England

Monday 1st September
Got on one of the city hop on hop off buses today to get the lay of the land and find the main sights of Liverpool. Along the way I explored a bit of the city centre, the water front and Albert Docks. The city is pretty average to be honest but they have some incredible buildings! The main Catholic Cathedral is the most ugly thing ever! It's design was changed a few times after failed attempts at building it (when WWII broke out) and what has resulted is a massive space ship looking thing attached to an ancient crypt with mini pyramids on it! Google it, it is so weird! The locals are very proud of it though and it does have the biggest stained glsss windows (I think anywhere but maybe just the UK). In contrast the Anglican Cathedral is AMAZING! It is enormous, the largest Anglican cathedral in Britian (5th in the world) and it sits on top of a hill so is extremely impressive. And it's even better inside than out, I swear it looks like something only royals would actually use! Photos on google images don't even do it justice.

Liverpool's China Town is said to be the oldest in the world and has the largest Chinese arch outside mainland China so I checked that out but it was about 5pm on a Monday night so it was a bit of a ghost town. I also walked past the 'Bombed Out Church' (a church that was gutted during the wars and they keep it like that as a memorial), it's actually really beautiful. Unfortunately it wasn't open to go in though.

I got back to the hostel & met a few people who were headed to the Cavern Club so I joined them. To be honest I didn't know the significance of it but kept hearing about it so wanted to check it out. For anyone as igborant as me, it is basicalky where The Beatles were discovered and was where everyone big in that music era played. It is really small but very cool. They had a Beatles cover band (actually just 1 guy) playing (which I'm sure they do everyday!) but it made for a cool experience. When we left it was sunset so we walked down tobthe water to see that, very pretty across the river/inlet (not sure what it is technically). Then we found the SuperLambBananas! They have these statue things all over the city (like the Berlin bears)... weirdest things ever (basically a lamb with a bit banana tail). The stories of how they come about differ but I think it has something to do with old exports from Liverpool (lambs and bananas!)
Our hostel is pretty good, average gostel facilities but they actually have things on (which surprisingly is pretty rare from my experience). Tonight was movie night so the group of us headed back to join in that (ended up just being us and some Italian guys).

Tuesday 2nd September
On recommendation from Bethan (from uni for those following along at home), I decided to head down to Chester today. It is a very cute little town with actually quite a bit of history and really busy! After checking out the ruins of their Roman amphitheatre (which is nothing really to look at but apparently was the biggest in Western Europe or something at the time), I witnessed what I think must be some rare 'excitement' for the small city. Someone on the church tower tour has started feeling unwell at the top and couldn't get down. 5 fire & rescue vehicles, 5 ambulances, police, about half the town watching & at least 2 hours later, he was free!

I did the bus tour around the city on an old, restored vehicle from before the war (excuse the photo below, forgot to get one actualky of it so this is a photo of the flyer). It was actually interesting and gave a lot more info than the 'hop on hop off' tours. Apparently a lot of sayings come from here! Like "daylight robbery" (taxes were introduced based on the number of windows you had so people would brick up the windows to avoid the tax and therefore losing their daylight), 'not giving someone the time of day' (none of the clock towers have a clock face on the western side, facing Wales after a disagreement with Wales they wouldn't tell them the time... still kept to this day, in fact there is technically still a law here that anyone born within the city walls can legally shoot (with a bow and arrow) anyone from Wales that is out after curfew (9pm)!!!

After the tour I could get into the church (emergency was over), and then I wandered around the city, down along the river and back through the gardens before heading back to Liverpool.
It was BBQ night at the hostel so we joined in on that for the night.

Wednesday 3rd September
Off to Manchester today but first I wanted to check out some more of Liverpool. In one area there is St George's Hall, St John's Gardens, the World Museum and the Library of Liverpool. All very impressive buildings with historical relevance. Unfortunately the planetarium in the world museum was closed for renovations which I was looking forward to but still a good museum.

Got to Manchester and had a bit of a look around, it definitely has the more 'big city' feel to it.

Thursday 4th September
Manchester isn't really designed for tourists, they don't have a hop on hop off bus and they only do general city walking tours on the weekends. So I just had a wander around and saw the city. Found some monuments, churches, libraries etc. I went into the John Rydle library which is more of a museum than working library, cool building though and apparently there's part of one of the oldest known bibles in there somewhere. I found the city does have some free city bus loops so jumped on one of those and found China Town so stopped for lunch.

Got to catch up with Bethan for dinner tonight which was really lovely, it's so good to be able to catch up with people who live so far away normally and to see a familiar face!

Friday 5th September
The months of walking around with either a backpack or handbag all day every day has taken it's toll and my stiff shoulders have developed into a horrid click in my neck which is driving me nuts so I found a physio/sports therapist and got a proper massage which was really painful but also great. Thankfully nothing seriously wrong with my neck, just obviously putting too much strain on it. I kept with theme of the day and found a much needed hairdresser this afternoon. It's always nice to do something normal.

I finally managed to find a theatre show on so off to see Jersey Boys tonight. It was really good, part concert, part show (main problem with that is people sing along! One lady near me took it to the extreme and was even singing along to instrumentals and had no idea of timing!) Anyway it was great.

Saturday 6th September
Ended up planning an extra night in Manchester as I could get much better accommodation in the Lakes District if I didn't arrive for a Saturday night, so spent this morning finalising travel plans for the rest of my time in England. Then I joined the hostel walking tour of Manchester (thought I should see some more of the city). It wasn't the best walking tour (just run by the hostel staff) but they actually gave us time to go into the buildings which was cool. We went to the art gallery, central library, museum of science and industry, and the Manchester cathedral, so ended up seeing quite a lot.

Sunday 7th September
Took the train to Windermere (Lakes District) today and checked into my lovely guest house/B&B. I splurged a little here and so glad I did... it is so lovely to have my own room, a tv & a double bed! Luxury! Haha just spent the afternoon enjoying that and then walked into town for dinner. Everyone that recommended the Lakes District was nice. It is so beautiful and relaxing here. Reminds me a little of the Maleny/Montville area but much more quaint.

Monday 8th September
Had my walking day today. Walking is HUGE here... everyone has walking sticks and are very serious about it. I just did the easy (but highly recommended) walk up to the Orrest Head lookout. It was a lovely walk and an absolutely amazing view! (Not sure if the 360° panoramic will work well on here but I'll try).
Bowness is actually the town on Lake Windermere (not Windermere go figure) so I walked down through there and caught the ferry across the lake. The plan was to head to Hill Top to see Beatrix Potter's house but I took a wrong turn and walked along the lake for a while. A lovely walk but frustrating as I was heading in the complete wrong direction. Eventually I made it back and then started the walk to Hill Top. Had I known or been prepared for a long scenic walk it would have been quite lovely but it ended up being a nightmare as the stupid 'public footpaths' took me on the most round about, stupid way ever with terrible signage. An expected 20 min walk ended up taking me 1.5hrs, complete with walks through paddocks and farms. Anyway, I finally managed to make it and saw the gardens and house where Beatrix Potter lived & wrote her books. Very cute little place.

Tuesday 9th September
Decided to check out some of the surrounding towns today so took the bus out to Coniston. A nice little town with its own little lake which was quite busy. After some time there, caught the bus back to Ambleside. It is such a nice area to drive around but the road are very narrow so it's slow going on a full sized bus. Stopped and had lunch in Ambleside, which again is a nice little town that was surprisingly busy on a Tuesday in the first week after school has gone back. I am having amazingly good weather this week which has made the area even more enjoyable.

Wednesday 10th September
I booked onto a Ten Lakes Day Trip today so it's a day on the bus but again,  fantastic weather! We saw so many amazing views throughout the day including lakes (of course), mountains, valleys and towns. Oh and lots and lots of sheep! We crossed the Ashness Bridge (not really sure why but it's famous here and used on all the postcards of this area apparently). We also saw the Castlerigg stone circle which has the most amazing views. During the day we stopped in Keswick for lunch and Grasmere in the afternoon. Both are lovely towns but Grasmere is so beautiful. Only small but very picturesque and is the home to William Wordsworth and is famous for gingerbread.

Thursday 11th September
Time to leave Windermere, it has been really lovely and a nice change from the cities that I've been in since Scotland. Taking the train to Blackpool for another changeof scenery (the beach).