So those aren't real people?

 Liverpool - sabbatical 2, week 7

Back to work for Craig in Liverpool, with a couple last sites to see on the weekend.

A short train ride up the Mersey estuary to where it turns into actual coast is Crosby Beach.  When the tide is out, the mud flats stretch literally for mile(s) out to sea, but are pretty treacherous - Craig sank down almost to his knee at one point (still close to shore).  Most notable is the art installation on the beach.  Dozens of human-sized iron sculptures  have been erected across the 3 miles of beach, facing out to sea (or to the wind farm offshore).  Called "Another Place", it is the brainchild of artist Antony Gormley and was originally meant to be temporary, but proved popular enough to made permanent.  Incidentally, if you are taking the train there, a convenient method is to go from Liverpool Central up the Northern line to Crosby (actually Blundellsands and Crosby).  Head north up the beach (water on your left) to the northern end, where you'll find ice cream and porta-potties (if necessary) and Hall Road station, which will take you back to Central.  Don't expect to be able to swim - the signs strongly advise against it (and, if it's low tide, there's no water anyway!).

More traditional art can be found at the Walker Art Gallery, with various rooms dedicated to various periods (impressionists, pre-Raphaelite, etc.) there are pieces by Rodin, Matisse, Pissaro, Turner, etc.  Craig spent a few hours going through the manageably-sized collection of mostly paintings and classical-style sculptures.

Splitting up

Styrsö Island (a little windy!)

 Göteborg - sabbatical 2, week 5

Now at the end of two weeks in Europe, it's time for Yolanda, Andrew and David to head back to Thunder Bay.  Craig is carrying on to Gothenburg, better known to the Swedes by its real name of Göteborg, to visit his cousin Scott.  So he boarded the train in Uppsala after seeing the car off with the other three.  (they made it home safe and sound.... 20+ hours later)

Craig stayed the first night in a hotel but then moved in with Scott, his partner Monika, and their 11-year-old chihuahua Maya (sp?).  The next couple days were spent with Scott (and sometimes Monika) playing tour guide on various walking tours around town.  Craig doesn't remember half of what he was told, but it was a good way to be introduced to the city.  Some highlights of mention:

Skansen Kronan (Crown Redoubt)

- Monika's real honest-to-goodness homemade Swedish meatballs (with lingonberry jam!)

- a ferry ride out into the archipelago and a walk around one of the islands (Styrsö) with a picnic lunch

- up a hill to an old defensive tower, defending a corset factory at the bottom of the hill (and, incidentally, the river and the town....)

- the old town of cobbled streets and the largest cinnamon buns known to humankind

- and the various gardens and green spaces along the river and elsewhere 

- a free Princess Cake from the grocery store where they have a loyalty card..... because it was Scott's birthday

After celebrating Scott's birthday with BBQ steaks and the aforementioned cake, they went above and beyond, getting up at 3 am to take Craig to the airport in time for his flight back to England.

Yet another pagan burial site

The Bishop-controller battery

 Uppsala - sabbatical 2, week 5

We primarily rented a car in order to be able to go see Yolanda's Aunt Saara, who still lives on her farm outside Uppsala.  One day was mostly taken up with this visit; Yolanda's cousin Kristine and her daughter Josephine were also able to attend.

The rest of the time was spent touring some of the sites of this old Swedish city.  Its fortunes have ebbed and flowed, sometimes in conjunction with the religious upheavals of the country as Uppsala (both versions - see below) was an important ecclesiastical town.  Its university, for example, is the oldest in Sweden, but the city suffered decline during the Swedish Reformation when the crown confiscated Roman Catholic lands and funds (and naturally sent the wealth to Stockholm).  Thus, we have the curious site of a bastion in the city castle's fortifications built to command the cathedral - the Bastion Styrbiskop - literally the "Bishop-Controller".

Moving back in time are the iron-age burial mounds (the "Royal Mounds") in Gamla Uppsala ("Old" Uppsala).  Once the largest town in the region and a pagan religious centre before it was a Christian religious centre, its people (and bishop) largely migrated to Östra Aros when the river became unnavigable.  The Pope, perhaps finding it too inconvenient to change his address book, ordered that the town of Östra Aros be renamed Uppsala, and thus we have "Gamla Uppsala" a few kilometres down the road from plain "Uppsala".  Interestingly, the church in Gamla Uppsala contains a runestone incorporated into the wall commemorating the locals' conversion to Christianity.  Another interesting tidbit: the church is literally half a cathedral - half was torn down when the bishop moved to Östra Aros; the part that wasn't torn down was re-enclosed to become the parish church.

One of the Royal Mounds

And of course, being scientists, we had to pay homage to Carl Linnaeus, popularizer and formalizer of the binomial Latin names for organisms still used today.  This excellent specimen of H. sapiens is interred in Uppsala Cathedral (near the entrance, on the left side facing the alter). His "estate" is also preserved as a park/tourist attraction, about half-way between Aunt Saara's and Uppsala.

 

On to Sweden

 Stockholm - sabbatical 2, week 5

And so we parted ways with Great Britain (for now!) and hopped across the North Sea to Sweden.  Since the Swedes (a) drive on the right and (b) charge a reasonable price for a car rental, we picked up our Volvo XC90 at Arlanda.  We didn't book so large a vehicle, but no one else wanted it either so it was a free upgrade (and we also got GPS with it, a nice bonus!).  We tootled into Stockholm for a quick look around, eventually stopping on Djurgården Island where we were serenaded by an ABBA tribute band across the water from the ABBA museum.  We made our way around the grounds of the Waldermarsudde and took in the sites over the water, including a cruise ship departing the city.  We returned to a parking ticket (because we couldn't figure out how to pay in the parking lot) and made our way up to Uppsala to our hotel.

"Tam tint his reason a’ thegither, / And roars out, ‘Weel done, Cutty-sark!’"

Greenwich - sabbatical 2, week 5

Coming back to England, we chose to visit the Greenwich Observatory for our last full day in London.  We first boarded the Cutty Sark, a preserved tea fast-clipper named for a character in Robbie Burns's poem "Tam o'Shanter."  It is out of the water and has no sails, but otherwise complete, with a paint job that emphasizes the original braces in the hull and what was later added in restoration.  Craig chatted with the guide on deck, a grizzled old sailor who knew all about the Bluenose and her exploits - another ship renowned for her speed. (If you're interested, Cutty Sark means "short skirt", which is what the witch was wearing when she chased Tam o'Shanter.  The reason the boat is named for this witch is because she could run as fast as a horse, almost catching Tam and his trusty steed before they got to the bridge - like the Headless Horseman, Cutty Sark cannot cross running water.)

On the Prime Meridian

We then made our way through the very yellow grass up the hill to the Greenwich Observatory to stand on the Prime Meridian and to tour through the historical buildings.  They include the Royal Astronomer's residence and the observatory itself, which still contains the largest visible light telescope in the U.K.  The Royal Astronomer does not still live in the residence.

For the information of future travelers - it takes a long time to get out to the Observatory, with multiple train changes.  We also talked to 3 or 4 employees of the underground who all gave us different advice on how to travel.  As a result, the trip from our Heathrow hotel to Greenwich cost us £60 and took over 2.5 hours.  The trip back was £22 and took 90 minutes.  And we took all the same lines, just changed at different stations.

Scotland wrap-up

Inverness Castle

 Inverness - sabbatical 2, week 5

Some other miscellany about Inverness.  On one night Yolanda and Craig, and on the next night all 4 of us, took a stroll along the River Ness.  It has a very nice river walk, with a variety of sites like Inverness Castle, churches, pubs, guest houses, etc. in the downtown area.  Further down (which we saw on the bus tour) is the sport complex (pool, skating rink, etc. - yes, a skating rink!) and eventually the point where the River Ness joins Loch Ness, but we didn't get down that far.  Incidentally, in Gaelic the city's name is Inbhir Ness, which means "mouth of the Ness", i.e. where the river opens into the sea.  Thus, it has a sturdy population of ducks and seagulls (they grow them big here!) who appear to stay up all night yapping at each other.  There are boat tours for whale watching (bottlenose dolphins), and our landlady said she often sees otters at the estuary zone (just north of town) where the sea water and river water meet.

Andrew on bus, along the River Ness

We did not get the chance to see Inverness castle because it is closed for extensive restoration.  We also
did not see any otters.  Lots of ducks and seagulls though.

"All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor"

 Cawdor - sabbatical 2, week 4

Although Shakespearean Macbeth is awarded the title "Thane of Cawdor", the first recorded person with that title was a couple hundred years after Macbeth, and this castle wasn't built until 1454.  It was expanded through the 17th century to the structure that currently exists, with various improvements continuing on the inside and the grounds.  For example, a modern kitchen was installed in the 1990s, and there is a cabinet in the sitting room containing a television set.

One recent "famous" Thane of Cawdor was John Campbell, 1st Baron Cawdor, who led the British defense in the so-called Battle of Fishguard, when French revolutionary troops and their American commander landed an invasion force.  After a few days of maneuvering, Campbell demanded and received the French troops' unconditional surrender, without having to fight an actual battle.  Therefore, the last invasion of Britain occurred in 1797, over 50 years after the last battle in Britain at Culloden Moor.

The taxi from Inverness was a convenient way to get there.  The ticket price includes a tour of the castle (where the current dowager Lady Cawdor still lives 6 months of the year), multiple large gardens, picnic areas, and even a playground.  Green fees for the golf course are extra.

The '45

 Culloden - sabbatical 2, week 4

Another train ride took us to Inverness.  The hop-on-hop-off bus has two loops, the first out to Culloden Moor, site of the last "land battle" to take place on the island of Great Britain (but not, oddly, the last invasion of Britain - more on that next post!).  It took place in 1746, between the Jacobite forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the English forces under the Duke of Cumberland (and featuring a young officer named James Wolfe, who later won the Plains of Abraham).  It resulted in a rout of the Jacobite Highlanders and the start of years of oppression of Highland culture.  Craig had already visited (with brother Paul in 1993), but the visitor's centre is much expanded and improved since then.  There are plenty of artifacts and interpretive signs, and of course the moor/battlefield itself, with flags demarking the starting positions of the two armies.

Just down the road (or a 30-minute walk, which is what we did) from the moor are the Clava Cairns, 4000-year-old bronze age burial chambers.  There are also a number of standing stones on the site, which will look familiar to fans of the Outlander series (as Yolanda is), as the site of Claire Randall's time-traveling.

"I was feeling part of the scenery"

 Edinburgh - sabbatical 2, week 4

A 5-hour train ride took us from King's Cross (platform 5, not 9¾) to Edinburgh.  The train was packed because of a "problem elsewhere on the line", so only Andrew got to sit the whole way.  We were happy to get into the hotel (close to the station) and eat at the Conan Doyle pub.  Unfortunately the statue of Sherlock Holmes was removed for roadwork.

That's Edinburgh Castle in the background

We took a walk in the evening, wandering down to the pier where the Royal Yacht Britannia is on "permanent" display.

The next morning we took a walk through the Royal Mile in the old city then a hike up the Salisbury Crags (not the Solsbury Hill Peter Gabriel was singing about, but I still like the quote).  The day was clear and sunny, and the views out over the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the rest of Edinburgh were very fine.

THE Championships

 Wimbledon - Sabbatical 2, week 4

While the boys were enjoying the big air of the Eye, Yolanda attended quarterfinal Tuesday at Wimbledon.  She lucked out because the biggest match of the day - local boy Graham Norrie vs. David Goffin - was not at Centre Court but rather Court 1, for which she had tickets.  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were in attendance, having to sit with the unwashed commoners since there is no Royal Box at Court 1 (unlike Centre Court or, incidentally, the Eye).

Niemeier

She also saw Tatiana Marie defeat Jule Niemeier in one of the women's quarterfinals.

The lineup to get strawberries and cream was too long, so Yolanda settled for strawberry ice cream instead.

Reefie 2022

 London - sabbatical 2, week 4

No trip to a new city would be complete without a visit to the aquarium.  The Sea Life Centre is next to the London Eye (and Shrek's Adventure!) and is laid out similar to Toronto and Barcelona.  There are large tanks of reef sharks, clownfish, etc. etc.  In this case, the highlights were the especially large sea turtles and penguins.  Sorry, I mean penguins!  (how can you not put an exclamation mark there?)

From Andrew and David's point of view, though, the aquarium was merely to pass time before our appointment with the London Eye.  It is always busy but the operators still saw fit to prepare a Royal Pod for the Jubilee, which was full of flowers and royal bunting, but no passengers (perhaps because they were at Wimbledon - more on that later).  The view from the apex of the wheel was, of course, spectacular.

The Thamesmen

 London - sabbatical 2, week 4

We are now all together in London.  Arriving mid-afternoon was convenient for checking in to the apartment (found on AirBNB), not so much for sightseeing right away, so we put Wimbledon on and slept (various amounts) before venturing out for sustenance.  So let's skip right to today, the 4th of July, with nary a creepy stilt-wearing Uncle Sam to be seen anywhere.

The men spent the day in and around the Thames (Craig hesitates to call themselves "the Thamesmen" because, as a drummer, he is the most likely to be found exploded).  A 25-minute walk from their AirBNB in Shoreditch, through the financial district (using the Gherkin building as their guide) brought them to London Bridge (not the one in Arizona).  They made their way along the bank where they took the Tower Bridge tour, which includes access to the upper level and a museum/tour of the drawbridge-lifting mechanism.  They then boarded the HMS Belfast, the largest remaining British ship that served in WWII.  Another engine room (somehow more complex than the one in Tower Bridge) gave them their steam engine fix for the vacation, along with exploring the various messes, gun turrets, bridge, etc. of a fighting ship.

Lunch followed then a tube trip back to Shoreditch for continued acclimatization (naps!) for a couple hours.  The whole family then repeated the walk back to the City for a boat tour.  We picked up the boat at the Tower docks, which meandered its way down to Westminster Bridge, with an entertaining audio commentary from the tour guide of course.  As always, the corner around the statue of Boudicca under Big Ben's tower was teeming with tourists.

Some Liverpool miscellany

Canada geese and the CBC?

Liverpool (sabbatical 2, week 3)

Here are some observations and pictures that didn't really fit elsewhere.

I mentioned some similarities between Halifax and Liverpool.  Here are some additional reminders of home.  Craig asked his collaborator here about the CBC pattern on the Backstage window - he's seen it but it's a new building, it is not some remnant CBC studio.  We guess the interior designer just liked the way it looked?

A few previously unmentioned sites bear mentioning.  The first is the Tate Museum (Liverpool branch).  It is a thoroughly modern collection, the oldest pieces that Craig could find were by old-time PACA resident Matisse.  There are some interesting pieces, although not a large collection; to see them all completely would take quite some time, however, as several pieces are performance-art films/recordings/etc. that take their time.

left: Lambanana! right: Craig with another set of Roger's drums

Second is yet more music: along the waterfront you'll find these Superlambananas (named after an original sculpture and sort of a symbol of Liverpool) with local musical acts drawn on them.  This particular one has Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, Echo and the Bunnymen, and, of course (at the front of the picture) A Flock of Seagulls.  Following these sculptures down the docks will bring you to the British Music Experience, a "pop" music museum tracing what would have been popular music in each era, starting with big-band/jazz.  It is not large - one big room - so there's not a lot of detail and several missing bands.  Craig was disappointed (if unsurprised) that Dire Straits did not make the cut, but even Led Zeppelin was reduced to one artifact (one of Jimmy Page's shirts), and Sting/Police are nowhere to be found.  The highlight is the end, where they have several instruments (electric drum sets and real guitars) with recorded lessons from modern pop acts that teach you how to play along with their songs.

Finally (at least for this visit): the World Museum of Liverpool, located in a grand old building.  It is the most vertical museum  in town, spanning 5 floors including a planetarium and an aquarium (but perhaps it's not big enough to rate a separate entry in the "Aquarium List").  And of course, being a British museum, it houses large numbers of Egyptian artifacts including some very well-preserved mummies.  Of course, there is no mention of culture theft, even beside the displayed letter from an English Egyptologist unironically telling the story of  how he and his crew "rescued a site from plunderers."

"I'd like to thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition"

 Liverpool (sabbatical 2, week 3)

Let us continue the Beatles theme, shall we?  Fans wishing their fix will find no shortage of places to celebrate their favourite band in Liverpool.  Here are three of the stops clustered in and around the docks.

On the Royal Albert Dock you will walk past multiple tour bus operators, including the "Beatles Magical Mystery Tour," which Craig did not take.  Instead, he continued on to the poorly-labelled "The Beatles Story" museum (it also refuses to show up on Googlemaps until you've zoomed in rediculously small).  However, it remains probably the most popular attraction, both on the day Craig visited and according to the reviews he read: "arrive early" indeed!  Even 20 minutes after opening time (albeit on a Sunday) it was 100 people deep and arranged in such a way that you hoped no one had COVID.  It is certainly the most accessible, directing the visitor chronologically through the group's career in a winding path taking you through recreations of a Hamburg street, the Cavern Club, Abbey Road studios, etc.  The audio guide is modern and easy to navigate, if overloaded with information (Craig listened to maybe half, being pressed on by the crowd more quickly than the audio guide kept up with).  Much (most?) of the "artifacts" are recreations, i.e. it was more important to try and show how the places were in the Beatles' time rather than restoring genuine Beatles artifacts.

Moving down to Pier Head, you'll find a bronze statue of the Beatles, in front of the Port of Liverpool building (on Canada Blvd!).  That building also holds the British Music Experience museum, which we'll come back to in a later post.

In contrast to the Beatles Story, genuine artifacts can be found aplenty at the Liverpool Beatles Museum, on Mathew St., another location that stubbornly refuses to show up on Googlemaps.  This is a true museum, the walls covered in historical photos, newspaper clippings, and posters, containing such gems as the piano from the Casbah underground club, a guitar George used in Hamburg, Pete Best's drum kit, etc.  It also contains some.... let's call them more esoteric artifacts such as Paul's lighter and a broken watch that John left behind (because it was broken!).

He played "Somebody to Love," "Mrs. Robinson," and "Piano Man," among others

On the same street is the "Cavern" suite of clubs.  Keep an eye open for "The Wall", containing bricks engraved with the names of (allegedly) all the 1800 acts that have performed at the Cavern since its inception in 1957.  Across from that is the recreation of the Cavern Club where the Beatles played 200+ sets (and John's band The Quarrymen played as well).  These clubs were all literally underground - no windows, hot, too small to hold everyone.  The warehouse above was bulldozed in 1973, years after the Club had gone bankrupt, to make way for railway infrastructure that was never built.  In 1984 the site was re-excavated and the original characteristic arches were found to be intact and the club rebuilt (apparently using mostly original bricks excavated from the site).  It remains narrow and claustrophobic and full of revellers all day, listening to live acts (also all day, according to the website), mostly tribute bands/singers.  It also feels the most "authentic" of all the Beatles sites Craig visited..... probably because it (mostly) is!  The Club contains a number of artifact cases, up to and including modern acts like Adele, who played there to promote her "21" album, as well as a surprising amount of space devoted to the Arctic Monkeys.

A walking tour of Beatles sites

 Liverpool (sabbatical 2, week 3)

The Beatles are, of course, ubiquitous in Liverpool, from the name of the airport (Liverpool John Lennon Airport) to buildings named after John and Yoko at the universities and colleges in the city, to the weed-like spread of museums detailing their lives and music.  The museums will have to wait for another post; for this one Craig is going to walk around some real Liverpool Beatles sites.  So, he humbly submits to you this itinerary for a Beatles Walking Tour.  Transit times are from Googlemaps, he didn't actually time himself.

Transit (10 minutes) - the closest train station to the important sites is West Allerton.  You'll probably have to go from Lime Street, not Central Station.  Lime Street to West Allington is ~10 minutes.

Transit (15 minutes)  - exit the station, turn right. Take that road to the divided 4-lane motorway (B5180).  You'll pass a police academy.  Forthlin Road is on the right.

1. Paul McCartney's Childhood Home (20 Forthlin Road).  Both Paul and John's childhood homes are owned by the National Trust and do not have drop-in visiting hours.  You need to contact the National Trust and navigate their truly horrendous website to purchase tickets for a guided tour.<--use this page only; scroll down under the heading "Book Your Visit"; you'll have to choose your pick-up location first, and it cannot be changed (even though there's a button to change it, it did not work).  I did not do the tour, because the pickup locations are far from anything (including the houses you'll be touring) and sell out quickly.  There is a plaque and it's a nice pleasant neighborhood.

Transit (25 minutes) - back out to B5180, cross the road and turn left, take any of the next three rights.  These streets all end in a T-intersection, turn left and then right into the Allerton Manor Golf Club.  There is a walking path that runs along the edge of the course that is a pleasant walk through the woods.  Upon exiting the path, cross the 4-lane divided motorway (A562) and turn left to very shortly arrive at:

2. John Lennon's Childhood Home (251 Menlove Avenue).  Craig arrived at John's house in the middle of 3 tour groups (two from the National Trust - one arriving and one finishing - and a private tour operator).  In the process of waiting to take this picture, two more tours arrived, along with the hop-on-hop-off Liverpool Sites tour bus.  This was Sunday morning at 11 am!  The house is located on the A562; I imagine the locals hate it because there's nowhere to park, you just stop at the side of the road and block a lane of traffic.

Transit (15 minutes) - continue up (NW) the A562 turning right onto Vale Rd, which takes a big curve.  Left on Linkstor to the end, right on Church Road until you reach:

3. St. Peter's Church. The local Anglican Church, according to legend the location where Paul and John met.  In the graveyard is one Eleanor Rigby (if you are facing the front of the church the graveyard is on the left.  She is three rows back from Church Road  Paul has claimed the song name is a coincidence (perhaps - there are several other Rigby tombstones).

Transit (20 minutes) - backtrack (NW) up Church Street to Beaconsfield Rd.  Turn left.  Walk along to:

4. Strawberry Field.  The actual Salvation Army property is a singular field (presumably John pluralized it because it sounded better as a lyric).  The orphanage no longer exists, it is now a job-training facility.  The public is welcome to use the cafeteria and visit the small museum, however there is an entrance fee.

Transit (30 minutes) - from the Strawberry Field gates go to the end of Beaconsfield and turn right.  Follow the A562 northwest. It's still a 4-lane motorway but lined by nice houses and tall shade trees if it's hot.  There's a weird little jog 20-25 minutes in, so watch out for that (there's an HSBC bank, follow where the shops are, don't go down into the residential areas).  Stay on the motorway until you see:

5. Penny Lane.  If you take this suggested route, you will meet Penny Lane at the site of "...the shelter in the middle of a roundabout" (and also St. Barnabas Penny Lane Church).  Turn left to walk down Penny Lane.  Unfortunately, it's been 60 years since the song was written and the bus shelter is really the only thing left (there are barbershops, and the fire station building is still around but is not actually on Penny Lane).  There is no road sign at the bus shelter end, you'll have to walk to the western end to get a picture.  There is now little on the street to hint at why Penny Lane particularly would generate such nostalgia in a songwriter.  (P.S. for you chemists: here's the song as played by an NMR spectrometer)

And that's it!  From the end of Penny Lane it's an hour walk back to Liverpool Central or Lime Street, but there is a nice little park if you have kids who are bored; if you're hungry there's a little cafe (turn right off Penny Lane, it's only 100m or so).  Or you can turn left to get to Mossley Hill train station (10-minute walk).

You'll never walk alone

Tapping the sign

 Anfield, Liverpool (sabbatical 2, week 2)

Liverpool has two top-tier soccer teams whose stadia are literally a mile apart.  The older team is Everton FC, which is named for a suburb (neighborhood? not sure how municipal government works here), founded in 1888 and winning 9 league titles, although none since 1987 (coming from a Leafs fan, this is not really that long ago....).  The other team was founded a mere 4 years later but has become one of the most beloved teams in the world: Liverpool FC, which plays at Anfield.  It is (apparently) a common question in Merseyside to ask "Are you red or blue?" referring to the main jersey colours of the two teams.  Obviously no one who isn't suicidal would answer "Actually, my favourite team is Man United."

So Craig visited LFC's home ground, Anfield Stadium, for the stadium tour.  It hits the same highlights as the tour at Camp Nou (Barcelona).  The tour guides are, of course, incredibly knowledgeable, and currently very engaged as LFC is in the midst of 3 title chases - FA Cup (in the final), Champion's League (made the final yesterday), and one point off the top spot in the English Premier League with 4 games remaining.  The highlights include touring both dressing rooms and being able to tap the Anfield sign (which the players do for good luck) as you come out the players' tunnel to the pitch.  Craig got an in-depth explanation on how the pitch grass is kept eternally green and prevented from getting torn out (not an easy explanation for to type out in a blog) and one tour guide gleefully pointed out a dent in the visitor's refrigerator courtesy of "that sore loser Lionel Messi."

"You fell out of the tall tower, you creep!"

Conwy, Wales (sabbatical 2, week 2)

Liverpool is very close to the Welsh border, so Craig took the opportunity to test his navigation skills (navigating public transit, that is) and took a jaunt along the Welsh coast as far as Conwy.  Although less famous than Caernarfon, the castle at Conwy was built as sturdily and was actually finished.  In fact, King Edward I fortified the entire town, and you can still walk most of the perimeter of the town on the medieval walls.

Panaorama view from the top of the highest tower

On the walls

The Welsh did manage to take over the castle for a short time at one point, by posing as delivery men during a banquet.  You really can't make this stuff up!  The short-lived occupation in 1201 ended with a negotiated return to the English in exchange for a few scapegoats who were hanged.

There are numerous towers you can climb up and down, offering stunning views and vertigo.  The latter is (for me, at least) caused by the steep spiral staircases and the lack of guard rails around the highest tower tops (and the walls are short!). 

The town itself is mostly modern except the castle, walls, and parish church, which was originally part of a convent that Edward shipped out when he took over.  Overall, I think they have done a very impressive job on repairing and maintaining the fortifications, and Craig had great fun climbing up and down the towers for the different views of the town, the River Conwy, and the Welsh countryside.

Contractually obligated cathedral post

 Liverpool (sabbatical 2, Week 2)

Anglican Cathedral

Andrew and David will be happy that Craig's getting his cathedral fix in now, perhaps he'll be sated by the time they get over here!  Liverpool has two cathedrals (one Anglican, one Catholic), but perhaps as famous as these two is the Church of St. Luke, known colloquially as "The Bombed-Out Church".  In May 1941, it was hit with an incendiary bomb and mostly burned, except of course for the stone walls, facade, and bell tower.  Left as a war memorial, the city converted it into an event space.

Moving not too far south, we come to Liverpool (Anglican) Cathedral.  Although started in 1904, it has a much older feel to it.  It survived the war virtually unscathed (just a few broken windows, according to the tour guide).  It is, in fact, the largest church in the British Isles, and #5 in the world (depending how you measure it of course, but "fifth" is what the tour guides tout).  It is quite sparse except for some beautiful stained-glass windows.  The outside is distinctive, being built from locally-quarried red sandstone blocks.

Finally there's Paddy's Wigwam..... or rather, the Liverpool Metropolitan (Catholic) Cathedral.  Not to be outdone by the then-under-construction largest church in Britain, in 1930 the local Catholic bishop commissioned plans to build a church with the largest dome in the world.  Unfortunately, costs ballooned and the funding model - local fundraising - was insufficient.  This led to a new design in 1962, and the result is the very modern church pictured.  Of course, most of the Catholics in Liverpool have Irish roots ("Paddies"), and the design does resemble a pre-colonial indigenous plains tent, hence "Paddy's Wigwam".

Paddy's Wigwam (l) and Bombed-Out Church (r); note how sky shows through windows (red arrow)

Liverpool = Mirror Halifax

 Liverpool (Sabbatical 2, Week 1)

It's probably more accurate to say that Halifax is mirror Liverpool, since the latter is older and larger.  Generally, the "feel" of the two cities is similar - a little rough, a little run-down, perhaps the denizens drink too much (this is a bank holiday, and clearly the Scoucers get started early - several groups Craig passed on the walk home from the University were..... boisterous).

There are also lots of specific similarities.  Both cities are tied through seagoing trade.  Liverpool's Emigration Museum pairs with Halifax's Immigration Museum at Pier 21.  Both cities have ties to the Titanic, they were opposite ends of the convoy routes in WWII, the waterfronts have working sets of docks, etc.  Liverpool even has a "Canada Dock"!   So Liverpool's maritime museums will be the theme for this post.

"Lion": a steam engine built in 1838

First up: the actual Maritime Museum, home of exhibits on the Titanic, Lusitania, emigration, and the International Slavery Museum.  There are several interesting exhibits, but editorially, the Slavery Museum is not nearly as harrowing as it perhaps should be, nor was the Titanic exhibit as haunting as the one in Cherbourg.  On the other hand, others might applaud the choices of the curators in emphasizing the beauty and diversity of African culture (and the beauty of the Titanic, if not the diversity).  Down the road is a "Titanic Memorial" (actually a memorial to the 244 engine room staff who went down with the ship as "heroes of the marine engine room"), a Battle of the Atlantic memorial, statues of various VC winners, etc.  And, of course, a bunch of statues of the Beatles and other musical acts, but we'll get to that in a later post.

Next: the Museum of Liverpool, a nice airy new space with a surprising number of artifacts.  In keeping with the military city theme, there's sets of uniforms and equipment of Liverpool-raised regiments through the years.  In addition there are, of course. lots of other "people's history" kinds of things on the Beatles, music, and movies filmed in Liverpool.

The Big Board!

Finally: the Western Approaches HQ museum, a restoration of the titular WWII headquarters that tracked convoys, escorts, and U-boats as they crossed the Atlantic.  This was Craig's favorite (and also the most expensive, being the only one with an admission fee).  You could get a feel for the claustrophobic intensity of the life-and-death proxy chess match being played out between 2000 and 2 miles away.  The various rooms held a few "easter eggs" like a newspaper account of Dieppe published the day after the raid ("...our combined forces smashed through the Nazi defense") and an "Official Football Program" for the 23 November 1940 match between Liverpool and Manchester United sitting on an officer's desk.

P.S. I appears Craig is still not good at selfies.

Sabbatical #2, not quite in France

Liverpool (Sabb 2 Week 1)

It has been some time, and we're not exactly in France, but Craig's next sabbatical has arrived so in the interest of keeping the sabbatical travelogue together, we'll resurrect this and see how it goes!

Will replace with real pic when I have it!

Craig is doing some crystallography at the University of Liverpool with a collaborator, and poking around town on the weekends.  Pretty much all he's done so far is crystallography and attend a variety of chemistry social functions - they seem to have a lot here!  Here's a picture of one of the structures we solved.  Unfortunately, it's already been published by someone else (i.e. it isn't what Craig's student wanted!), but you'll have to wait for the actual publications to see the new structures! =)

P.S. You'll see a lot of selfies for a few posts since Craig is alone on this particular leg of travels