Visiting Liverpool, UK

Over Valentines weekend, I visited Liverpool with my boyfriend for a weekend away and I absolutely fell in love with this city within minuets of entering it on the train. The city is full of culture and breath taking architecture from previous centuries that give us little hints of a previous time. 

I've wanted to visit this city for a while as I've always been interested in the culture and history which surrounds Liverpool due to its famous links, i.e. The Beatles and its links to the devastating Slave Trade around the 1600 and 1700s. This curiosity may come from my roots of being a history enthusiast and of course growing up with many references to "Beatlemania" in our current musical culture such as the One Direction fad. 

It was in fact the architecture which first strung a cord within me when I entered the city centre from the train station. I saw white buildings with very classical elements to them which reminded me of the Georgian architecture in my home town of Bath. They were magnificent, enchanting and no doubt take a lot of capital to keep in check. Liverpool only became a big influence in the UK around the time of the Slave Trade in England where it became a big port town of which boats would leave with cargo to go on long journeys to Africa and then onto American plantations. Before this it was a small port town in the north west of England. It was also more famous for its link to the Titanic which was a Liverpool registered ship but was built in Northern Ireland. 

On the first day I arrived with my boyfriend, we walked through the centre of Liverpool's shopping facility which I again fell in love with immediately! Liverpool One is the biggest shopping centre I've seen outside of London in the UK and has some amazing shops to spend you pounds in. Once we go to our Hotel we rested up and got a taxi to the Dockyard which is beautiful in the evening being surrounded my boats, lights and water which beautifully reflects the deep night sky (very romantic too which was a bonus!). We ate dinner at a restaurant which sat directly on the Dockyard and then walked around the scenery then went back to our Hotel. 

The following day (which was Valentines Day) we made the most of as it was our only full day in the City and therefore got up early to head out. We had Breakfast at 'Bills Breakfasts' by Liverpool One which was a lovely way to start off the day and then went onto the Museums, which I know isn't everyones cup of tea on Valentines Day but I nevertheless, stay fascinated by history and culture no matter what day it is in the year. 

The Museums I visited were the Liverpool Maritime Museum and the Liverpool Museum. The Maritime Museum was about the cities maritime history which included its history with its ports, such as the Titanic and the Slave Trade being key to the cities port history and its links to World War II naval accomplishments.  The Liverpool Museum on the other hand, were about the city as a whole, i.e. how it got its name, how it gained its capital and it also included Beatles memorabilia.

During our time in Liverpool we also went on the SightSeeing bus which gives you a tour of the whole city and key information about individual sites which included Churches, monuments, memorial sites and many more. The tour I would give 4 stars as its a short tour (40 minuets) and gives you lots of good information about the City and isn't biased to one aspect like many tours could have been which might be more suited to visitors going to Liverpool just to see where the Beatles lived etc. 

In terms of food, I didn't get to try out any independent places within Liverpool unfortunately. However, the food I did have was amazing within the restaurants I went too. For Valentines Day we booked a table at 'il Forno' due to its good reviews on 'TripAdvisor' and the food was exquisite. The staff were kind too and everything went smoothly while me and my boyfriend were there. So even though this restaurant is an Italian chain, I do give it 4 stars out of 5 for having a pleasant experience.   

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Liverpool and can't wait to go back again as it is just a beautiful city and I really enjoyed myself during my 3 day trip there. It was my first time going away on my own without my family and everyone there is so friendly and I felt calm there so I do recommend people to go there if they ever have an opportunity to do so.