20 June
Well how cool is this, I'm updating this from the Cavern Club! Saturday eve we heard music from a pub behind the museum so went to investigate, apparently there was a wedding reception going on, let's just say I'll never criticize 'My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding' again, nuff said! Yesterday we explored Ellesmere Port and the rest of the museum and this morn we caught the train into Liverpool for a few days, after the rain this morn the sun has come out and the city is buzzing.
22 June
We've had a great time in Liverpool, had a great, cheap hotel within easy walking distance of everything, we've been over the Mersey on the ferry, Beatles tour, Liverpool Eye, the open top bus tour and visited the Museum of Liverpool and the 'new' Cavern Club (3 times, well they had great music playing all day and it was free!). The original Cavern Club unfortunately closed in '73 as they wanted to build a ventilation shaft from the railway below although it was never built and the Cavern filled with rubble, it was hoped to reopen it but a 9 storey building was then planned to sit on the site and the club wouldn't have been able to support it so a replica was built 20 feet lower and 15 meters up the road, although it's not the original it had a great atmospere and had live entertainment on from 10am til 2am. This morning we heard that the Queen was in Liverpool and was to lunch in the town hall and would appear on the balcony at 12.30, our hotel was right next to the town hall so we couldn't miss the opportunity of a quick snap or two, we then said farewell to Liverpool and returned to the boat and shall return to Chester tomorrow.
24 June
Had a lazy cruise back to Chester yesterday then wandered around the outskirts of the city and racecourse, we found a pub on the river with a floating beer garden so we had to check it out, today we are going to Nantwich by train to collect the van and drive down Northampton way to attend Shelley's friend Olive's birthday party then back on Sunday.
28 June
Had a great time at Olive's party (Popeye/Olive Oyl themed) and returned back on Sunday evening, yesterday we left Chester and cruised back down the Shroppie mooring for the night near Beeston castle sitting atop of it's crag, this morning we set off and turned onto the Middlewich branch and moored in Middlewich for the night.
30 June
We left a very wet Middlewich and cruised through the Cheshire countryside before mooring by the Anderton boat lift for the night, this morning we went to the boat lift cafe for breakfast before looking round the site, the lift was built to move boats up and down from the canal to the river Weaver 50' below, it must be one of the most interesting sites on the canals, we went on the lift back in 2008 during our trip that year. We then moved on toward Manchester passing through 3 tunnels before mooring at Lymm just before the rain started!
