Col & Rens UK Trip

The weekend just gone we had 2 day trips to Liverpool. We looked at staying somewhere overnight but everywhere was either too expensive, or required a minimum of two nights stay. In the end we just travelled up each morning and back to Manchester in the early evening. Its only about 50 minutes away by bus so the trip isn't too long.

We arrived on the Saturday late morning and walked down to the docks. We sat there and ate the lunch we brought with us. The picture to the left is of the dock area with a Yellow Duckmarine experience bus on the water. They offer yours whcih are half in the water and half on the roads. The special part is you dont need to change between a boat and a bus as the yellow thing does it all. Pretty cool. After lunch we walked a little further and went to the beatle museum which is pictured right. Im not really a big beatles fan but really enjoyed the museum.

Next we walked up to the 2 Liverpool Cathedrals. The first is conventiently named the Liverpool Cathedral. This was an old style cathedral and was actually really nice. Although the style of it is similar to the really old ones you can find this one was only finished in 1910. The photos below are of this cathedral.


The next cathedral was Metropolitian Cathedral. This cathedral was one of the most surprising things i have seen on the holiday. I was expecting another cathedral similar to that we have seen throughout Europe and similar to the first. Instead we found it was totally unlike anything we have seen before. For starters its modern. Walking through the automatic door that was the entrance was a strange entrance for a cathedral. The inside is circular and is a 2300 seat cathedral that is almost stadium like. The photos below are of the cathedral, but dont really do it any justice. This cathedral was finished in 1960 so its not very old at all.


After this we pretty much just walked around a little and then returned home on our bus. While in Manchester we went to the movies and saw X-Men 3. We had a buy one get one free ticket so that made it cheap. This must be really boring to read. I apologise. But for some reason you continue to read??? Odd...

Sunday morning we went back to Liverpool on the bus arriving early afternoon. Today we walked to China town and looked for a nice place for lunch. We decided upon a nice looking chinese buffet place. There seems to be a lot of chinese buffet places here which is kinda surprising. Not complaining... They are surprisingly good. Afterwards we went back to the Metropolitian Cathedral. They were having a service with the full choir so we went and watched that. The choir had about 30-40 people from young kids to adults. Lots of people were there just to watch and it was actually interesting.

After the choir at the cathedral, we walked to the Cavern Club. The Cavern Club is the club where the Beatles sang before they were popular. They performed there no less than 274 times apparently. We went down all the stairs into the actual club. We had seen a replica of it in the beatles museum and it was strange actually seeing it. Opposite the Cavern Club is the Liverpool Wall of Fame. For every Liverpool act that has a number 1 hit they put a Disc up with the band/artist name and song. The Beatles had a lot but there were a few from Mel C, Atomic Kittens and even one Frankie Goes to Hollywood.


After the Cavern Club we walked down towards a strange tourist attract called Super LambBanana. Apparently it was designed around the issue of genetic engineering. Strange... After this we walked around looking for a pub where we could watch England vs Ecuador and sit down. All were too full so we skipped that idea. We then returned to Manchester to work another fun filled week of data entry before heading to Barnsley to see my brother and parents.

The Weekend just gone we were in London. We had the Friday off work and left on the bus from the city of Manchester at 8am. The bus is a four and a half hour ride if its running on time. Today is was half an hour late. We arrived and caught the tube to our Hostel. We were booked for a twin/double room but we ended up in a huge room that had 5 beds so we had lots of space to keep all our stuff without it getting in the way. The place was actually pretty good.

We walked about 1km down the road to the Chelsea Football Stadium where there is an ajoining hotel that my parents were arriving and staying at. Their plane arrived about 3pm and got to the hotel about 5pm. We booked into there room. Not surpisingly.. there room was a little nicer than ours. We walked in the room and the TV was on saying 'Welcome Mr and Mrs J Harper'. Pretty cool.

We went for a little walk around there corner where there was an old cemetry. Doesn't sound that intesting but there were lots and lots of squirrels so that was kinda amusing. We ended up walking to our hostel and showing my parents where we were staying. We walked back to their hotel and had tea in the restaurant there. We ended up having a fairly early night.

The next day we had breakfast at the hotel. It was bacon, eggs, sausage, and baked beans as well as toast. It was surprisingly good. I guess when you go in expecting the worst you can only get what you were expecting or be pleasantly surprised. We met my parents at 9am outside there hotel. We caught the tube Buckingham palace and watched the beginning of the trooping of the color. The queen left off down the road to do whatever it is she does. We heard she would be there for an hour or so, so we walked down the road past Westminster Abbey and to London Eye. We thought we would do London Eye that afternoon so i lined up for tickets while My parents and Renee walked back to the Trooping of the Color. I got the tickets and then as i was walking back caught up with them. At the time i thought they must have been walking slowly but later that afternoon found out they had stopped and got ice creams!!!!! Sneaky...

We got back and saw the Queen come back to Buckingham palace and all the royal family out on the belcany. Then there were several planes that flew over at various stages with the last planes going over having red, white and blue smoke. It looked pretty cool. We sat down in St James Park and had sandwiches for lunch. From here we walked to Trafalgar Square and had a look around there. We caught the tube from here to Tower Bridge and then walked across is and down the road to the nearest tube station. We caught the tube to London Eye where we were going to go on it but the line was absolutely huge. We wouldn't have time to see it, have tea, and get to our show. We managed to sell our tickets to people who couldn't be bothered lining up so that worked out well. Gotta love lazy arogant Americans.

We caught the tube again to Picadilly Circus and found the theatre where our show was going to be. We had tea at a little place across the road. It wasn't very expensive really considering its location. It was a little Italian restaurant and had some of the nicest food we have eaten in a while. Once that was done we walked down to Leicester Square and had a quick look around there before returning to the theatre to see our show.

The Show was Hayfever and had Judi Dench in it. It was interesting to see but i think my parents enjoyed it a lot more than what Renee and I did. Still good to see, but probably not something we would have chosen if they weren't here. But all in all, it was good to see it with them.

After the show we went back to my parents hotel. They were both very tired considering the walking that was done, and they only got off a 24 hour flight the day before. The next morning they were leaving on their tour of Britain so we said goodbye.

We went back to our hostel and left on the bus the next morning. It was hot weather and the bus driver didn't really know how to use the air conditioning so we had a very uncomfortable bus ride home. Midway through the journey we swapped drivers and he knew how to turn on the air conditioning so the last part of our journey was a little more pleasant. We arrived safely back in Manchester to continue another fun and exciting week of work. It will actually be the first full week of work in a month. We had this Friday off for London, previous Friday for Dublin, and the week prior there was a public holiday.

Next Weekend we are going to Liverpool for a look. The following weekend we are in Barnsley as Graeme will be playing cricket and my parents should be there too. The weekend after that we are up in Edinburgh to see Nicole. The weekend after that we are back in London and seeing Guys and Dolls with Patrick Swayze with my parents. Should be a busy month ahead....


Pictures from Trooping of the Color and the Haymarket Theatre where Hayfever was.

We got up early and went looking around Dublin. We started by walking through St Stephens Green Park which was close to our hostel. From there we walked and went past and had a look at Trinity College, Dublin Castle, Dublin Cathedral and then just walked along the river. We stopped at a tourist information place and found out that Jameson Whiskey is made here and they have a tour. We walked down that way and went on the tour. Kinda interesting but wasn't anything special. We walked around some more and saw a few other things of interest and then got back to our Hostel for the night. The hostel wasn't anything special, the pipes made noises when the water was running and the walls were paper thin. People would wake up earlier than us and you would know as they when they got in the shower it made a horrible shudder in the walls. Funny... Well.. Not funny.


Photos Above
1 - Avalon House Hostel - Where we stayed
2 - Jameson Whiskey Tour
3 - View from the river
4 - A few houses near the cathedral
5 - The Old Bank of Ireland
6 - Trinity College

The next morning we left early and flew back to Manchester. The week was fairly boring and didn't do to much. Friday we had off as we went down to London to meet my parents.

We flew out of Manchester at 10:35 and arrived in Dublin around 11:30. We caught a shuttle bus to Trinity College which is within walking distance of our hostel. We ended up getting there about 12:30am and slept until our alarm woke us up at 7am. We got ready, ate breakfast and then caught a bus to Croke Park. We arrived there about 8:45am and queued up outside the stadium. The tickets we had for Robbie Williams were Golden Circle which is standing area closest to the stage. The earlier you get there the closer you will get.

After about 3 hours of waiting ouside the stadium they let us inside into another waiting area. While waiting we went for walks at different times to the local shops so we weren't sitting down waiting all day. We were there until about 4:30pm where we were let into the stadium. There were only about 40 people in front of us so we were on the front rail at the very front. A long day of waiting but we got to where we wanted to be.

The stage itself was huge. It was the biggest stage i have ever seen at any concert. There were 2 support acts, one a DJ and the other a band. Both I hadn't heard of before so wasnt much interest to us. It was daylight savings still in Dublin so it was still really light as it got towards time for Robbie to come on. By the time RW came on we had been lining up and waiting for almost 12 hours.

Finally... He Came On.



Robbie was fairly awesome for us both. We both enjoyed it. A few things happened and with one song to go he said he would return to do a free show as he wasnt happy with how things had gone. In his Encore something was supposed to happen that didn't work which looked to annoy him which led to him saying he would do a free show. It was apparently mentioned on the radio the next day that people should keep their tickets until they hear more information. Could be interesting. 2 Words. Ebay Gold.

By the time the concert was finished our legs were both really sore after standing most of the day. We eventually caught a bus home and got something for a late tea. We prob got home around 12:30am to get some sleep before getting up the next morning to explore Dublin.

This weekend we actually got out a bit. The Saturday we went down the road close to us and had lunch down by the Worlsey Canals. The water looked fairly brown but it was a really nice area and we worked a little and spent a bit of time there. Saturday night was fairly quiet and we didn't really get up to much.

Sunday we slept in and had a fairly lazy day. In the afternoon we caught a bus into the city and looked at shops. We were mainly looking at getting some travel books on Britain and Ireland for planning little weekend trips and holidays we want to go on.

The week went fairly quickly as we had Friday off. Thursday we finished worked, rushed home, had a quick tea and then caught a train to the airport for our weekend in Dublin...

Well once again its been yonks since updating so will be doing 3 weekends at once.

Saturday night at Soccer Aid was pretty good. The first half was exciting and we finally saw a goal scored at Old Trafford. At half time England lead 2-0 with one of the goals scored by Jonathon Wilkes. Second half the Rest of the World got a goal through a Diego Maradona penalty but that was the final score. 2-1. Interesting to see but nothing really exciting. The photo to the left is when someone was brought down just of the penalty area and Maradona waiting to take the kick.

The Sunday and Monday we both kicked back as the Monday was a public hoilday. It made for a short work week so Friday came around really quickly and once again it was the weekend...