Antony Gormley and Mersey Ferries

Although the weather forecast was not great - threatening rain after lunch - we set off on another tourist trip including two features that we had on our list for some time.

We use the car to drive to Crosby and were able to park on the sea front and walk down onto the sandy beach to look at Antony Gormley's Another Place. This installation comprises a number of statues cast from his own body shape and fixed into the sand, some close in and others further out so that they are covered by the tide most days. The sea was well out for us so we could see them all clearly.

Depending on how much of each tide they spend under water they vary in the amount of encrustation.

Several ships passed by including a Stena ferry from Birkenhead to Belfast.

This statue is wearing a t-shirt 

On the beach a group of people were undertaking some sort of photographic project which included one of the Gormley statues as well as a pop band! Earlier they had shot some of the group using keep fit equipment on the promenade. They seemed to think that the statue needed clothing but we saw on a local web site that this is quite common - alas none of this group also opted to emulate the statues by stripping off. Perhaps the cold wind put them off.

No comment!

Back to the car and we parked at Blundellsands railway station where we caught a train to Liverpool Central. After picking up lunch from Sainsbury, we made our way to Pier Head for the second element of the day: a trip on the Mersey Ferries.

 

We caught the 1 o'clock departure and found seats at the front on the upper deck, a good spot to see the view and to have our sandwiches. Of course, the main reason for taking the ferry is to see the iconic waterfront view that was so frequently featured in the Sixties, and later in the well-known Liver Birds comedy series on television.

Three Graces and Pier Head

In the middle of the day the trips are mainly for tourists and include a commentary on the views - in the morning and late afternoon the ferries are used by commuters. As a result, the boat took us on a longer route along the waterfront. Before long we could see the Victoria Clock Tower marking an important point on the Liverpool Canal Link which we travelled last week.

Victoria Clock Tower

We disembarked at Seacomb Terminal, the first point on the triangular route. From here we could see the panoramic view of the city centre waterfront.

Fort Perch Rock

Next, we took advantage of our bus passes to ride out to New Brighton, a small resort at the entrance to the Mersey estuary which has been a destination for local holidaymakers for a long time. By now the rain started to arrive but was sufficiently light that we still felt able to walk along the promenade to Fort Perch Rock which dates back to the Napoleonic Wars. We only had a short time and, as they charged £3 to enter, we went back to a waterfront cafe for a drink and bun! By now it was rather wetter anyway.

Time to catch a bus back to the ferry terminal for the half past three departure - we stayed on board for the two remaining legs of the trip with many more opportunities to see the famous views. Alas, the visibility had worsened so not many photos show much but we did see the cathedrals as well as the more obvious waterfront.

Both cathedrals - really!

Victoria Memorial

We re-traced our steps (passing the Victoria memorial which was lucky to survive the war-time bombing that flattened many of its neighbours) by train to collect the car but diverted to a supermarket on the return to the boat in order to replenish our stores.