Liverpool is home to two large cathedrals; the Metropolitan Cathedral and the Liverpool Cathedral.
This is a view looking north-west from the top of the Liverpool Cathedral.
Here is the Metropolitan Cathedral, as seen from the top of the Liverpool Cathedral tower, looking north (roughly along Hope Street).
This is the south side of the Liverpool Cathedral, seen from the St. James Gardens, which are also an old cemetary. Kind of spooky!
After arriving in Liverpool on Wednesday, I walked around for a while, exploring some of the interesting little streets between the hostel and the waterfront area.
Then on Thursday, I headed over to the Walker Gallery, St. George Hall (a courthouse and concert hall), and the mall area in the Queen's Square town center area.
On Friday, I visited the cathedrals (pictured above) in the morning and then returned to the waterfront to visit the Tate Gallery, Maritime Museum, and the Beatles Story Museum. The Tate Gallery was very cool, with lots of sculpture and interactive mixed-media exhibits. One of my favorites was a box constructed of mirrors on the inside and outside, with observation holes cut into each of the faces. Changing one's viewing position, there were all kinds of fun iterative reflections to enjoy.
After leaving the Tate, I headed to the Maritime museum, and looked at exhibits for the three major passenger ocean liner disasters (most everybody knows the Titanic, do you know the other two?) and the Battle of the Atlantic from World War II. Some of the early sonar and radar equipment was very interesting to see. While it might not have been very polished from the perspective of modern electronic warfare systems, there was undoubtedly an advantage to be had by using this technology.
When the Maritime Museum closed, I headed to the Beatles Story. It was supposed to be open for another two hours, but as I approached the entrance, a couple came walking out and a museum employee locked the doors behind them. Bummer!
As a consolation, I found an interesting interactive art exhibit in an otherwise empty building on the way back to the hostel. This exhibit was part of the No Longer Empty program that places art in abandoned or otherwise unoccupied buildings, making them no longer empty. There were a variety of audio, visual, and mechatronic creations on display; quite a few microcontroller based projects, I think.
On Saturday, I revisited the Maritime Museum to check out the Ernest Shackleton exhibit, titled Endurance. It chronicled his failed attempt to be the first person to reach the south pole. I can only imagine how terrifying it must have been for the crew when the ice flow finally crushed the ship and the men had to take refuge in igloos on the ocean-covering ice. Evidently, the men also became quite familiar with the taste of penguin and seal, as they had to eat those for quite some time.
After departing the Maritime Museum, I headed back to see if I could visit the Beatles Story, but the line at the entrance went up the stairs, along the plaza, and around the corner, so I gave up on seeing the Beatles Story this time. Maybe I can take a day-trip to Liverpool on a Tuesday or Wednesday when it is not so busy. Day tripper, yeah!
For lunch, I went back to the hostel and warmed up some leftovers from dinner on Friday, and then headed back to the waterfront to take a ride on the River Mersey ferry boat. There wasn't time to take any of the stops on the other side of the river, but the ride was worthwhile as the on-board narration gave some interesting explanations of historical buildings and sites that we passed.
After the ferry ride, it was back to the hostel to pick up my pack, and then over to the train station for a ride back to Manchester. On Saturday evening, I joined some family friends for a dinner-party with a delicious multi-course meal, tasty desserts, a variety of exotic (by Colorado standards) beverages, and a generous helping of interesting conversation. Thankfully, we set the clocks back an hour or else Sunday morning would have been painful after such a late night.
On Sunday, I met up with the crew from Crossfit Central Manchester and we carpooled to Deeside College in (northern) Wales for an event called the Fitness Decathlon. Like a standard decathlon, it consisted of 10 events, but unlike the standard decathlon, they were not all track and field events. Over the course of the day, we completed:
1.5-mile run for time
100-meter sprint
2-minute 20-kg sandbag carry for distance
A short timed "agility run"
An overhead medicine ball throw for distance
A one-rep-max deadlift
Max reps of continuous push-ups (press-ups to some on this side of the Atlantic)
2-minute 60-kg back squats for maximum reps
1.5-minute maximum crossings of an elevated balance beam
A brief series of exercises including running, rowing, box jumps, overhead plate swings (think kettlebell swings, but with a plate), sit-ups, push-ups, and another run.
The 1.5 mile run went very well for me, with an easy pace at the start and a finish time around 8-minutes 41-seconds. I didn't have spectacular results in any of the other events, but did pull a 140-kg deadlift around the 7th of the 10 events, so I had to be pretty happy with that.
140-kg is 308 pounds, only 7 pounds short of my personal record. Woohoo!
The Fitness Decathlon wrapped up with Daz from Crossfit Central Manchester taking top honors on the men's side, and Sam (also from CFCM) taking the top spot on the women's side (including the highest score in the max reps of push-ups, outright). Good work Daz and Sam! CFCM had a great showing overall, with lots of athletes setting new personal bests and pushing themselves to keep performing well throughout a long (long, long, long!) day of events.
After the competition, it was back to Manchester for dinner and a triumphant return to the hostel. Tonight, we have another edition of the ACT track league racing, and then tomorrow night will be my 3rd week of Manchester Regional Track League premier league racing. Then on Wednesday, I am off to Germany to explore strange new worlds and boldly go where I have never gone before.
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