It’s not often that we are invited on press trips to place but last week we were invited over to Liverpool to see what they had to offer over the Christmas period. Now, if you read my blog then you’ll know that we have visited Liverpool a couple of times over the past few months and it is somewhere that we adore. So obviously I said yes and off we popped on the train to visit the magical city.
It seems like Liverpool comes alive at Christmas time. I mean, I’ve never seen so many lights and sparkle as I did last weekend. So festive, so pretty and so much to do, even for the little ones.
We arrived in Liverpool on the Friday evening. As with everything over the winter time, it was cold and dark, and yet the whole place was lit up, full of bright colours and laughter. Staying in the Travelodge on The Strand, we had an amazing view over Albert Docks and peered over towards Pier Head where we could see the Ice Festival in all its glory.
From the 12 November until the 3 January 2017, Liverpool’s Pier Head has been frozen as the annual Ice Festival returned with cool attractions, including an ice rink and a cosy Après Lodge to enjoy a mulled wine or hot chocolate. The fairground rides appealed to the boys and were a great way to entertain the little ones.
We stopped to admire the lights, and gritted out teeth as one of the rides flew up into the air – no way would I be going on that one!
The boys loved the fairground rides and had a go on many of them whilst we were on our way around. It is useful to note that it’s less busy the earlier you get there as by the time we were getting ready to go home, the queues for the rides were starting to get bigger.
Since J was a bit too little to go on the rides on his own, he enjoyed watching the other 2 and was just mesmerised by all of the lights. I mean, I’ve never seen his eyes light up so much as I did that evening.
The Ice Festival also has a few traditional Bavarian eateries where you can feast on bratwursts, burgers and even waffles. Me and the husband even enjoy a glass, or two, of their beer which went down a treat after a long train ride.
After a lovely evening watching the rides, drinking and seeing all of the sparkling lights, we decided to walk off all of the Bavarian food we had consumed by taking a stroll up to Albert Docks to see how beautiful it looked at night.
It’s like a whole new place at night. The whole town comes alive. Albert Dock is quite quiet at this time but the brightness of the lights made up for this. Even the boats had lights shining bright. And the view of the big wheel over the top just made my night. How stunning is that, and the beautiful reflection!
On Saturday we had a lot planned so spent our morning filling up on breakfast ready for the busy day ahead. Luckily for us, we were staying near Liverpool ONE and so we took the chance to have a look around and do some shopping before it got too busy.
With shops galore, we all chose out something that we loved, although the husband did spend an incredible amount of time in the Liverpool FC store before we could prise him away from all the football memorabilia.
The boys stopped to watch the Christmas music being played, and then dropped off a few pounds with them for charity. There were a few of these dotted all over, playing different Christmas songs. It’s a sure fire way to get us all in the Christmas spirit.
And if you want to go on a walk whilst out and about in Liverpool then make sure you follow the Snowflake Trail which takes you all around Liverpool City Centre. Pick up your free trail map at participating retailers, solve the clues for a chance to win prizes.
Before carrying on with our day, we stopped off at Chavasse Park which is located above Liverpool ONE. Even here has been transformed and Christmas on Chavasse Park has emerged. The kids were left spoilt for choice at the host of attractions on offer.
This is to go-to place for families with small children as it is the perfect way to get in to the festive spirit. Packed full of fun children’s rides, the boys were mesmerised by the Carousel.
A roller-coaster and many other rides were there to make sure that the little ones were entertained throughout Christmas. There is so much to do and so much fun to be had. Even J got to have a go on some of these rides which he adored.
Liverpool is an amazing city, I love visiting and recognize a lot of the locations,never seen the Albert dock lit up at night though.
Looks marvellous! Would love to visit Liverpool for a holiday.
ooh looks so much fun and really lively a good day out
this is very useful. we've recently moved to the Liverpool area from London, and we have our daughter and granddaughter coming for Christmas so are busy finding out what we can do with them while they are here.
I've never been to Liverpool but it looks like great fun. Maybe i should try to get up there next christmas
A brilliant city – perhaps I'll celebrate New year here this year
I adore Liverpool, have very happy memories of my fav City.