Home Town Tourist

How well do you know your home town? I don't mean the few streets that surround your house, I mean the buildings, the history, the stories of the places near to where you live.

I thought I knew my local area pretty well. Not perfect but, you know, enough to blag my way through a conversation with any tourist that decided I was a fit and proper person to ask a sensible question (yes, the water in that dock was exported to make the artificial snow at this years Winter Olympics).

I do have a good idea of the history of my home city of Liverpool. Did you know, for example, that the last act of the American Civil War happened in Liverpool Town Hall. The CSS Shenandoah surrendered there a few days after the Confederate collapse.



But this isn't a history story but a tale of learning. In 2008 Liverpool was the European Capital of Culture. There was tons of stuff to get involved with but my personal favourite was the Go Superlambanana trail. This was a trail of over 100 mini Superlambananas. The minibinnies loved it because they could collect photo's of them. I loved it because it took me to areas of the city that I hadn't been to for a long time and even some places I had never been before.

For example, Liverpool's commercial area is somewhere I have never really been other than for job interviews and of course, then you have other things on your mind. But if you raise your head there is some stunning architecture (lots of it funded by the slave trade) and stories about the street names and buildings. the whole trail only lasted around two months but it enabled me to learn more about my local area than any school lesson I've ever been in.

Yesterday was my birthday. Yes the one that you get loads of cards that start Oh No !!! on it. My parents bought me a family ticket for the Yellow Duckmarine Tour. So at 2.15 we climbed the steps into a World War II amphibious landing craft, and with a roar of the engine and a grinding of the gears, took off at a mindblowing 15mph round the city centre. It was nice to see the smiles and waves that we got from passers by, slightly annoying that the hoodies on bikes wouldn't let go of the back steps, even though they proved they could ride faster than we were going.

I learnt the secrets of Dickie Lewis (ask me. Go on, you know you want to) and the White Star Liner building where the Titanic was registered. we also found out about the reason the law courts were designed to look the way they do.

Then we had the highlight of the trip. Splashdown. We were taken for a sail through the Albert and surrounding docks, including a quick trip up and down the Wapping Queens Passage. I'm gushing now. It was a brilliant trip. We also had a ride on the new Liverpool Wheel which gave fantastic views of a city still undergoing a rebirth, but with so much now to give.

Every year we have a holiday in the south of the country. We regularly travel two or three hours to our favourite haunts in Yorkshire (Bolton or Fountains Abbey or York itself), Wales (Rhyl, LLanfairPG), the Lake District (All of it). If the weather is fine we will walk (or take a short car journey) to our local parks. But with a wealth of local attractions to visit, it seems such a waste that we only ever venture fairly locally when we are shopping. Why do I feel that I haven't been for a day out unless I've spent at least four hours in a tin box with wheels?

So how about you? Is there somewhere near to you that you make use of on a regular basis or do you, like me, feel that a day out means a day out of the county?