Blue Funnel Line.

[Waterways]

Chippie yes when my dau and i came for a day trip over 4yrs ago i was taken by Liverpool the beautiful buildings they were fantastic and of course cos all my maternal side were born and bred there.I think next year will fantastic for everyone and for Liverpool to be real proud..

Caterina [ Honary Scouser]

I went to the Lake District for over a week in July with some French people. On the way up we stopped off in Chester for a night, which they liked. I decide to drop into Liverpool on the way to the Lakes. I never told them. They thought Liverpool was a poor slum not knowing anything about the place apart from the Beatles.

I entered via the Runcorn bridge and went to Woolton showing them the village and John Lennon's house, then Paul McCartney's house, Strawberry Field, then through the leafy suburbs with huge mature oak trees everywhere and through parks to Aigburth then along Riverside drive to the Albert Dock for coffee. They were very impressed (one is from Paris) with the Albert Dock and with the level of construction, and wondered what the church was with the birds on top. I was giving running commentaries: the French wall, the dock system, the American connections, the 1.3 million Irish who entered in the famine, etc. The three Graces impressed them. They were amazed at the size of the cathedral - I told them the world's largest tower and largest gothic arches. They were impressed with the red colour not having seen red sandstone churches before - never occurred to me it was that different. I pointed out the world's largest brick building too - the the Tobacco warehouse.

I stopped outside Oriel Chambers and pointed out it that it was the first steel framed glass curtain walled buildings in the world and all modern building are generally based on it. One said, "it is a very important building then". The were impressed at seeing the White Star Line Building (the Titanic).

I told them about most of the centre being a World Heritage site and buffer zone. They said how come Liverpool has all these wonderful buildings and supposed to be so poor. I told them it was one on the richest cities in the world at one time - they were surprised but said "it all fitted as poor cities do not have buildings like there are here". We went out via Riverside Drive, Rose Lane, Penny Lane and Queens Drive and the M62. We drove through miles and miles of Liverpool and not a slum in sight anywhere. They liked the red sandstone walls around buildings in the south end of the city.

On the way home to France, I overheard them saying to others that they were very impressed with Liverpool and never expected it to be so nice.