The season of work trips has started again, and the start of February saw me visiting Liverpool for the first time.
One advantage of these weekend trips is that you get the chance to see something of the place where you’re staying. Given my parents’ choice of music while I was growing up, walking round town was a chance to replay various Liverpool-related songs.
Liverpool will be European City of Culture in 2008, and near the Mersey, you could see a lot of new buildings going up rapidly. Warehouse space is in some areas well re-developed (the Albert Dock complex, including Tate Britain, lots of cafes etc) and in others still waiting for the chance.
My first view from the hotel room, while unpacking on the Friday, couldn’t be bettered: the Metropolitan Cathedral in one direction, the Liver Building in another. Unfortunately, the fog was setting in by the time we were let out on the Saturday afternoon, so I managed to see both again, but with less visibility as the afternoon wore on.
By the time I got to the Mersey, you couldn’t really see anything. It was quite atmospheric though, looking out into the mist and hearing fog horns sounding, possibly on the other side of the river.
The highlight for me, though, was the Metropolitan Cathedral. Yes, it does look like a space ship from the outside. The guidebooks will freely allow that it started leaking etc within a few years of being opened, and they’ve spent a lot of money having to restore it.
But that doesn’t prepare you for the wonderful light inside through the stained glass in the ‘chimney’ part. Every side chapel is different, with separate purposes. And by making the main section a circle, so you are never far from the altar or the other people, it certainly seems to help you feel part of a community.
And with a love like that, you know you should be glad…