Daytrip to Liverpool
First of all, I have to tell you my big news!! I solved my very first Rubik's cube ever! Please congratulate me. I feel so proud... and pretty lame at the same time for having spent so much time obsessed with a cube, but anyway... on to the point of this entry.
Rich and I went to Liverpool last week for his interview at LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performance Arts), a school that Paul McCartney helped to start after he found that the building (which was his old grammar school) had become derelict (I can't help but think of Zoolander when I see 'derelict' in print). If you want to know more about the school, go here: www.lipa.ac.uk
We were only there for a day, which happened to be an extremely gray and windy day, so our pics our limited... but they should give you an idea about the city nonetheless.
Rich standing in front of the gates of LIPA.
A sample of the political views (and the literacy levels?) in Liverpool
A view from the waterfront
Me at the Albert Dock. As I found from a BBC website about Liverpool, the importance of these docks might be understood more by the following inscription (next to a statue of Christopher Columbus in a park in Liverpool): “The discoverer of America was the maker of Liverpool’.
A pic of a bus/boat that can operate on both land and water. Sweet. (I think it's part of the Beatles tour, if you're interested in taking the Yellow Duck Marine for a ride).
Me with a very large anchor- something to keep me grounded- in front of the Merseyside Maritime Museum. Back in the day, Queen Elisabeth I awarded sailors in Liverpool with privateer status, which basically made them licensed pirates. Yarrrrrrrr.... By the way, if you're interested in learning how to talk like a pirate, go here: http://www.yarr.org.uk/talk/
The shopping district, with a ferris wheel and a radio tower in the background (if you notice on the radio tower, it says that Liverpool is the European Capital City of Culture in 2008- the sign vaguely reminds me of the Beijing 2008 logo).
Liverpool's Town Hall is located on Castle Street, which was one of the original seven streets of Liverpool that was dated back to when King John granted the Royal Charter in 1207 . Surrounding the Town Hall (the original one, not this one) on Castle Street were many banks- made to handle money made from the slave trade.
Unfortunately, I don't have a better picture of the Town Hall to see all the symbolism in it. There are elephants and pineapples on the railings that symbolize the trade that came in and out of Liverpool. Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and protector of cities, is the figure on the top of the dome. There are also four statues at one end of the building that symbolize the four seasons; they used to be part of the Irish parliament in Dublin.
The Queen Victoria Monument. The Liverpool Castle, which was built some time between 1232 and 1247, used to sit in the same place and witnessed some of the most dramatic scenes of British history during the Civil War (1640s). It was ordered demolished after the Civil War and the area around it was further damaged from bombings in WWII.
Last but not least... a pic of China town, where we ate our picnic lunch. The characters on the gate read from right to left (so instead of "Zhong Guo Cheng", it says "Cheng Guo Zhong"), unlike modern day Chinese, but the characters are simplified, not traditional. Is that how it is everywhere? I was expecting traditional characters... Anyway, though it was too cold that day for many people to be out and about, we did witness a very China-like situation here: A man holding a small child (must have been 1 or 2 years old) with one hand and steering his bicycle with the other!!
OK, that was more detailed than I had originally thought it would be; hope you enjoyed it.
Rich and I went to Liverpool last week for his interview at LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performance Arts), a school that Paul McCartney helped to start after he found that the building (which was his old grammar school) had become derelict (I can't help but think of Zoolander when I see 'derelict' in print). If you want to know more about the school, go here: www.lipa.ac.uk
We were only there for a day, which happened to be an extremely gray and windy day, so our pics our limited... but they should give you an idea about the city nonetheless.
Rich standing in front of the gates of LIPA.
A sample of the political views (and the literacy levels?) in Liverpool
A view from the waterfront
Me at the Albert Dock. As I found from a BBC website about Liverpool, the importance of these docks might be understood more by the following inscription (next to a statue of Christopher Columbus in a park in Liverpool): “The discoverer of America was the maker of Liverpool’.
A pic of a bus/boat that can operate on both land and water. Sweet. (I think it's part of the Beatles tour, if you're interested in taking the Yellow Duck Marine for a ride).
Me with a very large anchor- something to keep me grounded- in front of the Merseyside Maritime Museum. Back in the day, Queen Elisabeth I awarded sailors in Liverpool with privateer status, which basically made them licensed pirates. Yarrrrrrrr.... By the way, if you're interested in learning how to talk like a pirate, go here: http://www.yarr.org.uk/talk/
The shopping district, with a ferris wheel and a radio tower in the background (if you notice on the radio tower, it says that Liverpool is the European Capital City of Culture in 2008- the sign vaguely reminds me of the Beijing 2008 logo).
Liverpool's Town Hall is located on Castle Street, which was one of the original seven streets of Liverpool that was dated back to when King John granted the Royal Charter in 1207 . Surrounding the Town Hall (the original one, not this one) on Castle Street were many banks- made to handle money made from the slave trade.
Unfortunately, I don't have a better picture of the Town Hall to see all the symbolism in it. There are elephants and pineapples on the railings that symbolize the trade that came in and out of Liverpool. Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and protector of cities, is the figure on the top of the dome. There are also four statues at one end of the building that symbolize the four seasons; they used to be part of the Irish parliament in Dublin.
The Queen Victoria Monument. The Liverpool Castle, which was built some time between 1232 and 1247, used to sit in the same place and witnessed some of the most dramatic scenes of British history during the Civil War (1640s). It was ordered demolished after the Civil War and the area around it was further damaged from bombings in WWII.
Last but not least... a pic of China town, where we ate our picnic lunch. The characters on the gate read from right to left (so instead of "Zhong Guo Cheng", it says "Cheng Guo Zhong"), unlike modern day Chinese, but the characters are simplified, not traditional. Is that how it is everywhere? I was expecting traditional characters... Anyway, though it was too cold that day for many people to be out and about, we did witness a very China-like situation here: A man holding a small child (must have been 1 or 2 years old) with one hand and steering his bicycle with the other!!
OK, that was more detailed than I had originally thought it would be; hope you enjoyed it.
posted by C Hill at 3:55 PM
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