Tuesday 25 October 2011

Ferry 'cross the Mersey

I spent many a Sunday morning of my childhood in the care of my Granddad pootling over to Seacombe and Woodside after one of his burnt offerings, aka a 'cooked breakfast', to keep me and my cousins from under my Gannie's feet.

It was great to see how much the Pier Head and surrounding areas have been 'tarted up'. Although I pop back regularly, the last time I spent much time in Liverpool was in 2008 when it was City of Culture, and I dragged the kids around the Maritime and Slavery Museum in an attempt to broaden their education. Needless to say it left such a lasting impression, Minor Mayhem can't remember a thing.
The Ferry has gone upmarket, with a running commentary about Liverpool's waterfront and many of the key landmarks on the Wirral, and of course serenading the passengers with Gerry & the Pacemakers at key points.

Apart from quenching my bout of nostalgia, we'd taken the trip to visit an attraction telling the story of World War II German submarine U-534. It's a superb set-up which enables you to not only grasp the scale of the vessel, but to see into the cross-sectioned submarine and view many of the items which were recovered from the wreck including food, records, medical equipment, 2 Enigma machines and the highly advanced T11 Torpedoes which were state of the art for their time as they had acoustic homing systems which were developed as a countermeasure to the British decoy system. The weapons were so sophisticated they were thought to be the reason for captain's refusal to surrender and the vessel subsequently being bombed.

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