ABC Tour – Cavern Club and Crossing

We have been on the Isle of Man since Friday, but have had a few internet access issues.  I think they are now sorted, so now I can finally do a bit of a catch up.

To follow on from my last post, we left Whitchurch last Thursday and headed to Liverpool to catch the ferry to the Isle of Man.  It was a whole 36 miles, and we didn’t have to catch the ferry until the following day.

Our wonderful B & B hosts at Whitchurch were once again really helpful.  Firstly, when we asked their advice on where to stay in Liverpool, they put us onto the laterooms.com website (similar to our Watif.com).  They found that the Crowne Plaza had rooms at 79 pounds (usually 275 pounds).  We booked straight away.

As we were leaving, Lesley mentioned the “Walk Mill”, which was on our way.  It is a new flour mill built on the footings of an old mill which was mentioned in the Doomsday book.  They stone mill flour and make great coffee and carrot cake.

The weather was not too bad on our ride, after a wet night, but as we neared Liverpool the wind started to pick up a little.  We found our way to the hotel, only to find that it is literally over the road from the ferry terminal and had great secure parking.  What a great find.  Thanks Dave.

As we started to unpack, it started to rain, so once again we hopped on a big red tourist bus to have a look at Liverpool. 

The rain stopped when we hopped off and we then went for a walk and wandered around the famous Beatles areas.  You have to take the corny, touristy photos.

The famous cavern club.  No, we didn’t go in, just walked past.

We saw a “Ferry Cross the Mersey”.

By now the wind had really picked up and you could hardly stand in it.  The evening sailing to the Isle of Man was delayed a couple of hours due to the weather.  By the way, while we had been having relatively good weather down south, it had been horrendous in Scotland and Ireland where many of the Aussies had ridden their bikes.  We heard of some that had to abandon the idea of riding on some days as it was just too windy to be safe.

Fortunately, the wind had dropped a fair bit by the morning and our ferry proceeded on schedule.

The ferry is the Manannan, which was built in Tasmania.  She was only added to this run in 2009 and was nice and stable.  I’m a terrible sailor, so I wasn’t looking forward to the crossing, but I took a tablet and also put on the travel wrist bands.  I don’t know which worked, but I was fine.  What a relief.

While we were waiting to board, a fellow pulled up beside us and said that his clutch cable had just broken.  Fortunately, we carry a spare, so before we had to board, the problem was fixed.  Then, when we went to start our bike to board, there was nothing.  We had blown a fuse and had to push her onto the ferry.  The fuse was replaced before we set sail, so all was good.

There were three sidecars on the ferry.

Then, before we knew it, we were here.

It was great to be in a familiar place.

The famous race festival has now begun, so more soon.