On the move again

Yesterday we took the ferry across the Mersey to Birkenhead and went to the market. The only problem I’ve had with Liverpool is that there is a distinct lack of butchers and fish mongers but I suppose that's the same in most cities these days. There are plenty of Tesco's but I only shop there when I absolutely have to as I don’t like their meat, or the prices they charge.

looking back at Liverpool from the ferry

Birkenhead is a VERY depressed town, full of charity shops and “cheque converter” shops and the people all look downtrodden and grey, as if they never eat fruit or veg.  The food market had 4 butchers and 3 fish stalls so I took the opportunity to stock up. One fish stall was selling Fluke, which is a member of the plaice family and huge 1lb fish were £1 each. That’s what we’re having tonight. I’ll let you know what they were like tomorrow.

It was very windy and the river was rough so we decided to get the train back to Liverpool. The rail system here is brilliant. The trains are frequent, clean and cheap but the buses aren’t. One we went on was dirty, expensive, £1.90 each for a trip which took less than 5 minutes, (simply because we got lost) and the driver was really stroppy that we didn’t have the correct change.

We were due to leave Liverpool this morning and thankfully it was a lot calmer than when we arrived. We were the last in a convoy of 7 boats and were met at the first lock by the same 2 guys from B.W. who had helped us coming down.

I have to say that these 2 guys put up with a lot of stick from other boaters.  The other boats in the convoy were from one of the local boat clubs who are apparently notorious for their arrogance and rudeness; needless to say I made sure we weren’t associated with them in any way. 2 men on a plastic boat in front of us were muttering and moaning when we caught up with them at the first of the 4 locks out of Stanley Dock. They didn’t think it was right that they had to work the paddles and open the gates, that’s what the B.W. guys were there for!!! And they couldn't be bothered closing gates behind them either. Enough said.

The weather this morning was pretty bad and it rained for most of the journey.  We’re now moored up just past Bridge 10 and the sun’s come out and it’s lovely again. We're in the middle of nowhere and all we can hear is the roar of the motor bikes at Aintree Race Course. We caught a glimpse of them through the fence as we passed but unfortunately we couldn't moor up and go for a closer look as we were still part of the convoy at that stage.