During my last cruise update, I left you in Belfast, where we had enjoyed the delights of the Giant's Causeway. Then I left you with details of what happened because of the storm in the Scottish waters.
Our next stop after Belfast was due to be Tobermory on the Isle of Mull, yet another exciting hard to reach island.
But, sadly, as we left Belfast, they announced that since the storm was still going rather in the Scottish seas and we'd have to anchor there, for reasons of safety, they were going to have to forgo visiting Tobermory and we they had managed to secure a place at Liverpool. I admit to being furious at the time. The point and reason I was so looking forward to this cruise was visiting islands. Those hard to reach places you have to make a dedicated trip to. No offence to Liverpool but I can very easily jump on a train or in the car with CBC and travel to Liverpool.
Of course I understood the reasons for the diversion but what with missing The Isle of Skye, it just felt a huge blow.
I sulked through the beginning of Dinner. I just found it so disappointing but then eventually, I slowly let go of it.
The next morning, we spent a delightful time chatting to a couple at Breakfast. This amazing lady turned out to be a professional opera singer who had moved to Malta 20 years ago. She was utterly fascinating and we stayed talking to her and her husband for ages. She was really happy to be able to talk about her experiences and loved the fact we were on her wavelength, knew about what she was talking about and had opinions. From her husband's delighted reaction, I got the impression that they hadn't had the chance to talk to people much or people weren't really interested to hear about their life.
Next, we left the boat and walked up into Liverpool.
However, since I wanted somewhere a bit more quiet and countrified, I had an idea to get us out of the city centre.
Alex Odd Socks, who was the unwitting catalyst for this trip in the first place lives in Liverpool and works at a beautiful Tudor home- Speke Hall. I'd seen photos in various blog posts from different people and knew that sounded idea for the day.
We headed into the bus station and waited for the bus towards Speke. It took a lot longer than I expected to. It's nearer to John Lennon airport than the city. Everyone kept telling us to get off at Dobbies garden centre which we didn't see. It was then a mammoth trek of over a mile to reach the grounds of Speke Hall.
The first place we headed for was the Kitchen garden which had been yarn-bombed with a beautiful interactive community project involving William Morris as inspiration and lots of knitted and crocheted things as well as having plenty of healthy-looking vegetables.
We had a fair hefty wait to enter the Hall itself.
I had no idea Billiard Tables were so HUGE!
I was rather taken by these bright stained glass panels.
Sadly, I couldn't get in it so that amibition remains but I was really delighted.
As we walked back, it began to rain heavily so by the time we climbed onto the bus, we were rather sopping. The kind driver looked pityingly at us and said he'd crank up the heating.
The drive back to the city was quite long but we reached there eventually. Mum was exhausted and headed back to the ship but I decided to do a walking route around the city. However, you'll have to return soon to see what I saw as you've already waded through 55 photos here!
It was a great time at Speke Hall and I was grateful for knowing about its existence!
Have you been to visit Liverpool or Speke?
xx