ferried across

Very late writing this up (and this is but the tip of the iceberg for 2016 adventures as yet undocumented, so watch this space ....) - but this was our August Bank Holiday exploration of all things Liverpool.

Saturday August 27

We started with a Razzle Dazzle ferry across the Mersey - complete with soundtrack!

A zip around both cathedrals, the Everyman Theatre, the Phil and finally the Picton, where the 2016 Beatles Festival tribute band competition was in full swing and we were besieged with Beatle suited and wigged foursomes!!

 and that evening a spectacular meal at the new (to us) Burnt Truffle in Heswall

Sunday August 28

Then Sunday saw us back on those Liddypool streets, starting with a coffee in Cains Brewery

and followed by a stupendous Sunday Roast at Camp and Furnace

 Then a launch into the Liverpool Biennial proper

Inside the cavernous Toxteth Reservoir
for Rita McBride's laser installation 'Portal'

 Then on to the Welsh streets

  for 'Momentary Monument - The Stone' by Lara Favaretto

and one of the other streets, recently uses as a film set so all painted a menacing black

Loved this old Liverpool Echo sign - the cry across the city evenings from my childhood 'Echo! Echo!'

and so on to Granby Street and an interesting look around the refurbished streets following the 2015 Turner Prize win.

 Then for some, it was a train back to London and a final gaze at St George's Hall

while the rest of us wandered along to see the demolished Futurist Cinema on Lime Street

 then a final catching of the last sun on Moreton shore across the Irish Sea

and the glimmering lights of Liverpool

Monday August 29

Today it was a slow roadtrip back to Sheffield, winding through the Cheshire lanes - first stop the rather magnificent ruin of Beeston Castle

 with it's stunning views across the Cheshire Plain

and it's bright and breezy little cafe which did a great coffee

and finally the very newly restored and impressive Bramall Hall

 with incredible paintings and patterns still evident on the woodwork in some of the rooms

and that, folks, was that - the end of a lovely family whirlwind of a weekend.

One day soon I might start writing up our roadtrip proper - 4,500 miles across America this July.  Or our adventure to Spain by train or our wonderful sunny Eighter's week in Northumberland.  Where to start . . . .

coast to coast

Such a lovely whirlwind roadtrip across our Northern hills last weekend - starting right at the very tip of the East Riding of Yorkshire - Spurn Point

We hired bikes from the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, then after a great reviving coffee at the Bluebell cafe, we brave three set forth along the sands of the great North Sea

with a bit of hard slog over the sandhills where the path collapsed in the great tidal surge of December 2013.

and we needed to keep a close eye on our watches . . .

 but, bikes parked, we had plenty of time to picnic on the beach

Falafel King's best all the way from Sheffield

and we even had a beautiful Kestrel pose just for us

Thrilled that Spurn Lighthouse has now been renovated and opened to visitors just this Easter for the first time.

Loved the curvy doors

and the great staircases

Fab views, just like looking down on a map

 but beyond to the Point we must go

Never realised lobster shells started off this beautiful shade of blue!  However, after a few hours in the back window of the car, the shell quickly turned reddish!!

So - bikes returned, it was off up the East Riding coast, with stops along the way . . .

and the odd Milton Keynes cow

first a dip into Easington

Then the coastal erosion at Mappleton - getting very like a geography lesson for one of our party!  But intriguing to read of all the coastal villages already lost to erosion on this Holderness Coastline.

and the most amazing fish and chips from Bridlington's amazing chip shop 149 - only the UK's best - which we ate on the prom, of course!!

as well as seeing no ships

until, that was, we reached the lovely little harbour

as the sun slowly set

and we made our way through Hockney's Wolds to our amazing Bed and Breakfast for the night at Greenwick Farm just outside the village of Huggate.

Saturday 6 August 2016

And what an amazing last minute find that was - luxurious and such a fabulous breakfast the next day and this view to die for

but onwards and upwards and our driver awaits. . .

We meander a while in the glorious gentle landscape of the Wolds, rich in colours, lush crops and curious stone gate portals!!

and don't you just love these old white wooden signposts - and this one to the lovely Thixendale, another of Hockney's favoured sites for painting.

miles of cornfields

and it if wasn't for my faithful diarist (eat your heart out Boswell) I'd have forgotten all the lovely details - like the amazing fun haystack sculptures we saw at various farms along the coastal route

so as you will have spied, we were now en route to Haworth, via tortuous traffic jams around York.  But finally we make our destination - the Bronte Parsonage

with a peek into the church

and a tour of the parsonage

Since we last visited a few years ago they have acquired the actual Bronte family table where Charlotte and Emily wrote Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.  There is an 'E' etched into it which they believe was Emily's handiwork!

an actual dress of Charlotte's

and a meander down Haworth's lovely hilly street in search of food

followed by a quest to find Top Withens, only to be scuppered by a plague of horrid pesky flying ants in that lovely purple heather

So now it was a quick evening back in Sheffield with a midnight Olympics catch-up to see the British Women's Hockey team beat Australia, then to bed and a zip over the Pennines, west this time, to the Wirral - as my scribe will confirm ....

Sunday 7 August 2016

taking Grandma for a yummy Sunday Lunch at the good old Fox and Hounds

then a wonderful leg stretch from Red Rocks to West Kirby, gazing over the Irish Sea, past Hilbre Island and as far as the Great Orme in Gwynedd.  Magical as always.

before driving back to Sheffield in the sunset.

Monday 8 August 2016

Awoke, arose and off to the ever lovely Tamper for lunch before the London train

and a final #HerdofSheffield photo opportunity on the way to the station

with the added revelation that these piano keys must have always been here in the pavement, when the Hubs were first built as the National Centre for Popular Music - how amazing!  Can't believe none of us had ever noticed that before!!

So that's the end - and what a lovely happy time it was. 


And what's more, it felt like the perfect extension to our USA roadtrip in July from Minneapolis to Seattle and Vancouver - which I must write up next ........ watch this space.