening.

We were lucky with the boats again (at some point, this luck is going to run out, but we've really dodged a lot of boat cancellation bullets). We weren't so lucky with our Wednesday road travel, however...



Despite the obstacles, we got the van back on time. (Attendant: "Hello! Do you want to return your van?" Nigel: "No... I want to keep it...")

We bussed to Heathrow Terminal 4, and killed a couple of hours in a quiet corner of Arrivals. We boarded our bus at roughly 1500.

At which point we hit the most appalling queues... I'm not sure what had happened, but a whole chunk of motorway was closed, and traffic was backing up everywhere. Looking at the map, an hour after departure, and seeing what a pathetically small distance we'd travelled, our hearts sank a bit... A lot, actually...

Still, all credit to National Express. The seats are comfortable; the drivers are patient. You just have to stick your earphones in, keep everything topped up with your powerpack, factor in a little judicious snacking, and suck it up... We changed drivers at Birmingham. The first guy had obviously made up a bit of time, as we were only 40 minutes late by then, and the second guy did his best to make up some more, but there are limits, of course, to what can legally be achieved in this respect. It was gone 2100 by the time we arrived in Liverpool. Long day...

We walked from the bus stop to the Ibis on Dale Street. I'd stressed a bit about this. Late... Unknown city... But it was fine. There are still lots of people on the streets at that time in the evening. The atmosphere was relaxed.

Nevertheless, the Ibis's generous welcome drink was very welcome indeed. We sat in the big lounge, sipping, chilling, and making a start on inhaling the vibes:





Looking back at our Liverpool expedition as a whole, I can pronounce it an enormous success. True, the weather was a bit wild. Cold, sometimes windy, sometimes rainy, very occasionally all three. But Liverpool is a GREAT city for exploring. Very walkable. Very friendly. And there's loads to do. We're looking forward to incorporating it regularly in our off-Island itineraries.

And right now, it was just what we needed. After weeks and weeks of hard work and stress, it was fantastic to just be tourists... To just bumble around, following up whatever beguiled us. To just walk, wonder, take photos, chill...

***

This post is about three of Liverpool's churches, with which we were very impressed.

At either end of the appropriately named Hope Street, there are two amazing cathedrals. They're very different; they're equally fascinating. Just to the west of that axis, there's another, much smaller church whose tragic history still sounds a warning to our age.

1.

Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral is Britain's largest... And yes, everything about it is BIG... The largest Gothic arches ever built; the biggest working church organ in the world; the world's heaviest and highest ringing peal of bells...






It was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, just 22 at the time, and with no existing buildings to his credit. The foundation stone was laid in 1904, but it was not completed until 1978, by which time Scott was 18 years dead (his successor was Frederick Thomas).













Having spent a good part of Thursday in this cathedral, we returned on Friday evening for evensong. They're never other than atmospheric, these services. The echoes, the soaring voices, the ancient liturgy, the dimness of the rafters and the areas beyond the lighted space... I always love it.

2.

We'd intended just to pop into the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King (the Catholic cathedral) on our way to the Walker Gallery... We ended up staying for hours...

The design is very striking, with its round space, central dome, careful lighting, and multiplicity of side chapels:





And the iconography is just lovely, very effective and evocative:






Do NOT miss the crypt... It's impressive in itself. It's truly vast, and if you want to see millions of bricks in action, this is your chance...





But there's also a very interesting exhibition down there, outlining the history of the cathedral. It was originally envisaged, as a romanesque (and absolutely ENORMOUS) cathedral, by none other than Sir Edwin Lutyens (of Delhi and Overstrand fame).



But life intervened. The construction of the crypt progressed until 1941, when everything stopped for the war.


After the war, this underground space was completed, and "remains part of the present Cathedral, a magnificent fragment of what might have been". But it was then calculated that the planned romanesque superstructure would clock in at GBP 27 million... Way beyond the funds available.

In 1960, architects were invited to submit revised concepts (which had to cost no more than GBP 1 million...). Sir Frederick Gibberd's design was chosen.


The crypt also contains a rather beautiful museum, displaying monstrances, copes, croziers, and other paraphernalia:




All in all, time well spent. In the interests of fairness, we need to come back here for evensong sometime, too...

3.

There's one more church to mention. Having suffered major damage during the May Blitz of 1941, St Luke's is now known as the Bombed Out Church... Because it was struck by an incendiary bomb, much of the external structure remained, while the roof and interior were incinerated. For many years the site remained derelict. But in the early years of this century, it was cleared, and transformed into an art venue -- and, of course, a poignant reminder of the cost of conflict.









***

This was all such a rich experience. So much to admire and ponder...

And that's not the half of it. The rest is in the next post.