Europe Holiday 2015, August 31 (Lisbon Voyage)

The best thing about the light rail project in Manchester is they are actually expanding and improving it, they even just finished a new line that runs all the way to the airport - cheap and convenient.

There was total chaos when we arrived at the check-in counters. We were flying with Portugal's main airline TAP and they had a crap counter location with Norwegian and others. There was just one big mass of people trying to get to five different airlines, no lines were set up so it took about half an hour to get everyone through.

The flight to Lisbon only arrived about thirty minutes late, which was good considering we had delays boarding as well as that annoying circling-the-airport-waiting-to-land routine.

My Three UK mobile plan had data for several European countries...except Portugal wasn't one of them. I also didn't have a map yet so I had to make a bit of a guess which underground station to get off at to reach the hotel - my printed Google Map didn't have quite enough information. It all worked well and it was time to go explore the city, however it was 4:30pm already!

My first thoughts while walking the streets of Lisbon on the way to another train station:

• There are some English signs around, should be enough to get by
• There are not many street signs
• The traffic seems a bit chaotic
• The train stations not very well marked, I almost walked past it

I took the train down to Marques de Pombal square. There was a big column in the middle of the large, busy roundabout and one half was bounded by Parque Eduardo VII (a park) that I might try to revisit later. We started to look for an early dinner since a proper lunch didn't really happen with all of the travel. The first place had a very odd menu for a burger joint, like rice with spinach as the side - everyone knows chips are meant to be the side.

A lot of the restaurants have a shut down period in the afternoon and don't open up again until sometimes 7:30pm or later, so I settled for a Burger King because it was within walking distance. All of the menu items only came in M, L and XL, and they had a double patty "bean burger" that looked like a veggie pattie you would get at Subway. The burger was surprisingly better than my low expectations, it was some combination of red lentils and black beans and it came with crinkle cut fries instead of the crappy shoestring ones. Jason got a chicken burger which was bite sized, or it may have just looked like that next to the XL drink cup that was more than one litre! The best part however was that I was finally able to use my PIN with the credit card instead of having to sign everything.

The bean burger.

At least I got some chicken?

We set off down the Avenida da Liberdade, a long tree-lined street that reminded me a bit of Las Ramblas in Barcelona, but it was more of a business area. About half way along I just happened to catch the entrance to the Lavra funicular down a side street. The vehicle and all of the walls along the slope were covered in graffiti, there was just enough room for a small staircase to walk up alongside the tram as well, it only took a few minutes whichever option you took. There was also the Cloria funicular across the other side of the street, but it looked about the same so I didn't investigate that one.

Fun footpaths.

The two funiculars passing by.

The funicular track.

At the end of the avenue I reached a couple of squares:

• Restauradores Square
• I think it means restaurants square
• There was a terrific Eden Theatre building full of trees growing up from the balcony
• Rossio Square
• Got a Chocolate Cornetto McFlurry, disappointing and mostly just a lot of chocolate sauce
• Souvenir shops everywhere, I found a magnet in one of the back streets
• A huge line for the Santa Justa elevadore

Garden of Eden I guess they were going for.

Not sure, but it looked cool.

Rossio Square.

McFlurry's.

The elevadore.

I went to get the train back to hotel but just missed it yet again, it wasn't a problem because instead of having a fixed schedule they just run very regular trains on every line, at about 6 minute intervals all day.

The hotel review:

• The location is alright, close to a metro station
• Spacious room
• Comes with a fridge (one everything from the mini bar was moved out of the way)
• Small fitness room

Europe Holiday 2015, August 30 (Red vs. Blue)

I missed the metro into the city by a mere 30 seconds again, which seems to be a recurring trend. The previous night I booked a train to Liverpool for the day and a bus back - the bus was a bit cheaper but there wasn't any good times left for the morning.

I had to wait in line forever at the automatic ticket machine because some group of people in front had no idea how to follow simple on-screen instructions, they must have taken nearly ten minutes. Then the following guy was printing out like fifty tickets with his order. Next some girl who had been trying to help the clueless people earlier asked if she could go ahead because her train was going to leave in five minutes, I was getting a bit impatient by this stage but I figured I'd do the decent thing, at least she was done quickly. Then just as my turn was finally up some other jerk guy pops up and asks if he can jump in because his train is leaving in three minutes! What kind of scam is this? I told this guy to get lost basically, and finally got my tickets.

The train bookings are very confusing, it seems like some people had reserved seats, but there is no indication when you get on board as to which seats or carriages are allocated and which are free. So you sit down somewhere and hope someone doesn't ask you to move at the final minutes of boarding, thus leaving you with nowhere left to sit!

Well it all worked out fine in the end and we were in Liverpool in about an hour. Before lunch I took a bus out to Anfield, the home of Liverpool FC for people who don't know much about soccer. Most of the ground was inaccessible due to some construction, I couldn't really figure out if they are increasing the stadium capacity or something else. There was lots of garbage in the team store but frustratingly there was no discount Ballotelli or Suarez merchandise! No Benitez either.

Liverpool.

I didn't have time for any more stadium tours, and had done more than enough of them too, so continued on through Stanley Park - a big park with lakes that separates the Everton and Liverpool football club stadiums. I imagine at the end of a derby match they meet halfway through the park for a big punch up.

Stanley Park.

Goodison Park was a lot more inviting as you could work all around the stadium - it was basically situated in between a few local streets of housing. Around the stadium walls they have a nice time line history of the football club, my highlight of the day was reaching the David Moyes boards! There was also a big Tim Cahill banner just inside the main entrance. The team store was actually across the street from the stadium, they had lots of good colours and designs for their shirts but no magnet!

MOYES OUT!

Everton.

Australia's best.

True blue.

So back on the bus into Liverpool, for a quick lunch near the Wellington's Column and St George's Hall.

A radio tower?

After the break it was back to walking again, up hill towards Liverpool Cathedral, past the not so famous Chicken Bazooka shop. By chance this happened to pass right by China Town so I found another Asian bakery!

At least I've got chicken.

Not a real train station.

Bake it off.

The cathedral looked big but ordinary from the outside, it was much bigger and more impressive after going in. The quality of the sandstone walls and the stained glass was terrific, not quite as good as Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, but not too far behind either. The visit was definitely worthwhile and much more than I expected.

The cathedral.

Inside the cathedral.

Impressive.

There was a little bit of time left in the day before having to start thinking about heading back so I headed down towards the river. There are several separate docks each with their own attractions, all look to have been developed fairly recently:

• Kings Dock
• Lots of cool looking new buildings
• The wheel of Liverpool
• Albert Dock
• Piermaster's House - An old house you can walk through, built in 1852
• Tate Liverpool
• First room had lots of crappy artwork with textiles
• Also some paintings including a Picasso
• One of the last rooms had a lot of cool abstract art pieces
• Pier Head
• Museum Of Liverpool
• Had to rush through since there wasn't much time left
• One room about an old overhead railway that used to be in Liverpool
• Other rooms for the Beatles and football, obviously, both were disappointing
• Frankie Goes To Hollywood was in the music section too!

The wheel!

The old house.

This is art, or laundry.

Robot.

Some kind of art.

The museum of Liverpool.

Strange paint job for a boat.

This is Liverpool.

So that was it for the day, I definitely underestimated the time required in Liverpool, could have spent another day at least. I got the bus back to Manchester, but was too tired so I slept most of the day and didn't catch much of what we passed along the way.

• Liverpool
• Tourist Rating - 7 out of 10
• Good
• A proper docklands worth visiting
• Liverpool Cathedral
• More tourist attractions than Manchester
• Bad
• Liverpool fans
• Missed Out
• Beatles Story
• Liverpool ONE
• Maritime Museum
• Mersey Ferries

Abseiling manc.

• Manchester
• Tourist Rating - 6 out of 10
• Good
• Big city
• Convenient light rail across the city
• Mixture of old and new buildings
• Pedestrian crossings go green without being pressed
• Bad
• Light rail construction works
• Manchester City supporters
• Not really a tourist city
• Missed Out
• Etihad Stadium
• Manchester United (perhaps even Manchester City) football match
• Media City UK
• Trafford Centre (just a big entertainment and shopping centre)

Europe Holiday 2015, August 29 (FEAR)

Since the Manchester Fort outlets was only one stop north on the city on the light rail I figured it was worth the risk, even given the previous failures. I wouldn't have bothered except Manchester United were sponsored by Nike until this year, so maybe they would have some of their old stock still. I found a good Manchester United shirt for 21 pounds, but the staff refused to accept my credit card with a signature due to recent fraud. I asked them if I could use the PIN instead, but they couldn't or didn't know how to do that, pretty annoying. Once again people in the UK don't have feet larger than 12, or none of them shop at Nike.

It was close enough to walk down to the city to visit the National Football Museum next. Admission was free, but they had an awkward entrance area where the staff ask if you'd like to donate the recommended three pounds before entering. I think it's kind of stupid to try and guilt people like that so I didn't give them anything and just kept walking without making eye contact - there was lots of donation boxes around the museum later on anyway, which I would have contributed to otherwise since I enjoyed the visit (it's a good place to get rid of all that useless change).

The football museum.

The museum included:

• Some super high quality paintings in the lobby
• Lots of old artifacts, photos and trophies from the English league and international tournaments
• Lots of interactive games and trivia
• The more advanced game rooms required credits, like the old timezone tokens

The FA trophies.

This guy!

El Hadji Diouf video wall.

My favourite items were:

• The couch from the Fantasy Football League Euro 96 television show - brilliant!
• The beach ball that distracted a Liverpool goalkeeper

The highlight of the day.

A harmless beach ball...

The best.

I just managed to find somewhere to buy lunch in the city, because there was construction everywhere to complete some more light rail connections it meant a lot of long detours for pedestrians.

A trip around the city included:

• Manchester Cathedral - looked pretty cool from the outside, didn't go inside
• Exchange Square - lots of expensive fashion stores
• St Ann's Church
• Market Street - seemed like the busiest street for shopping, people everywhere
• A super expensive DW Sports store
• 55 pounds for a Nike running shirt
• 60 pounds for Nike casual shorts!?
• Manchester City team store
• Manchester Town Hall

The cathedral.

Some old pubs.

Not the only road works.

In my previous research I had discovered a couple of Asian bakeries, coincidentally in the China Town district, and just as I was about to give up looking I found both of them! One had a "coconut jam turtle bun" that was a little disappointing, while the rest of the stock was pretty similar to all other bakeries. There was some pride parade taking place through the city which made it even harder to get around as we headed south, but finally we got to an operational light rail station to travel to Old Trafford.

Bread time!

I like turtles!

The library, I think.

After passing the fake Old Trafford (the cricket ground) we reached the real Old Trafford (the football ground). There was a lot of visitors so it was an hour until the next available tour started, but we were free to look around the museum before then, which worked out pretty well - the combined ticket cost about eighteen pounds.

The place to be.

The museum contained:

• Trophy room - only had garbage trophies, not the Champions Leagues, FA Cup and Premier Leagues
• Ryan Giggs room
• Time line wall - containing all the players and the number of games they played
• Collection of old home and away team shirts

Participation trophies.

These are more important.

The glare from all the cabinets made it difficult to get any good photos, and I was hoping for a David Moyes room too.

The tour began just after I had finished looking through the museum, in order we went to:

• Upper stands
• Lower stands
• Interview room
• A young girl asked the best question ever "how many players live in the pitch?"
• VIP room
• Stands again
• Team benches

The tour lasted about 75 minutes, the tour guide was alright but not the best, I think he was a bit put off by the lack of enthusiasm and lack of actual Manchester United supporters in the group.

In the stands.

Also in the stands.

Daley.

The tour conveniently ends in the mega store, which is mega. I wasn't too interested in a jersey (eighty pounds with a player name printed on the back), but there was a few good t-shirts so I picked my favourite (thirty pounds). The magnet choice was a bit disappointing, so I didn't get one of those.

So back to the city centre again:

• Castlefield Urban Heritage Park - Roman fort remains and an unused rail platform that you could climb up
• Great Northern building - one long brick building that occupied a whole block!
• Albert Square - back at Manchester Town Hall, a gothic style building
• Piccadilly Gardens - a large open square with lots of buses and light rail going in all directions

They forgot some of the building.

I found a magnet at last, although it was just a generic Manchester one. We went in search of dinner and made the mistake of going into the Arndale Centre via a one way escalator. After finding few options in the food court it was almost impossible to get out of the place again. Finally we arrived at a place called Bar Burrito but it wasn't the best burrito, they loaded too many onions, peppers and other random vegetables in it - of course the proper way to make a burrito is beans, rice, cheese, lettuce, tomato (unless you have gout), sour cream and guacamole.

Running along the quays after dinner wasn't a lot of fun, it was a really tricky track because there was a number of inlets and a really narrow path with lots of dead ends. The path was also a really hard brick surface, so overall not highly recommended.