England - Part 2 (Carnies, The Beatles, Manchester United and Shakespeare)

Southport

After the Lake District we picked a random place to stop for the next night. This ended up being Southport because I thought it would be nice to see something on the coast. I had no idea what it was. I’ve never seen a town like Southport before, it’s a permanent carnival. There’s a pretty cool massive board walk that stretches from in town to out to sea (it is so big a tram runs from one end to the other). There’s also a permanent indoor carnival thing going on, with permanent fairy floss stands as you walk into town. There was also a mini theme park along the beach which we sadly didn’t get to check out. It all seemed pretty weird to me but Alex assured me it was a very British thing.

I maybe saw my first Banksy in Southport?

Liverpool

After visiting Southport we were so close to Liverpool we thought “Why not?” I didn’t have high hopes for Liverpool after having worked in Liverpool, Sydney for 3 months (don’t visit this Liverpool), but turns out Liverpool, UK is actually a pretty cool city (do visit this Liverpool). There was a temporary Zip Line going through the middle of the city centre, so we got to watch people in the business attire zooming through the air. We hung out in the Cavern Club (the most famous club in the world, home of The Beatles) and the modernised docks.

Manchester

After a morning in Liverpool we headed straight for Manchester, which left us only with enough time to visit Old Trafford, the Manchester United stadium. We had a drink, went to the museum and took a tour of the stadium. Alex is a big Manchester United fan so this was a dream come true for him.

Warwick, Royal Leamington Spa and Stratford-on-Avon

During a visit to one of Alex’s friends in Warwick we went to a Food Festival in Royal Leamington Spa (It’s pretty much joined with Warwick as is the case with many cities here and is possibly the poshest sounding town ever). I had the delight of trying Zebra for the first time (it just tasted like a normal beef burger).

After this quick visit we stopped in at Stratford-on-Avon, the home of Shakespeare. It is a nice little town. I was able to try butter beer there for the first time and I am happy to report it was tasty!