I have to start this blog with the sad news that the Captains Auntie Rita passed a way peacefully in her sleep. The fall just took too much out of her. RIP Auntie Rita xx
Due to our early start we found our pontoon and moored up around lunchtime. We had neighbours, NB Nuggler. We said hello and had a chat.
After lunch we decided to take a wander round. It was a lovely afternoon, but you know were this is heading, of course to the pub. The Baltic Fleet, a very good real ale pub not far from the moorings. However, as we were a bit earlier than usual it wasn’t open, shock horror, good news it opened at 4pm in about 20mins. But by using the ever knowledgeable Google, I found a micro brewery with its own bar a short walk away and it was open, the Black Lodge brewery. So we took a walk, never ones to pass up a new experience. The beer was very good, but also very expensive as they sold it by 3rds, for us, obviously working in pints the prices (around £4.25) didn’t seem to bad, but that was for 2/3rds or a schooner. Their excuse, its craft beer and that is the measure craft beer is sold in. We have seen this in other places and it tends to put us off. It did say sold by 3rds on their menu, but in very small writing. So only the one.
By this time the Baltic Fleet was open so we cut our losses and head there. The Captain was very happy with Dark Matter Stout and Birra Morreti for me.
https://www.balticfleet.co.uk/
While we are on the pontoons in Liverpool we have shore power. So next day I decided to make the most of this and spring, well summer clean the whole boat, wash the sofa covers, bedding, clothes, hoover and mop the floors, the whole caboodle. The Captain was told to stop in bed out of my way, which he was more than happy to do. But at the end of this I decided I deserved a pint so off we set. We had a nice gentle walk round before heading for The Richard John Blackier, a Wetherspoons as we knew it had Titanic Plum Porter and Hobgoblin on. We walked in and the noise hit us, we had forgotten how busy city centre pubs can get, but we managed to find a seat and sat back to do some people watching.
Malvern, a fellow boater had recommended we try the Thomas Rigby’s and it wasn’t too far from were we were, so after a pint we decided to take a walk. The walk took us past the famous Cavern Club and although we didn’t go in at least now I can say ‘I was there’. The Thomas Rigby’s turned out to be a bit of a disappointment with no darks on, so we had a pint and went home. We were visited by a very inquisitive boaters dog, who just had to check out everything on the boat never mind how much her owner called her.
Family time next day as the Captain’s daughter Hannah and family came to visit. It was great to catch up, as due to the virus we had not seen them for quite some time. We ended up back in the Baltic Fleet before they came back to the boat, were 3yr old Stanley was fascinated by the jelly fish swimming in the dock.
Now last time we were in Liverpool I had a rather strange encounter with a gentleman at the bar in the Baltic Fleet, he seemed to be chatting me up, and then caught me by surprise when he name dropped the Captains surname into the conversation. He turned out to be an old RAF buddy of the Captain who had seen on Facebook were we were and had decided to come and find us. Well this time we got in contact with Norman (so no surprises) and he came to visit on Sunday. We hadn’t planned to have a session, or a pub crawl but this is what happened. After chatting on the boat for a while we decided to take a walk to the pub. As Norman is very familiar with Liverpool and its pubs he led the way. Firstly to Ma Pardoe’s a rather quirky and very busy place. They were serving lovely looking food, but the beer selection for the Captain was limited, so he had Carlsberg whilst Norman and I tried Poretti lager. One in there then off to the Denbigh Castle, here the Captain found a Budvar Dark, which to my surprise he really enjoyed (budvar is usually a hoppy lager). So 2 in there. Finally, The Old Post Office, a real old fashion boozer but don’t ask me what we had, I was getting a little tipsy. It didn’t help that we hadn’t eaten before coming out, I was planning to do a Sunday roast on our return but this went out the window. Norman left us in the Post Office with plans in hand to join us on our journey out of Liverpool the following Thursday, and we ended up in Burger King for tea.
The day after the night before was Monday, so a quiet day, whilst the Captain did some running repairs to our cratch cover I spent my time trying to sort out a new blogging platform. I had had an email from Simple Site, where my blog has been based for free for the last 5/6 years, saying that they were no longer offering a free platform, and that I would have to have a Pro account at £13per month in 45days time. I turned to Facebook for recommendations, and a number of sites were suggested. I tried a few to see which was the easiest to navigate and decided on Blogger. It was a very frustrating process as I am not all that tech savy, but I have the Captain to help me, and we eventually managed to produce a new blog page that I liked and did everything I needed. I am not sure when I will move across completely to the new site but it will be in the next couple of weeks.
In an earlier blog I mentioned that a passing boater had recommended an all you can eat Asian restaurant, and it had been our intention to try it out, but something better came along in the guise of Fogo Brazil, a Brazilian rodizia, or an all you can eat with 8 different bbq meats, salad and hot dishes.
The Captain treated me to lunch and it was amazing. The lamb, rump steak, beef ribs, sausage, pork, gammon, chicken hearts and chicken wings were ‘to die for’, and the choice of salads and sides unbelievable. I can not praise the staff enough, attentive and friendly. A great experience in every way.
And for afters we headed to the Lime Kiln with an Oatmeal Stout for the Captain and a bramble gin for me. A wonderful end to a great visit to Liverpool.
It was an early start the day we said goodbye to Liverpool, Norman joined us at 7.30am and we set off at 8pm to do the 6 locks out of Liverpool and back on to the canal.
That’s all for now folks.
The jellyfish were a rare treat
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