Train trip to Liverpool from Giggleswick Station

 I needed to get my passport renewed quickly to go on holiday - and discovered - (for a larger fee than the standard one) it is possible to get it done - by travelling (for us in Settle) to either Durham or Liverpool or Glasgow. So two days after entering my passport details online found me on a day trip from Giggleswick to Liverpool to collect it.

This trip to Liverpool counts as part of my holiday.

I could write nine stories about this trip:-

1. Wildflowers of Giggleswick Railway Station

2. Wildflowers of the Giggleswick to Lancaster to Liverpool Line

3. Lichens and Wildflowers of the pavements at Albert Dock and the Mersey coast

4. The peace of Liverpool and the Mersey coast at 8-9.30am of a Saturday morning (especially compared to the crowds from 11am onwards)

5. The International Slavery Museum:-

5a - African cultures

5b - Achievements of different African Individuals and individuals of African Descent (well we are all of African descent - that is where humans started) 

5c Power and financial imbalances hindering development in different regions today

6. The Maritime museum, the Titanic, the Lutisiana and other maritime history

7. Famous buildings and people of Liverpool as seen from an open top bus (in the drizzle) with a lively local guide.

7a. He pointed out that Liverpool had been a World Heritage site but was no longer one. I looked this up : listed in 2006; Delisted in 2021 - He said lots of buildings of heritage value had been destroyed when they did up the docks etc.

8. The people are friendly and have and accent slightly reminiscent of the Birmingham Accent (and maybe a slightly northern accent too that I can't hear because I have one myself) . The last time I visited Liverpool was on a day trip almost 50 years ago and I remembered the local people being friendly and helpful then, and this visit continued to give me that impression.

9: The Sunday Café Service at Allhallowgate two days after- (with the day we didn't win the Eurocup in between)

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Flowers of the Giggleswick to Liverpool Line:

At Carnforth and at Lancaster I saw lots of Evening Primrose: Oenothera biennis  - Tall spikes with lemon yellow trumpet shaped flowers with five lobes - And one plant at Bentham Station.

I remember finding this at Giggleswick Station maybe 40 years ago.. And looking for it ever since but not finding it. Carnforth had a few spikes of Verbascum too, And lots of Buddleia .

Lancaster had plenty of Vulpia bromoides bromoides https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.cph Squirreltail Fescue., and I found it in the streets of Liverpool.

Evening Primrose from the Train window at
Carnforth (the Leeds to Lancaster train had clean windows - unlike the one from Lancaster to Liverpool

Evening Primrose at Lancaster

Vulpia bromoides

Evening Primrose at Bentham.
These looked so fine I wondered if they had been planted