The Britannia Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool

Earlier this month I was at a conference in Liverpool over a weekend and therefore needed hotel accommodation for two nights. I opted for the Britannia Adelphi which, for me, came with the incredibly useful point of being only a stone's throw from Lime Street Station.



At £80 a night (and that was the discounted conference rate), it was not cheap, though it came in below the charges for the other big hotels in the city catering for conference delegates.



The hotel can best be described as faded grandeur. It is a bit jaded at the edges. Nevertheless, the stay there was not unpleasant. I had previously stayed in the Adelphi but that was over 20 years ago and my lasting memory of it was of long corridors. That hasn't changed!







I had a double room to myself. The floor space was tight but adequate.





Sitting arrangements for breakfast were tight. The food however was reasonable.

Pizza Express in Albert Dock

Another meal out during my visit to Liverpool last week was taken at Pizza Express in the Albert Dock. Meal was reasonable, nothing spectacular, but this is a chain, not an independent restaurant so you can get the same meal in every outlet. I normally avoid eating in chain restaurants but it was the nearest place to the conference centre and I wasn't looking to do a long walk to the city centre.

Spice Lounge, Liverpool

I ate in the Spice Lounge on the Albert Dock, Liverpool last week. The food was good but not outstanding. It was rather expensive however and I'm not convinced it was worth the price, especially as the service was rather slow. Nevertheless, it was a popular venue.





Fortunately for the fish, they were there for display purposes only!

Albert Dock, Liverpool

I was in Liverpool last week for a conference at the Convention Centre, next to the Albert Dock. AN ideal opportunity to take a few photos. Sadly, as I was rather busy at the conferemce, the opportunity to explore Liverpool, or indeed the Albert Dock, was rather limited.  I'll post up a few more photos and articles over the coming days.

The Austrian Restaurant

The Austrian Restaurant is in Capelulo. the Fairy Glen, near Penmaenmawr. It was our destination for our walk from Penmaenmawr. I hadn't eaten there for about 17 years so the return visit was eagerly awaited. Top marks. The food was superb but not over priced. Service was good. Staff were friendly. Definitely should be on the must-visit list for anyone visiting North Wales.

A walk to the Fairy Glen

We decided to take a walk from Penmaenmawr to the Fairy Glen to help whip up an appetite for dinner. Uphill most of the way and a distance of over 2 km, so plenty of calories built up. We stopped at Penmaenmawr cemetery on the way and I snapped these two photos looking out over to Anglesey and Puffin Island. An incredible cloud bank was rolling its way up the coast.

A walk through Conwy

We arrived at the quay at Conwy in the shadow of the castle. Yet another marina. The estuary is used for mussel fishing, hence the statue pictured below. There is an interesting set of information boards there about the industry.





Also on the waterfront is the Liverpool Arms. It now enters my record book as serving up the 2nd worst coffee I have ever had. It was tepid, stewed and undrinkable. (The worst was a coffee I bought in 1999 at a roadside stop in Belarus. It cost 150,000 Belarus roubles and was probably made from muck scraped from the ground.)



We then headed up the High Street and caught the bus back to Penmaenmawr from Rose Hill Street.

Walking from Junction to Conwy

A train ride from Llandudno (the station has been recently restored) took us to Llandudno Junction. From there we walked over the bridge to Conwy. This is a good way to see the Conwy estuary and town and castle nestling up against the water's edge. It was also very breezy. A good way to blow off the cobwebs.

The Albert, Llandudno

After lunch we headed over to Llandudno station but felt the need to call in to the Albert, a pub just along the road from the station. It was Saturday afternoon and it was very busy. You could tell this was a pub on the tourist trail as the prices were a bit on the not-so-cheap side.

The Lilly, Mostyn Street

The bracing walk we had on Llandudno beach certainly gave us an appetite. We found the Lilly, and bar and grill, on Mostyn Street. For a while we were the only customers. The live music competing with the recorded music seemed a bit odd and the floor and tables were a bit sticky.





I can however recommend the fish cakes. They were superb, though a bit on the expensive side.

A walk through Llandudno

After visiting Deganwy Quay last week, we headed on to Llandudno for a walk through the town. We started at the rabbit statue at the end of Mostyn Street. It commemorates the fact that Lewis Carroll wrote "Alice in Wonderland" whilst in the town.







Mostyn Street is the main shopping street of the town. I'm no fan of the retail experience so we headed up the street, towards the Great Orme, ignoring the shops. Our aim was to get to the pier for a bit of bracing fresh air.





We left Mostyn Street to walk up the Promenade and the beach.



Our research was not good. We got to the entrance to the pier to find it locked up. We need to come back later in the year to walk it. Time for lunch instead.

Deganwy Quay

Saturday 7th March, our first visit was to Deganwy Quay. We were popping into the Deganwy Quay Hotel as a friend was to be best man at a wedding there and we were meeting up with him for a few minutes. It gave me a chance to have a quick look at the reception and bar areas. The hotel is reasonably new and it comes with bar prices that I would expect in London. One drink and time to move on.

Deganwy Quay has a marina and is on the Conwy Estuary. Great views over to Conwy.

Royal British Legion in Llandudno

The reason for my visit to North Wales earlier this month was to go to a friend's 21st birthday party. It was held at the Royal British Legion in Llandudno. The point of note was the incredible bar prices. Incredible because they are so low relative to what people can normally expect to pay in towns whose economies float on tourism.

Another visit to Wales

I headed to North Wales, one of my old stomping ground, on 6th March for two days. I went by train and I'll post up material about the visit shortly. I did manage to take a few shots from the train as we headed along the north coast. As usual, I stayed in Penmaenmawr, but across the weekend, I visited Llandudno and Conwy.

Pack Horse at Burnopfield

The Pack Horse at Burnopfield is about 4km up the road from where I live. Burnopfield is a small town in Co Durham, right in the border with Gateshead. I visited the pub for a meal in January. This is an establishment towards the cheaper end of the price range but the food was good quality. Worth a visit.



I can recommend the lamb burger.