We took a two day break to Liverpool, Wednesday & Thursday, wondered why the accomodation was more expensive and very hard to find on Thursday and why the trains were close to booked out, well it was the Grand National weekend!!Arrived at the grand Lime Street Liverpool Station midday, outside is an appalling bad electronic billboard with motion picture ads and still posters stating "Liverpool the European City of Culture 2008"!!! Walking down from the station is the ugliest square in Europe and more unemployed and disabled people than we have seen anywhere. Not a good start however the bus terminus was new and very well designed. We caught a bus with many pensioners and unemployed through a very depressed area with closed and shuttered shops to a drive-in McDonalds other supermarket and our accommodation. Our B&B was a group of four large old mansions, terrace style - we were given a ground floor apartment with five beds and two flat screen TV and good kitchen!!

Returning to the centre of town we found a very mixed population in a small city that had been badly damaged in the war, the new development 60 & 70 style was pretty bad but there are good walking streets and much new development underway particularly down by the Mersey.