Failure to wish the fairies “Good Morning Fairies” or “Good Afternoon Fairies” is sure to bring rain down on you for the day.
We dutifully wished them well and were rewarded by nice weather.
Because the roads, towns and villages in the Island are all small and parking is at a premium everywhere we rented a car for the week we were here. It looks quite nice, its a Kia Picanto. Bright red, that color should mean its sporty!
The gutless wonder
Still it did let us explore some of the smaller places on this small island.
We went to a “Sheep Dog Trial” – shepherds with highly trained Collies rounded a small flock of sheep around a field and into a pen against the clock. It’s great to see a working dog doing it’s stuff.
A large statue of the Manx Sheep 
Sheepdogs eager to go 
The event was high over Douglas.
Still on the subject of sheep we went to a living history museum called Criag Neash on the very southern end of the island and discovered a breed of sheep unique to the island with the strangest looking horns, four of them!
A living Manx Sheep 
Creag Neash village
Famous for it’s motorcycle races the Isle of Man also has events for vintage and classic cars. We saw some as we traveled round. We dropped in at the Manx Motor Museum to to see their collection. They had many motorcycles both street and race. I had fun, Barbara not so much maybe!
The Peel 3 wheeler made in the Isle of Man
More museums! The Manx Air Museum, the Manx Museum and some living history in the Manx Steam Railway and the Manx Electric Railway both of which were built in the Victorian era and are still operating to this day. Wonderful craftsman built wooden carriages and bright brass fittings.
Aircraft relics fished out of the seas around the island
We had hoped to do the whole rail thing which would take us from where we were camped to the highest point in the island at Snaefell. The Steam Railway would take us from Port Erin to Douglas, we would then catch a horse drawn tram along the promenade and catch the Electric Railway to Laxey, finally getting the Snaefell Mountain Railway to the very top. Unfortunately due to major remodeling of the promenade the horse trams are not running this year so we had to catch a bus instead.
Isle of Man Steam Railway 
Built in the 1870's and still running! 
Passenger cars much more modern, built in 1923
From Sneafell on a clear day they say you can see 7 Kingdoms. The Kingdoms of Mann, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England plus the Kingdom of the seas and the heavens.
We saw 5 of them, Scotland and Wales being obscured.
Another Victorian experience, the Manx Electric Railway
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| And another, The Snaefel Mountain Railway |
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| The 7 Kingdoms |
Just below the summit on the TT course is a statue depicting Joey Dunlop who was the most successful TT racer in history. Killed not in the TT races but in some obscure race in Estonia and sadly missed.
Joey looks down on the TT course at the Bungalow
The week in “The Island” has just flown by, the campground has been great and the tranquil atmosphere has relaxed both of us completely. Unfortunately we have to move on and we are making arrangements to meet up with friends and relatives who we haven’t seen in several years. Should be great!
High speed ferry Mannanan
The same high speed ferry that brought us to the Island took us from the Island to Liverpool. As it was late in the day we had a reservation at the Liverpool Marina where you can dry camp almost in the heart of the city but tucked away between the River Mersey and one of the old Victorian Era docks.
We though it was the garbage truck!
When we pulled in we though they had parked the garbage truck in the next spot but then when we looked at the huge vehicle we discovered it was a gigantic “Overlander” rig designed to cross any kind of terrain from the Sahara Desert to the Andes Mountains. Quite where this one was going from Liverpool was a mystery and it plainly hadn’t gone anywhere so far, as even the tires were clean and shiny. The owner opened one of the huge lockers in the side and we could see it was equipped with all the gear needed to get out of swamps or sand dunes. We laughed because even the shovels so neatly stowed, still had the manufacturers stickers on the blades!
Next day we crossed the River Mersey thru one of the famous tunnels and returned to Arrow Brook Farm where we left from a little over a month ago. We rented another car and started making the rounds of friends and relatives.
Our home town is Birkenhead which is opposite Liverpool but has its own history and historic figures. We went on a tour of the old cemetery which we had both played in and walked around when we were children.
Flaybrick cemetery chapel
The tour guide was chatting with a guy as we walked up. I started chatting then got the feeling I new the other guy from somewhere. He mentioned the shipyard and I asked if he had worked in the Mold Loft. He turned out to be one of the Journeymen Shipwrights that welcomed me there on my first day as an Apprentice 55 years ago!
Alfie Poval (L)
There are several prominent figures buried in the this cemetery including a gentleman who had been a member of the YMCA when Baden Powell visited and gave a talk about his ideas for a boy’s organization based on his own days acting as an army scout.
Grave of the founder of the first Boy Scout Troop
Unfortunately the gentleman’s name escapes me because he then went and formed the world’s first Boy Scout Troop. 25 years later, to celebrate that event they held the Worlds first Boy Scout World Jamboree in an area called Arrow Park which is still a park and behind which we are camped!
And in another Titanic link there is a memorial here to one of the ships engine crew who was lost.
With our daughter we took a trip to Liverpool to see the Western Approaches Command Museum. This underground bunker was sealed off in 1945 and only discovered again in 1991. Intact and well preserved it has been opened to the public.
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| On this huge map every convoy, U Boat and Maritime Bomber were plotted. |
The purpose of this secret bunker was the control of all the allied convoys that crossed the Atlantic Ocean and the fight against the U Boats that threatened Britain’s vital food and material supplies which came from the New World.
The Convoy Command is in a back street
We have seen the other end of this lifeline in Nova Scotia at Halifax and Sidney and we wanted to see this museum last time we were in Liverpool, 5 years ago, but unfortunately it was closed at that time.
It was a very interesting exhibition showing the development of the convoy system and of the weapons and tactics of the U Boat hunters. The Womens Royal Naval Service (WRENS) provided 80% of the personel in the control center and in the tactical school for ships captains that was run there. One story tells of a very experienced submarine hunter who tried his skills against the school staff in a simulator. He lost contact with the submarine 3 times and expressed his wish to see the gentleman who had beaten him. He refused to believe that the young females who came forward where the real power behind the scenes!
Liverpool’s sea front was for many years the center of emigration to Canada and the USA. The big passenger ships came here and tied up at what is called “The Pier Head”.
The 3 Graces, Liver Building, Cunard Building and Port Authority Building
The tall seafront buildings are know as “The 3 graces” and they consist of the Liver Building, The Cunard Building and the Liverpool Port Authority Building. Tucked behind them and dwarfed by them is the White Star Line Building, more Titanic links, although Titanic never came to Liverpool she was registered as a Liverpool ship.
White Star Building tucked away behind.
Further down the Pier Head is Liverpool’s Titanic Memorial dedicated to the ships Engine Room staff who were in the main from Liverpool.
Liverpool's Titanic Memorial
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