20260405 Viking Vela Northern Lights and British Isles - Day 21/32

Viking Vela In Search of the Northern Lights and British Isles Explorer Cruise Day 21/32 – Easter Goodies in Liverpool

Happy Easter from Liverpool!

Our very own Energizer Easter Bunny, Cruise Director Kate Syrett

The World Café was dolled up for Easter. 

These chocolate and raspberry eggs greeted diners as they arrived

The pastry chefs were working overtime, producing an amazing array of goodies

It was a quick breakfast before catching today's included tour, Iconic Liverpool. It seems that every time we get on or off the ship in Liverpool, we time it perfectly with low tide. What that means is that the ship is quite low relative to the ground, so the ramp up to the pier gets quite steep. It happened when we returned last night, forcing us to lean substantially backward to walk down the ramp, and again this morning, when we leaned forward like ski jumpers to walk up the ramp. I'm surprised our ears didn't pop! OK, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration.

To understand the tides here, consider this. High tide and low tide happen twice each day, roughly every six hours. That means the water level moves up or down 25 feet every six hours, or more than four feet each hour. Breaking down ever more simply, the water is going up or down roughly a foot every hour, every hour of the day.

Left: Low tide, 1.6M, around 8:20 am; Right: High tide, 9.1M, around 2:00 pm - a 25-foot swing

We boarded bus #12 for our ride around iconic Liverpool. Most of the tour was driving around, seeing sights out the windows. We did make a couple of stops that I'll explain as we go.

We passed the Cavern Club on Matthew Street - it is the cradle of British pop music and the venue that launched The Beatles and helped launch The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and Queen

Liverpool Town Hall, located at the junction of High Street, Dale Street, Castle Street, and Water Street

Spirit of Liverpool, which is located on top of the Walker Art Gallery - we walked by this yesterday

A mermaid at St George's Hall

Liverpool Empire Theatre on Lime Street, near the train station

Dolphin lamp standard near St. George's Hall

The paver roadwork was pretty

Our guide took us to an unscheduled stop high above Liverpool to Everton Park for a panoramic view of the entire city.

Hill Dickinson Stadium, the new home of Everton Football Club. Located at Bramley-Moore Dock

The Liverpool skyline with the hills of Wales in the distance

The Royal Liver Building, with its iconic liver birds atop the spires, one of them looks out at the river to watch over the seafarers, and the other faces back to watch over the city and its inhabitants

The Mersey Estuary and the Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm

We continued on our tour, taking in the sights from the bus.

The 1857 Everton Water Tower

Sacred Heart Church from 1886

University of Liverpool

Victoria Building at the University of Liverpool

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, a landmark Roman Catholic cathedral

It was built in 1967

The spire is designed to resemble the crown of thorns

Philharmonic Hotel

The Philharmonic Dining Rooms

It was built in 1898

Liverpool Cathedral, the largest cathedral in the United Kingdom and the seat of the Bishop of Liverpool, is an Anglican church

It was built between 1904 and 1978 - we were supposed to have a stop here, but Easter Sunday services took understandable priority

Greek Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, completed in 1870

Welsh Presbyterian Church

It was built between 1865 and 1867

Instead of stopping at the Anglican church, we stopped at Sefton Park. 

It is the second-largest public park in the U.K., after Hyde Park in London

The Palm House is a major attraction in the park

Spring flowers were blooming

The Palm House was first opened in 1896 - it has an octagonal, iron-framed design and contains roughly 45,000 glass panes

The Palm House holds plants from all over the world

A suffragette reenactor

The building was heavily damaged in WWI, fell into disrepair, and was revitalized in the early 2000s

 Prince Henry the Navigator, a key figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire and the Age of Discovery

Peter Pan statue

Cornelis Floris de Vriendt, a Flemish architect and sculptor

Captain James Cook

Gerardus Mercator, a renowned cartographer, developed the Mercator projection map. 

Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist

Charles Darwin, English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology

Christopher Columbus

More spring blooms

It was time to get back on the bus and work our way back to the pier.

Merseyside Centre for the Deaf from 1887

Church of St Margaret of Antioch from 1869

Queen Victoria District Nursing Association building from 1900

 The Imperial Arch, located in the Chinatown area,  was a gift from Liverpool's twin city, Shanghai

The Black-E, which is a contemporary arts and community centre, originally built as the Great George Street Congregational Church in 1841 

The Wedding House and Liver Bird mural

Cammell Laird shipyard, located in Birkenhead, on the River Mersey

Several Royal Navy vessels were there for repairs

Birkenhead Town Hall, a historic civic building located in Hamilton Square, Birkenhead, Wirral, across the River Mersey from Liverpool

Wheel of Liverpool

A closer look at one of the liver birds atop the Royal Liver Building

George's Dock Ventilation and Control Station was completed between 1931 and 1934, and serves to ventilate the Queensway Tunnel linking Liverpool and Birkenhead

We have no idea who this guy was, but he greeted passengers as we arrived in the terminal

As we passed through the terminal, everyone was given a lovely Cadbury treat for Easter

Not to be outdone, Viking had these large Lindt chocolate bunnies waiting for us in our stateroom

The skies remained clear this afternoon, encouraging more exploration, but the 46°F temperature and 20-30MPH wind successfully won the battle to keep us on the ship. We had seen quite a bit of Liverpool between our exploration yesterday and today's tour, so we were content.

After drinks at the Explorers Bar as we departed Liverpool, we hit the World Café for their Easter dinner. They had ham, lasagna, fish, and more. Everything was very nice, and we enjoyed a good meal. The highlight of the evening was Viking's chocolate extravaganza in the atrium at 8:00 pm. They pulled out all the stops and had chocolate everything. The line lasted for more than an hour as the guests absolutely devoured all the goodies.

Arlona saw an online story about the Northern Lights being visible in the U.K. this past weekend. She went up to check to see if they were visible, but alas, they were not. We are cruising about 120 nautical miles to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where we will dock tomorrow morning. Northern Ireland will be our 114th country visited, even though it won't add to our United Nations member state count.