It was another slow start to the day after last nights incredible semi final. Did I mention that Australia qualified for the Grand Final? Australia qualified for the Grand Final!! There are still a ton of very happy Australians here in town – as we should be!

We had nothing particular on the agenda, probably a good thing we weren’t in a rush as breakfast at Albert Dock was more like brunch by the time it arrived, but it was delicious so all good there, and the delay also gave me time to FaceTime my Dad to say hello. There was also a nice bit of art/protest near the Tate gallery which I really liked.

We had received really glowing reviews about the British Music Experience in the Cunard building, however since it didn’t open ‘til Midday we walked up to the Mersey Ferries terminal, to see if could, indeed, get a Ferry ‘cross the Mersey. And indeed, we could! They had a one hour tour that goes up and down and has a bit of info along the way, which sounded perfect. After arguing with a recalcitrant ticket machine (it gave us one ticket for the 12th, and one stuck in there from the 9th!), we had some human intervention – the staff member opened the machine and pulled out a wedge about 20 tickets that become stuck in there – I wonder how many people just paid their £12, didn’t get a ticket, shrugged and walked away? Anyway we had our tickets so that the main thing, and the member of staff that helped us assured us that this particular matching was due to be replaced very soon, hopefully by a ticket dispensing matching that actually, you know, dispensed tickets 🙂 Walking up here was of course also an excuse to get another photo of two of the Three Graces, this time with a bonus Superlambanana.

There was a short wait for the ferry so I entertained myself by watching all the seagulls down in the water arguing over the remains of docks past, there seemed to be a hierarchy of who gets to sit on what rotted log and at what time, in a way it was reminiscent of the sealions squabbling at San Francisco all those years ago.

The Ferry, playing its eponymous theme tune, arrived and before long we were on board (affording yet another shot of the Royal Liver building). The ferry is quite a pretty looking thing, in its own way.

We saw a few sights, learned a few things. One of the most striking additions to the riverside would have to be, of all things, a ventilation tunnel for the road and rail tunnels that run under the river. To me it has a super-eastern-Europe kinda cold-war-era industrial aesthetic – so not exactly pretty, but certainly makes it mark.

We also saw the arena where Eurovision is being held.

As we took the stairs down to the lower level to exit the Ferry ‘cross the Mersey, it was super helpful to see a poster in the stairwell advising that you could actually book a trip on a Ferry ‘cross the Mersey. Who knew?! 🙂

The British Music Experience is in the Cunard building (the middle of the Three Graces). This puts it very much within the roped-off EuroVillage. So we joined the queue for the village, and within a few minutes we were in. The cafe was a lovely room with a very cool and quite literal take on pop music. There was a quite of queue of people wanting to take photos with the Beatles sculptures outside, so I only about to sneak one pic in between people – almost completely chopping off Ringo in the process. Sorry Ringo!

Into the Experience we went, and … well the people absolutely raving about it might just have been over-egging the pudding a little bit. It was kinda interesting, not that big, but sure did have some interesting artefacts on display like Sam Ryders jumpsuit from his massive Eurovision performance last year. Everything else was behind glass so there are plenty of reflections in the photos that I did manage to take.

Just before we left they did have a fun 10 minute video about a bit of Eurovision history. Overall, though, the British Music Experience gets a solid “well, it’s ok” from me.

At this point Perry opted to go home for a nap to conserve energy for the Grand Final tomorrow. I wandered into town, had some more of the legendary Greggs sausage rolls for lunch, and sat outdoors to eat them. Literally 2 second after sitting down, some one came up trying to sell me (fake no doubt) Apple AirPods out of his pocket. Two seconds. I politely declined, and instead focussed my time on the delicious flaky pastry and tasty hot meat (let’s assume it’s meat, you just never know with any sausage roll) filling. It was then back to the hotel for a bit of downtime, knowing that the Grand Final is tomorrow, and it goes about twice as long as the other shows we’ve been to. That’s a lot of standing. While wandering back to the hotel, saw this very cool Lennon-sequel Rolls Royce that I think they use for super-expensive Beatles tours. Pretty!

I also saw this lovely picture.

A little later on, I headed out for dinner. Perry is feeling a little under the weather, so decided to stay in. I wandered down to party town – not as far as the EuroVillage, but part of the way where there’s plenty of people and food trucks, around the Albert Dock and the other ones. Bought a very traditional English hotdog, and some mildly underwhelming haloumi fries from a Greek food truck. They took about twenty minutes, but I should be grateful, some people had been waiting around an hour to get their meal. I think there was a bit of a “when a team doesn’t get along” vibe, so nobody seemed to be having a great time. Still, I was having a great time, coz after that I had ice-cream – and the real joy came from the fact that even though they love to drizzle entire soft server with raspberry sauce here, somehow, I didn’t wear it! (Unlike every other time I’ve had ice cream here lol)

Along the way I also encountered a yellow submarine pumping out dance music, because of course that’s perfectly normal. It was fun!

As I finally turned around to head back to to hotel, I of course had to take a pic of Liverpool by sunset. Lovely.

That’s about it for the day. Tomorrow, good things and meh things. The Grand Final (OMG OMG OMG!!!!) and packing to get ready for an early exit the day after that. But more to the point, the Grand Final!!