Liverpool

When I went to Manchester, there was no way I could miss Liverpool-the home of the Beatles-which was an hour's bus ride away. It was an awesome city, but I'll leave the Mystery Tour pictures for my next entry.


Here's one of Liverpool's museums. You can see how the British adored neo-Classical architecture. Loads of the museums in London are like that also, giving you a sense of grandeur and times passed before you even see the collections.
Instead of looking in at the museum, this is looking from the museum out across the street.

I don't quite remember where this was, but it was pretty cool anyway. This building was a wedge in the intersection of two busy roads. You can see the same type of brick that composes many of the Manchester buildings in the background.
This is Albert Dock's pumphouse, now converted into a trendy restaurant. I didn't get a great picture of the surrounding area, but this was at the heart of one of the biggest ports of the slave trade.

Here's a picture of Liverpool downtown from Albert Dock. It was pretty cool, roaming the streets of this city and hearing all of the Beatle's tunes blaring from the stores. It's great exploring how different English cities are despite their similarities, this one more modern and touristy than its neighbor, Manchester.
Lastly, here is the Catholic cathedral in Liverpool. There's also the largest Anglican cathedral in Liverpool, separated from this one by Hope Street. I was short on time, so I chose to come here to attend the afternoon mass with Gregorian chant which was amaaaazing!


The stained glass up at the top provides a great deal of really cool light, and it leads up to the crown of thorns on the outside (see the first picture).

There was a lot of abstract art in the cathedral, but the main theme of the architecture was circles--lots and lots of circles.

Manchester

It's been a while since I've posted, but it's finals time--which means it's procrastination time! Here are some more pictures for you to enjoy. I have lots backlogged, so here are those from Spring Break when I went to Manchester. I've heard some people call it the Detroit of England, and it does have an industrial feel about it. I journeyed by myself, taking a 4-hour bus ride to the far north and staying in the Hatter's Hostel, where I met loads of awesome people.This is a government building in the city center.

Don't you love churches in the EU? This one has some pretty sweet gargoyles.
This is right off of Manchester's Picadilly. A busy place, but you can see the type of brick and style that characterize most of Manchester's architecture.

This one's right next to that last building. Cool, huh?


Manchester's library! I really should be writing papers now...

This was just a cool building, a hotel I think. You can see at the bottom the flags of England (St. George's flag--the white and red one) and Great Britain's (the Union Jack--a combination of Scotland's flag and England's).