This post is a bit different for several reasons. First, I suddenly found myself in Liverpool, which is where I am now. I'll get to why, later. I've already seen the Cavern Club by accident when we got lost on a walk, and been in some wonderful old pubs. The number of beautiful old buildings has been a surprise. I had assumed that Liverpool would have lost as many as Birmingham did during WW2. Hitler's bombers obviously found the distance more of a challenge. Liverpool got plenty though.
This post is mainly about the iconic Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. I first saw it in 1967 when my family briefly visited the city. That was the year it was completed. Liverpool has two landmark cathedrals at either ends of a long avenue, and I remember my father pointing them out and explaining that one was the Catholic and the other Anglican. The distinctive tower of this building filled my seven year old self with awe and I always wanted to see inside.
When we arrived at our hotel and pulled back the curtains, this was what we saw. The roof of Lime Street Station, a seagull staring me straight in my eye, and in the distance the tower of the cathedral, which was pretty much all I saw back in 1967. Only a 15 minute walk away, it had to be done.
By this point I have now realised that this is going to be a slow process. Factors to take into account are all of these photos being taken on my phone, which is limiting, trying to make this post on a Samsung tablet, which the blog interface does not like, and the fact that I only have the use of one eye at the moment. That is all just for context, not by way of complaint.
What it means is that I will have to forego all of my building info until I am home on the PC.
if I try to toggle between Wikipedia and this post, the interface goes back to square one and is very cumbersome. So I am forced to compromise on the amount of text, not due to ocular issues, but IT issues. For that reason I will at this point just let you enjoy these photos until we get inside.
Just one thing to point out here. In the distance, caught between the massive buttresses of the cathedral you can see the tower of the Anglican cathedral.
Here we are, inside, and it really is a wonderful space bathed in the vivid hues of the stained glass, glowing with the last of the sun's rays on this winter day.
What I hadn't expected was an impromptu performance of Handel's Messiah, presumably a dress rehearsal. What a privilege, and well worth the nearly sixty year wait to see the interior.
Ultimately this trip to Liverpool saw me change views from the window of The Liner Hotel, to this one from my room at The St. Paul's Eye Unit, at The Liverpool University Hospital.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the fantastic staff here for their skill and care during my stay. I may return to this post to add some information at a later date. For now I'm just going to keep it simple.
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