Salthouse Dock Part Two.

Hi all,


This week we're still moored in Salthouse Dock and still having a great time in Liverpool. There's so much to do that even the thirteen days we are going to be here isn't likely to be enough. Since last week we have done some of the tourist things like The Cavern Club, The Cathedrals, The Ferry 'Cross the Mersey, been round a few times on an open topped bus, and visited some of the museums. All the things that everyone should do when they pay a visit to this city. Every day has been filled with something and we've managed to get a drop or two of some fine real ales in some nice pubs in the evenings. At the beginning of the week we had a visit from a very good friend, Janice, formerly of the good ship NB Jandai. She stayed with us for three nights, making our stay here even more enjoyable, coming with us as we enjoyed some of the attractions. It's about a year since we last spent time with her, that would have been at last years Stratford River Festival.

Lisa and I posing on the stern of Chyandour at our mooring in Salthouse Dock.

M.V. Royal Iris of the Mersey, the Ferry 'Cross the Mersey. She's just approaching her berth at the Pier Head to pick us up. In a former life, then named Mountwood, she starred in the film Ferry Cross the Mersey and the TV program The Liver Birds.


Lisa and Janice trying to take a "selfie" on the bows while we were moored on the pier at Seacombe. The building in the background is one of the ventilators for the Kingsway, or Wallasey Tunnel under the Mersey.

The highlight of the trip across the Mersey for me was the U-Boat Museum at the Woodside Terminal at Birkenhead. Here you can see U534 cut up into five pieces so that it's possible to see inside her. She was built in 1942, sunk in 1945, discovered by treasure hunters in 1986 and salvaged in 1993, before ending up in the museum in 2009.

Inside U534's engine room. Either side is a 9 cylinder turbocharged MAN diesel engine and not much room for anything else. Space was at a premium on these boats. In the first few weeks of each voyage only one of the two toilets could be used because the other was taken over for storage. Just try to imagine what that must have been like for the 48 men in her crew.

The Gateway to Chinatown here in Liverpool. It stands forty four feet high and is the largest multi span arch outside of China. It took ninety days to erect, has two hundred hand carved dragons and was opened in 2000.

The Ladies Chapel inside the magnificent Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool.

The Peel of Bells in the cathedral. The centre bell "Great George" is the third largest in the UK weighing over fourteen and a half tons and was cast by Taylors Bell Foundry in Loughborough .



Lisa and Janice sitting on "A case history" sculpture on Hope Street.

The interior of the awesome Roman Catholic Cathedral in Liverpool.

Inside one of the pubs that we have enjoyed during our stay here. This one, The Philharmonic Dining Rooms, is very ornate, Grade 2 listed and serves a nice selection of Real Ales. Notice the names above the doors to the side rooms. 





Another visitor to Liverpool, the P&O Cruise Liner Britannia. She weighs in at over one hundred and forty thousand tons and carries over five and a half thousand passengers and crew.

Well that's all for another week folks. Here in Liverpool we've got the luxury of a Shoreline for electricity and a Water Point on the pontoon at the stern. It's not all that far to take the cassette to empty it at the Marina, about twenty minutes walk along the waterfront in fact, so Chyandour hasn't had to move. That means our Grand Total of 1,190 Locks and 2,044 Miles is the same as last week. Take care everyone.