Each year I cycle for a few days on my own, staying at B&Bs etc. 2023 I rode the Ridgeway from Seaton to Streetly, 2024 from Pitlochry to Findhorn and back, this year I started from Liverpool.
I took the early train to Liverpool Lime Street via Leeds and Manchester. The train was a modern Trans Pennine Express electric; quiet and comfy. It was packed with people mostly going to work in the first two cities. After Manchester though it was almost empty. Liverpool was feeling like a bit of a backwater as I slowly ground through Edge Hill cutting.
Liverpool was 30 miles from where I grew up in Preston. Our baby sitter used to go to the Cavern when we grew up in the 60s. We visited occasionally, the Mersey had been crossed on the ferry. From 1976 to 1979 I was a student at the University. So I cycled up from Lime Street to the University to pass a few memories. The sociology department seems to have been moved away from its old home (if sociology is still taught even) and there is a lot of new student accommodation near to the campus. The catholic cathedral still looks magnificent, the anglican one not so much.
Passing Liverpool 8, where I lived with friends Charlie and Joanna was hard; I am the only one still alive. Sefton Park (where I watched a stage of the Milk Race cycle race in 1977, and had not a clue what was going on) looked incredibly beautiful in the perfect summer sun, and was in pretty good nick. By the time I got to Carnatic, where my year 1 hall of residence used to be, all was changed. The site was shut a couple of years ago, and is now all chained up but with no new building or even demolition going on. This photo shows the sad and slightly creepy state of things - Chernobyl by Mersey.
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