Looking for Liverpool

Being a huge fan of Vivienne Westwood, the highlight of the trip for me had to be getting to see some of her creations up close. If only they could have let me try some on! But that is a temporary exhibition, so you may miss it.

Otherwise, Albert Dock is an excellent example of the now widespread British tradition of replacing derelict docksides with modern tourist attractions. There was far more to see there than I had time for in one afternoon.

Beatlemania is everywhere in Liverpool. I avoided the bus tour, but I think everyone should pass through the Cavern Walks. The area is a shrine, which is kind of odd because only one of the boys is actually dead. I didn't expect to be moved, but I was.

Quick Tips:

When I paid to get into the Liverpool Museum I discovered that what I had bought was in fact a 6-month pass to most of Liverpool major museums. I wish I had had the chance to visit more of them. If you are in the city for several days this is excellent value.

Try to see Liverpool in the sunshine. Faded imperial grandeur is quite moving in good weather, but in the pouring rain (and it rains a lot in that part of the world) it is just sad.

Avoid Liverpool at Easter. The city's two big soccer clubs, Liverpool and Everton, always play each other that weekend. Whatever happens in the game, both sets of supporters will be drunk, and at least one set will be disappointed and angry.

Best Way To Get Around:

Everything I have described here is within walking distance. However, Liverpool is fairly hilly and the area does not appear to be very wheelchair friendly. Even if you are fit, think about your footwear. Many of the sidewalks are uneven, and much of Albert Dock is cobbled. This is not a job for heels.

If you do need transport, stay at the Gladstone. The taxi queue from Lime Street station stretches right up the street past the hotel. You will never have difficulty getting a cab.

The great thing about the Gladstone is its location. It is situated right behind Lime Street station. Head for the taxi rank, turn right up the hill, and within 100 yards or so you are at the hotel front door. It could not be easier. And, as I pointed out in the overview, if you ever need a cab you have the largest rank in the city on your doorstep. The Victorians had a thing about hotels by railway stations (the magnificent St. Pancras for example) but this idea seems to have gone out of fashion. For those of us who travel by train, this is a great shame.

Right now the Gladstone is sadly shabby. The paint is chipped, the wallpaper peeling, the carpets stained and the upholstery ripped. It looks bad. But the bed linen is clean and (unlike several London hotels I have stayed in) there are no vermin. What is more, the facilities are good. My room was pleasantly large. It had a TV, coffee-making facilities, a hair drier, iron and ironing board. There were tissues and all the usual little bottles in the bathroom. In other words, it gave me pretty much everything I needed. All it needs is a bit of decorating.

And that, it appears, is what it is going to get. In the foyer there was a large display showing plans for a complete revamp of the hotel, including redecoration, exterior makeover and a basement pool. Of course they will probably increase their prices quite substantially to pay for all this, but it will be good to see, I think.

The hotel food is OK. I have had a lot better, but also a lot worse. My advice would be to have croissants and coffee for breakfast and to eat out. Liverpool does have some good restaurants, and I''m sorry I didn''t have time to try more of those I was recommended.

And finally, a pat on the back for the concierges. Liverpudlians have a reputation for being friendly and proud of their home. These guys fitted the bill perfectly. I would go back to the hotel just for them.

I didn''t stay at the Adelphi on this trip, but I have used it before and I wanted to include it because it is such an amazing building. It is supposedly Liverpool''s premier hotel. It is where all the rich and famous stayed before embarking for America. The passengers of the Titanic danced here the night before their fateful voyage. But now, of course, there are no liners, and the Adelphi is a tired and decrepit old lady with little to recommend her but her fabulous and fast fading clothes.

My friend Kevin and I stayed in the Adelphi in 1999 during a convention being held at the hotel. Our room was amazing, all dark wood panelling. It reeked expensive, even though it was not. We were blown away by the lounge. We both agreed that if we had the money we''d buy it, take it back to America and build a hotel round it. But, but, but…

These days the Adelphi is shabby. It is badly in need of restoration. A couple of the convention attendees had their rooms burgled, and we were told that meant it was a good year because it was only a couple. The food was awful, the staff unco-operative. If there were prizes for faded opulence, the Adelphi would win them with ease.

I think every traveller ought to stay at the Adelphi once. And if you happen to be into melancholy poetry perhaps you will decide to stay. For the rest of us, however, it is enough to say that we have been there.

I visited this restaurant on the basis of a recommendation by a fellow Guide, ashford. Sadly I didn't manage to pick a night when Sir Paul McCartney dropped in, but aside from that everything ashford promised came true. The food was excellent.

Hope Street is up near the University and the Catholic Cathedral. It is a bit of a walk from the town centre, and the streets don't always look to friendly, so you may want to take a cab. It is worth it, however. It is a good area for food. The nearby No. 60 is also highly recommended.

Speaking as a resident of California, I find most British-based Mexican restaurants a disappointment. El Macho is an exception. I must admit that their plate of nachos for two would be served for one in an American restaurant, but portions are generally much smaller in the UK. Besides, British nachos are better because British cheese has so much more flavour. The main course, when it came, was very tasty. No punches were pulled on the spice front. I went with a large group (11, I think), and everyone was very happy with their food. The service was good too.

Some friends of mine who had been to the restaurant before advised us that the Margheritas are not good. We avoided them. But they have Mexican beer, which is perfectly OK. Overall, I really liked this place, and if I go back to Liverpool I will make a point of seeking it out.

Victoria Street is right in the centre of the city. The Mandarin is only a couple of minutes walk from the Liverpool Museum and at most 5 minutes from the Cavern. There are a couple of other restaurants in the same street, so this is a good area to go browsing for a meal.

The Mandarin is a beautiful-looking restaurant. Someone has obviously taken a great deal of care over its appearance, and it pays off. You really feel like you are in a calm, serene atmosphere. The musak is a little annoying, but although it is sugary pop, it is Chinese sugary pop.

After all the care that had been taken with appearances I was a little disappointed in the menu. Basically it looked just like what you would get in any other Chinese restaurant in the country: chicken, beef, duck, seafood, choice of sauces. I was rather hoping for something more exotic, such as wind-dried duck. When it came, the food was good, but it seemed a bit of a shame that a restaurant that had tried so hard in other areas should slack off in the one area that really mattered. They had done their work on the wine list, which was very good and even included one Chinese wine. Why not the food.

Still, mustn't complain. The food was good, the location is good, and the setting is excellent. It was pretty good value as well. If you are stuck in central Liverpool of an evening you can't go wrong at the Mandarin.

Pride of place at Albert Dock belongs to an offshoot of London's Tate Gallery. This is serious culture, there are big name artists exhibited here. It is, according to the publicity, the largest collection of modern art in the UK outside London. However if, like me, you think that much of modern art has a serious case of Emperor's New Clothes syndrome, beware.

"How often have you heard the claim that 'a child of five could do that!' directed at modern art?" Thus speaks the Tate's brochure on the subject of their exhibit, Primary Vision: Art and Rediscovery of Childhood. Many of the pieces exhibited look precisely like children's drawings. They are intended to. Examples of real children's work are exhibited alongside as proof. The museum claims that it is really, really hard to paint with the freshness and intensity that children's drawings exhibit. Hmm, yeah, looking at the kids stuff, perhaps they are right. The kids' stuff is better. But I bet no one pays those kids vast sums of money for their work.

It isn't all bad though. In amongst the exhibit are a few works by a Swiss artist, Paul Klee. One of those pieces, Walpurgisnacht, is absolutely brilliant. I can see it still. Any kid who had painted such an intense, nightmarish mythological vision would have been shipped off for psychiatric treatment forthwith.

Elsewhere there are several big name pieces. I spotted work by Lowry, Moore, Sutherland and Hockney. It was the first time I had seen a Lowry piece close up and I finally understand what the fuss is about. TV and book reproductions just don't do his work justice.

There was a piece too by Chris Ofili, the guy who uses elephant dung in his art. I guess it gets him attention, and that is probably a good thing. The painting in question, which won this year's Turner Prize, was a statement against racism, in particular the idea that "all black people look the same". The artist had cleverly used just the eyes of a large number of black people to show how absurd the notion is. Very neat, but the dung had little to do with it except get people's attention.

What disappointed me most about the gallery was the lighting. There were a couple of paintings that were very difficult to see, from any angle. Galleries should not get that sort of thing wrong. It is sloppy, and they need to fix it.

This was sheer luck. I had no idea when I arrived in Liverpool that there would be an exhibition of Vivienne Westwood clothes on at the city museum. The clothes actually belonged to Romilly McAlpine whose husband, Lord McAlpine, was Treasurer of the Conservative Party throughout much of Margaret Thatcher's reign. Romilly needed stunning clothes to stand out at various political functions, and against expectation she proved that Westwood's designs are eminently wearable. What Mrs. Thatcher thought of having one of her chief henchmen's wife dressed in outfits designed by a notorious ex-punk is not recorded. Probably she didn't even notice.

The Westwood exhibition is a temporary thing, lasting only until September 30th. Get there if you can. And if you can't, the Liverpool Museum is still well worth a visit.

As I said in the overview, you have to pay to get in. But it is only £3 ($4.50) and that price actually gets you a 6-month ticket to most of Liverpool's museums, including the Maritime Museum, Customs & Excise Museum and Museum of Liverpool Life at Albert Dock. That's good value in anyone's book. You can find out more about the various museums involved at their communal web site.

The Liverpool Museum is currently being renovated and enlarged. Several parts of it, including the aquarium, parts of the historical exhibits, and the geology section are currently closed. However, when the work is finished the museum will be greatly enlarged. Despite the closures, I was still able to see exhibits on ancient history, dinosaurs, British wildlife and space exploration. Compare it to London and it isn't much, but then very few places in the world come close to London. Liverpool's museum was much better than I expected it to be.

The Liners have gone. Down by the waterfront the Port of Liverpool Building, the Cunard Building and Liver Building still stand proud. But all they have to stand guard over are the ferries to Ireland, the Isle of Man and across the Mersey to Birkenhead. Thankfully the city authorities have made good use of the derelict dockland, and Albert Dock is now a major tourist attraction.

What can you find there? Well, try this lot:

• The Merseyside Maritime Museum
• The HM Customs & Excise Museum
• The Museum of Liverpool Life
• The Tate Gallery
• The Beatles Story Museum

If that is not enough for you, there are shops, cafes, pubs, restaurants, and all of this within a couple of blocks. You will probably need a couple of days to see it all. I had an afternoon, and I managed to do the Tate, some shopping and a pub. By that time my feet had had enough.

Talking of feet, much of the area is cobbled. You should most definitely not come here in heels, and even comfortable courts like I was wearing will not protect you for long. Stout walking shoes are recommended.

Once upon a time there were four Liverpool lads with funny haircuts. They used to play music in a little nightclub down a back lane called Mathew Street in the centre of Liverpool. They were very good, and soon they became famous. Then they became legendary. They don't play together any more, and sadly one of them was murdered, but the legend lives on, and in Liverpool it has become an industry.

Serious Beatle fans should visit the Beatles Story Museum at Albert Dock. They should also take the Magical Mystery Tour of Liverpool so they can see where the boys were born, lived, and went to school. They can visit Penny Lane, and Strawberry Field. Most of us, however, will not be so devoted. (I was a little too young. I grew up on David Bowie and Roxy Music, and I thought the Beatles were old-fashioned and dull.) But what we should all do is visit the Cavern Walks.

The point is that this area is still about music. The cavern has been re-opened (I believe opposite the original site). The pubs in Mathew Street also offer live music. On the wall a statue of Lady Madonna cradles the 'Four Lads Who Shook the World'. A statue of John leans nonchalantly against the wall of the Cavern Pub. And on the wall of the pub, one per brick, are the names of all the bands who have played there. The Rolling Stones, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton, Queen, Stevie Wonder, and of course those other Liverpool heroes, Gerry and the Pacemakers. Just about all of rock 'n' roll is here, or at least was here at one point in time. It works too. New bands such as Oasis have asked to play here simply because of where it is. This whole area is a shrine, not just to four charming mop-tops, but to music.