26 September 2025 (sunny morning, cloudy afternoon, mild) Happy Birthday Briana ☺️❤️

Once we got to the arrivals hall, we found a spot out of the way and began to reassemble the bikes.

Julia wanted sleep and I totally understood, but I also knew what the place would be like early morning.

Not 'lil ol New Plymouth airport now.

We cracked on into it. Not a straight forward process. Julia's bike has carriers and baskets, which all have to come off... and go back.

These jobs are fiddly and you don't want to be dropping nuts or bolts on an airport floor when there's several people trying to get some kip.

We knew we couldn't put it off, so we just slowly picked away. By 3.30am, both bikes were rebuilt, bags packed onto them and ready to go.

Julia went for a kip on a sofa seat and whereas it wasn't ideal, she dozed for half an hour and it was only the cold that kept her awake.

So, by 4am we were on the lookout for coffee and/or something to eat, but nothing was open and even the vending machines you had to use your card. We didn't dare as we wondered what a chocolate bar would end up costing us.

So at 5am we were the first customers at Starbucks and bought the most expensive coffees we will ever taste at $31.26.

Only the fact that we hadn't had a meal for 15 hours allowed us to be so frivolous.

Had checked out the airport breakfasts, but similar rip off prices and of course, no gf options.

Our little bike assembly corner.

It was cold and very dark outside and we weren't in a hurry to venture out, so we waited until 6.30 am before mounting our trusty steeds and riding off in the very early morning light, heading toward Liverpool.

Julia had checked out some breakfast options on the way, one of which was gluten free, but sadly, they didn't have anything, which was frustrating.

The guy there suggested we try Lark lane, which took us through a lovely park and quiet streets on the way. 

We were pleasantly surprised by how nice the areas and housing were as we rode. But I'm thinking well we've been in the Balkans, so anything's an improvement.

However, the more we rode, the better it became and we found ourselves becoming quite emotional at how comfortable we felt here after so many years away. 

Lark Lane

Riding through Mossley Hill and Aigburth with all the grand old houses from the days when Liverpool was a major seaport and the ships officers etc lived there, was amazing.

Most now have been split into apartments, but you can see how grand they were as one building. Big wide roads and leafy streets with a lot of parks and commons.

Once in Lark Lane, it was still early and nothing was open, but even a conversation with a local pub landlady, was welcoming and humorous and this was at 7.30am while she was washing windows. 

Rode on through the notorious Toxteth, scene of the Toxteth riots in 1981. Lovely, well cared for terraced homes on tidy streets, this was so nice to see.

Down past the Anglican Cathedral to Rodney street, famous for its Georgian grade II listed buildings and its connection to doctors and the medical profession. Such a beautiful street and one where mum worked in the fifties.

Rodney Street 

Down to Renshaw Street where we found a gorgeous cafe, recently taken over by a Melbourne couple, who wanted that kind of vibe for the city. Enjoyed a lovely cooked breakfast, which was just the job.

Then we began a spree of photographic memories. I wanted my Dad and Dave and San to see the city of our birth again and capture both its good and bad sides.

But, Liverpool has been transformed as a city over the past forty five years and has always been a place of significant history, with its heritage buildings renovated everywhere, areas of neglect reshaped and vibrant, to match the warmth and welcoming nature and attitude of its residents. Everywhere we rode was a joy to behold.

The comments and caring from locals was outstanding and even without the bias of being born and growing up there, it was nice to experience. Julia was also emotional at the welcoming nature and physical presence of the city. 

After shooting in and around Lime St, St George's Hall and the Empire Theatre, we headed up to Anfield. The ground isn't the one we used to frequent forty odd years ago, it is massive now.

There was plenty to see just in and around the carpark area and one of them was the tribute to Diogo Jota. 

I began talking to the security guard outside the museum when he asked where we were cycling.

Then we got talking about Liverpool F.C. He was my age so our reminiscing was familiar to both of us. He wished us the best of luck and then said,

"Hang on here a minute."

A couple of minutes later, he reappeared and said,

"I've got you a tour of the museum".

We were blown away.

The girls upstairs told us to take as long as we wanted and to enjoy.

I could feel myself welling up and Julia was exactly the same.

Meanwhile, Tony the security guard was looking after our bikes for us.

To say it was an emotional visit was an understatement.

Following a club like Liverpool my whole life along with Mum, Dad and Dave has been a huge part of my life.

And now I was reliving a lot of those very special times.

When we walked out of there, we thanked Tony for the opportunity and rode around the stadium to see The Shankley Gates.

It wasn't just the tour that was so good, but the kindness shown to us by a stranger.

Now we headed down to the Mersey to ride the dock road.

Not far along we came upon the Hill Dickinson Stadium, Everton's new home.

Beautiful ground.

Grabbed some shots.

Riding toward the Pier Head past a lot of renovated old warehouses.

These look fantastic.

Many are apartments and/or commercial/ residential, but all are so well constructed.

We were now at the flagship of the Liverpool waterfront.

The Cunard building, the P&O building and the famous, Liver building.

Most cities would be over the moon with these three structures in a whole city, but Liverpool has 2500 heritage listed buildings.

Spent a long while down here and the camera was working overtime.

Caught the ferry across the river to Seacombe and began the ride around the top of the Wirral to Lecky's (Alexis) place.

The weather was cooler now, but great for cycling.

Now of course we were looking at Liverpool from across the river and it's an impressive skyline.

Our interaction with locals continued in great fashion, with convivial conversation and plenty of smiles, something we've missed these past couple of months.

This part of the Wirral Julia hadn't seen before and its a lovely spot.

The riding had been great all day and so it was all the way to Lecky's place.

To say it was great to see her was an understatement.

She is so vivacious and welcoming and we settled in quickly and for the rest of the afternoon just enjoyed each other's company and conversation.

Asha her daughter was up for the weekend and it was great to see her too.

Last time we saw her, she was a young teenager, now a twenty five year old.

Where are the years going?

Spent the remainder of the day catching up with news.

By the time we crashed at 8pm, we had been up for forty hours and sleep came very quickly.

Julia's version.....

Arriving in Liverpool yesterday was a very emotional experience. Even though I wasn't born here, as we walked through the airport, I heard the familiar accent all around me and saw the photos of the local landmarks, and I had the overwhelming feeling of being home.

Of course, it was also a novelty being able to understand everybody (despite the accent!) and also to be understood.

First we had the lovely two young men who walked out with the first bike box, obviously wondering where to put it. I called out to them and yet felt surprised when they a) acknowledged me, b) understood me and c) smiled! They brought the box over as we were pushing the cart towards them, handling our beloved cargo with care. I think this is the only time I've seen two people carrying our boxes. Every other time it has been left to one poor person to manhandle our bike boxes. Maybe it was the time of night we arrived.

At midnight, we were the only flight at that time, although as we put the bikes together in a quiet, we'll lit corner of the arrivals hall, a steady stream of flights arrived, increasing in frequency as the morning wore on. By 4am, the amount of people seemed like your average day at New Plymouth airport at a busy time.

Luckily at 5am, Starbucks opened so I wandered over to get an outrageously priced coffee and hopefully something to eat. But no, nothing gluten free, which was probably a good thing as I was able to justify paying £13.50 (or $31.26) for two coffees. 

So I spent the next hour on Google trying to find a cafe near the airport that opened before 8am.

I found dozens of cafes but not a lot near the airport and even fewer that opened before 8am. I noted down the names and addresses of the three I found that did open before 8am so I could find their directions when we didn't have the airport WiFi.

At 6.30am as the sun was just casting a golden glow across the horizon and we wheeled our bikes outside into the fresh air of England. And boy, was it fresh! 7C apparently.

Despite having four layers on top and two layers on the legs and gloves on, my fingers and toes got frozen as we rode towards the first cafe about 3km away.

It was a pleasant ride away from the airport and we even had bike paths for part of it.

We arrived at the cafe which was part of a rock climbing wall outfit, but despite advertising all their meals could be made gluten free, they didn't have any gluten free bread and pretty much just made wraps and paninis, very much like the airport food.

But they recommended we go to Lark Lane which was apparently full of cafes.

So we enjoyed another 6km ride through the lovely neighbourhood of Mossley Hill, with leafy lanes, parks, old churches and beautiful homes as we followed the University Cycle trail to Lark Lane.

Lark Lane

A pic for Toffa

It was indeed full of cafes, all of them closed, despite it now being 7.45am. 

So I checked the names of the cafes I had noted down that opened at 7 and 7.30am and plotted a course to the first one, another 4km away.

Again the ride was lovely as we skirted the imaginatively named “the lake”, in Princes Park and cycled on a beautiful cycleway between princes Road and Princes Avenue at the edge of Toxteth. 

We were both struck by how clean everything was, no litter anywhere, and it was wonderful!

Rodney Street sign on the right and a distant view of the Liver Building.

We were nearly in the city now and started seeing familiar names. Rodney Street for example where Pete's mum worked as a radiology assistant for a time. As we took photos we could see the iconic Liver building in the distance.

But first, breakfast. We finally arrived at Hardware Coffee on Renshaw St and here it was third time lucky. Not only were they open, but they did big breakfasts and gluten free bread. The woman who had set it up was from Melbourne and had styled it after Melbourne coffee shops and it definitely had that antipodean feel of a coffee shop from home.

Not usually one to photograph food, but this looked so good, I had to just pause a moment.

We enjoyed a delicious coffee for half the price of the Starbucks one and a very yummy and highly anticipated breakfast.

After that, we enjoyed a doddle round the city, taking in the sights with the warmth of the sun on our backs. It was so nice to feel the sun and not be trying to escape it's heat all day.

From the city (which now has wonderful cycling lanes, but strangely, not many cyclists), we pedalled our way up to Anfield. Again this was quite emotional as I have become a big fan over the years and enjoy watching the games and know all the players’ names.

Not long after coming through the gates we came across the flowers, scarves and banners which are still being brought in for Diogo Jota’s informal memorial. Very moving.

Then we got chatting to a security guard called Tony as he asked us where we'd been on the bikes.

When we told him, he said, “Do you want to go look round the museum for free?”

Hell yes!

He told us we could leave the bikes in the lobby and he'd keep an eye on them and it would only cost us £10 each to park them there. Just kidding. This is Liverpool, not Greece. 

We parked them there for free, undercover with their own security guard, and went upstairs to the museum.

It was wonderful for two fans to get to relive all those iconic moments and to see the trophies they had won. Some of the sayings on the wall were inspirational or very funny.

When we came downstairs again, unfortunately Tony was nowhere to be seen and our wheels were gone.

(Just kidding!)

We thanked Tony and then rode through yet another park (the place is full of them!), to go view Goodison, which appears like it must now be home to the Everton female team as all the photos on the outside were of the women players. Or maybe they're just more proud of the women?

Goodison, the old home of that other team from Liverpool.

From there we rode down to the Mersey to go look at the new Everton stadium which has been built over the last four years at a cost of £800 million. 

The eye is in the details. Hill Dickinson Stadium in the background....read the sign on the gate 😆

And the name of this hotel across the road, coincidence or not? Anyone else getting that sinking feeling?....

This season is the first season it has been used and it is very impressive. It has a sensational cycle path all the way along the waterfront and as we cruised in perfect weather, we got ever-changing vistas of the city as we approached.

We were rapt. After the dire warnings we had heard from several English people abroad about how awful England was now, and Liverpool in particular, we were hugely relieved and flooded with the warmth of hospitality, the cleanliness, the smiles and greetings and the beauty of this city. We thought it was beautiful seven years ago, now it is stunning. Of course having perfect weather to enjoy it and coming from two months of rubbish strewn dourness, may have affected our unbiased judgment, but that is truly how we felt.

When we got on the ferry to head to the Wirral, we hugged each other in sheer joy and relief to be back on familiar turf and happiness that Liverpool hadn't descended into the depths of depravity, as we feared after talking to others.

A lady said, “ooh, that was a nice hug, I'll have one of those,” so next thing she's having a heartfelt hug with Pete and we're all having a lovely chat with tears in our eyes about how much we love the vibe and the people and the city of Liverpool.

We exit the ferry at Seacombe and start cycling the promenade/cycle path along the waterfront. The sky has now clouded over and gives a dramatic look to the city across the water.

Now we get to enjoy the fresh sea air as we ride and we remark how this area reminds us of Paraparaumu with it's promenade buildings from the 1950’s and the sand dunes.

We stop at a Lidl to buy some food at 2.30pm and not much further on, find a park bench by a lighthouse to eat it. Just a GF muesli bar, cashews and a banana for me and a banana on a baguette and some peanuts for Pete.

Another friendly local

It is starting to cool down from the dizzying heights of 16C and we add an extra layer as we pedal through Meols and Hoylake to West Kirby.

We found Lecky’s place and were warmly welcomed into her home and embraced by her and her beautiful daughter Asha, just as Liverpool had embraced us. With warmth, kindness, love, generosity and humour. Just the way we like it.