April 7 & 8: "Up North" with old friends

We checked out of our shabby, uninspired Earls Court hotel, headed for Euston and jumped on the 11:43 train to Liverpool. We emerged, just after 14:15 and a short metro ride, in Birkenhead, where Andy was waiting to collect us.

Their beautiful home has a big open-plan kitchen/dining room. Sunlight spilled in through the skylights and the back (glass) wall, whose doors were open to the greening garden; the magnolias just going over; the cherry just coming into flower … They are generous, deeply comfortable hosts. While Foxy made dinner, (risotto, marinaded chicken, haloumi, a crisp salad – delicious!), we sat around with first a beer, then prosecco, then a nice French Chablis… We talked and ate (and drank) till gone 11pm – a very grown-up time for us. We were in bed by 9 on the Camino.

I know Andy from my short time at the BBC. Despite being retired, they remain “in the biz”. Andy does voice-overs. They both act regularly as extras. Foxy had spent that morning at Lime Street station, part of the “ambiance” for a Costa Coffee commercial. Their wedding was part of a behind-the-scenes reality show at an upmarket Buckinghamshire hotel. Their adoption of Barley, their beach-blond labradoodle, was part of a series about a Pet Rescue. Andy, as a former TV-tech, edited the footage into unique video of both these special life-events. We saw the Barley story for the first time yesterday. Our last visit, 2 years ago, was also Barley’s first day as part of the family.

After a lazy, friendly breakfast, we packed four humans, one dog, two rucksacks, two suitcases into the car and headed to Crosby Beach. Crosby Beach is the site of a huge installation of life-size bronze figures called “Another Place”. They stand in the tidal zone and appear/disappear with each cycle. It’s by Anthony Gormley, who also made “The Angel of the North”. It was roundly protested against when first installed in 2005, but has since become a fixture and tourist destination. Any modern talk of removing it would, no doubt, now be met with equally vocal protests in the opposite direction.

The Beach is 3km long with a 10m tidal range. Just offshore, the Belfast ferry, container ships plough the shipping lane. It looks impossible: these huge vessels, so close to this long, gently sloping beach. The topography underwater must be very dramatic. Beyond the shipping lane is a bank of wind turbines. Unlike many, I love to watch the turbine farms. They are extraordinary structures, stream-lined and sleek. I find their movement mesmirising – some turning, some not, none any kind of choreographed sequence… On the other side of the estuary, you can make out Wales through the haze. The cranes of the Liverpool docks look impossibly small at the mouth of the Mersey river proper.

After a lovely, squelchy walk, (and having run Barley into quietude), Andy and Foxy dropped us in central Liverpool. We stay here tonight before training back to London in the morning.