2011 - Day Out 26: Liverpool

Date: Saturday 22 October 2011

It is our second trip of October, and whilst we still have the natural daylight to go further afield, we have decided to go back up north to one of our favourite destinations, the city of Liverpool.

It is an early start, and I walk into Stourbridge, where I will meet Mr UKBuses, who is catching the bus to the ring road stop. As I make my way into Stourbridge, it is still very dark, the British Summertime is fading, and so is the temperature, I button my coat to keep my body heat in, and finally make my way to the bus stop located on Stourbridge Ring Road. I wait a few minutes, and Mr UKBuses bus is running early and just after 07:15, he turns up. We have to wait a while for our next bus, so we take a seat in the bus shelter and just after ten minutes, our National Express West Midlands Service 246 turns up and we are on our way to Dudley to make our way to Wolverhampton as there is no direct bus to Wolverhampton from Stourbridge until 08:35. After passing through Brierley Hill and Russell's Hall Hospital, we arrive at Dudley Bus Station, and we make a change to the plan already as we catch National Express West Midlands Service 1 which will take us into Wolverhampton. 

After making our way through Sedgley we arrive in Wolverhampton, and we alight outside of the Central Library, and we walk past The Midland Metro terminus and past the new bus station. We have a while before our train arrives, and we head to our first J D Wetherspoons of the day, "The Moon Under Water", where we have breakfast, and a few minutes after ordering our bacon rolls arrive and we fuel ourselves up for the journey ahead. We let our breakfast go down for a few minutes before heading out into the autumn cold air and a quick walk down Railway Drive, we arrive at Wolverhampton Railway Station ready for our service to arrive at 09:19. Our train is on time and we board our London Midland train. We make our way through the carriages where we find a table seat to relax in, but after we take our seats, a gang of woman board and from the noise, it seems that they are going to Liverpool for a hen do. Even though the hens make a bit of noise on our journey, Mr UKBuses is able to rest his eyes for half of the journey, and despite the hens noise and Mr UKBuses snoring, I am able to catch forty winks as well. After nearly one and a half hours, we arrive in Liverpool and we alight our train at Liverpool Lime Street. Whilst at the station, we get our All Areas Saveaway tickets for use on the bus and ferry around Liverpool today. 

We make our way out onto the Liverpool streets and we pass our usual boarding place, The Hood Street "Hub", and make our way around the corner to St Thomas Street, where we will catch our first bus of the day. We have a few minutes to wait, so we decide to get a few photographs. Our first bus arrives, Arriva North West's Service 433, which will take us under the River Mersey to New Brighton. We take our seats, and we head towards The Kingway Tunnel, and this is our first time in using this tunnel. This is the newer of the Mersey Tunnels, and was opened in 1971. We are only under the tunnel for a few minutes and then after a journey of just under thirty minutes, we arrive at our destination, New Brighton. A few photographs are taken before we decide to pop into Morrison's to get ourselves a drink. I introduce Mr UKBuses to self service by using the self-service tills to pay for our drinks. We take a walk around the back of the supermarket and sit on the banks of the Mersey and have a rest whilst supping our drinks. After enjoying the views we decide to make our way out of the wind and back to the bus stop. Our Arriva North West Service 411 turns up to take us to our next destination, Seacombe, where will catch the ferry back into the city. En route and Mr UKBuses is panicking as the bus is running slightly late due to traffic. We arrive at the Seacombe ferry terminal and as we make our way to the bus stops area I can see the ferry making its way to moor and load, we alight and walk fast to the terminal building where we get our tickets and make our way down to the loading area. We make it in time and board.

Mr UKBuses has to make a bladder stop and after pointing him in the wrong direction nearly making him go down below to the engine area, he finally finds the correct area and after making his visit, we make our way to the top of the ferry and take our seats. Within a minute of sitting on top deck, the wind obliterates Mr UKBuses hair, obviously he did not use the string hold Brylcreem this morning. A first for me again today, as this is my first time of catching the ferry this way round, and after we make a visit to the Woodside / Birkenhead ferry terminal, we eventually are on the ferry 'cross the Mersey back to the main city. We arrive on the right side of the Mersey, and we make our way out of the Pier Head terminal a different way from previous visits and luckily at the entrance is a bus stop in which our next bus will visit, so after a couple of minutes wait, our Cumfybus Service C2 arrives and takes us back to main shopping area, where we will stop for lunch. We alight, and Mr UKBuses gets the wrong stop, so we have to follow the C2 on foot, but it is too quick and we are searching for our Wetherspoons. We pass The Cavern Club, and luckily it is a Wetherspoons that I tried before and we find "The Welkin", we enter the building and before purchasing our drinks we try and find a table, but the pub is jam packed, upstairs and downstairs, so we vacate the premises and I get my bearings and we decide to go to another Wetherspoons, "The Fall Well", see picture right. It seems that we may have the same problem, but I order the drinks and Mr UKBuses does find a table, he pounces on a table whilst the previous occupants are just getting up! We have a little rest before ordering, and after perusing the menu, Mr UKBuses opts for his BBQ Chicken Melt "without the cheese", and I opt for my usual Beer and Burger. It doesn't take long before the food arrives and we consume the food. We let the food settle and after vacating our table for the next customers to use straight away, we make our way towards the bus stop, which we have to pass the Hood Street "Hub" again and we eventually find Victoria Street, where we wait for a couple of minutes before our Arriva North West Service 464 arrives to take us to Birkenhead.

We board and we make our way through the streets to go under water again, but this time we are using the older Mersey Tunnel, The Queensway Tunnel, which was opened in 1934. This is also a first again on this trip, as this is the first time that I have used the tunnel in this direction. After a few minutes underground we arrive in Birkenhead and we alight at the bus station. After a few photographs, we take a walk down Claughton Road and past the new Asda which I have seen being built on all my visits to Liverpool, it looks like it will be ready for business soon. After we pass the new Asda, we arrive at our now Birkenhead regular pub, The Mackenzie, see picture left. It is Mr UKBuses round, and after our drinks are purchased we take a seat at our normal table. I must say that this is one of my favourite pubs in the Liverpool area, the visits to this place made more pleasant with the friendly staff and customers. Time for a quick cheers photo, see right, and we make our way back to the bus station. We make our way back, and we make our way round to Stand 7, and we deviate from the plan and we catch our first First bus, with First in Chester & Wirral service 72 doing the honours of taking us back to Liverpool through The Queensway Tunnel. It is not long before we are back Liverpool side of the Mersey, and we alight at Whitechapel, and take a short walk to Elliot Street, nearly getting lost along the way as we decide to take a short cut, but we don't get lost as we find our stop and we take a short ride on Arriva North West's service 86, to sample a couple of pubs that were spotted on our last visit.

We are only on the bus for a few minutes before we arrive in Hardman Street, and we alight the bus just outside our next refreshment stop, a place called "The Flute". We make our way indoors and whilst Mr UKBuses finds a table, I wait at the bar and wait and wait. The service in this pub is poor, with the woman who is serving being overtaken by a snail as she serves other customers, and a man who thinks it is more important to restock the fridges, despite looking around a couple of times to see people waiting. I do eventually get served and it looks like I make in time as when I get to Mr UKBuses he looks like he is about to pass out from a dry throat. The pub looks like it used mainly by students, as can be seen by the age of the people using this pub. It is time to take a cheers photo and disaster strikes, the battery in my camera has gone, and I forgot to charge my spare battery. I think it is time to move on, and we decide to take a few steps closer towards the city and visit the pub virtually next door, "The Fly in the Loaf". The pub looks amazing before we have set foot inside due to the exterior decor, which gives the pub a traditional feel. We step inside and you can tell that this is one of the real ale connoisseur favourites, and the pub seems so much better than The Flute, with loads of space due to the large sized of the pub. Mr UKBuses comes to the rescue and lends me his camera so that I can take a cheers photo, he simply pops my memory card into his camera so I can make this possible, as can be seen right, - cheers! After supping our drinks it is time to catch the bus back into the city, and it is quite a few minutes we have to wait before one turns up. We jump back on service 86, and decide to go to the Liverpool One Bus Station, remembering to alight at the bus stop rather than being dropped off in the staff only lay by area, like we did on our last visit. Photographs are taken around the station, and we make our way to stand 10, where our Arriva North West Service 82 bus takes us back into the main city. 

We have about forty five minutes left before we have to catch our train and we are back at the station, so Mr UKBuses opts for a Burger King, whilst I visit Marks and Spencer's to eat on the train back. Mr UKBuses finishes his burger and we head outside so that I can have some "fresh air" before boarding our train. It is starting to get cold now, so we head back indoors and to Platform 7, where our Virgin Train is waiting. We find our seats and we get comfortable for the journey back, with the train heating warming us up. We depart Liverpool Lime Street and make our way back to the West Midlands. Mr UKBuses decides to have a nap and I tuck into my food. We pass through Crewe, and it isn't long before we arrive at Stafford where we have to alight so that we can catch our London Midland train to take us back to Wolverhampton. We move over to Platform 4, and we only have to wait a few minutes before our train arrives. Whilst we wait, we notice that Stafford Railway Station does not have a Platform 2.

We only have a short journey to make and it doesn't take long before we arrive back in Wolverhampton. We make our way from the Wolverhampton Railway Station and across the new footbridge to take us to the new Wolverhampton Bus Station. We arrive at our stand and the bus turns up early, with the driver kindly letting us on so that we can warm up, and it isn't long before we slowly make our way back to Stourbridge passing through Wombourne and Kingswinford along the way. We arrive back in Stourbridge just a few minutes late to catch our bus back home, so we kill a bit of time by walking past the building site of the new Stourbridge Interchange to see how it is progressing and back to our stop where Black Diamond's Service 276C will take us back home and into the warmth.

I've had another fun day out, and have noticed that I have really enjoyed the last couple of outings, which is a good way to see the end of the year out. I am sure that our last few trips in 2011 will be to the same standard of today's trip to Liverpool. A big thank you to Mr UKBuses for making the day a success.