Submarines and Statues: Day Two in Liverpool

Not a great start to the day today, with no hot water in the flat and a parking ticket sitting like a giant wasp on my windscreen when I went out to get something from the car. Fortunately the guy who runs the apartment sorted both situations out quickly, leaving us to carry on enjoying the fruits of day two of out visit to this fine city.

My Dad was a merchant seaman and we remember a story of his where he reluctantly left Liverpool one Christmas Eve in about 1950. He was going to a far off place like Uruguay or Australia. Alan and I wondered if we had trodden in his footsteps all these years later, as we made our way to – well, ok, it’s only Birkenhead, but it is possible that we might have followed his steps on some part of the quayside.

What Dad didn’t have to worry about was the possibility of meeting a U-Boat. The same can’t be said of our trip, and that was exactly what happened to us when we stepped off the ferry on the south side of the river.

U-534 was sunk two days after the end of the Second World War. Jolly rotten luck, as our brave lads in the RAF would’ve said at that time. No one had told the captain that Germany had surrendered so they didn’t know the war had been called off. As a result, a depth charge despatched her to the bottom of the sea and there she lay until she was raised, spruced up a bit and put on show for people like me and Alan to gawp at before visiting to the adjacent gift shop to see about buying a key ring or a pen with U-534 written on it.

After a quick look at Birkenhead, with its Grade 1 listed buildings in Hamilton Square, and its Grade 1 listed beef and onion sandwich from Alley Cats deli, it was back to the Liverpool side of the Mersey. With Gerry and the Pacemakers still ringing in our ears, we hopped on to a yellow open topped bus for a tour round the city. Well, I say “hopped,” but my days of hopping anywhere are well behind me now. But we welcomed the chance of a nice sit down.

There’s loads to see here. But Liverpool itself will have to wait until tomorrow as we were keen to see some naked men on a beach.

“Another Place” is an art installation of 100 bronze figures, each larger than life and cast in the artists own image, placed on Crosby beach north of the city. They are all facing the incoming tide and get submerged when the water comes in. It’s a beautiful, thought-provoking piece and we both loved it. Really worth a visit if you ever get the chance. There’s an other-worldly quality about it. I was so moved I had to have an ice cream.