Liverpool: land of wonders...

[fajrdrako]

Three castles in three days. Is this my notion of heaven, or what?

And not just castles. Ice cream. A Tudor manor. Travel by water. Good fannish talk with a Torchwood and Highlander fan. Trees. Flowers. And did I mention ice cream?

And, yes, walking without pain.

Every city should have a person like aeron_lanart to be a friendly, well-informed and enthusiastic guide. She's been a doll - answering my questions about British language, customs, trees, fauna, flora, fandom and measurements. And she knows good places to get food. She's an unadvertised national treasure. What a delight to talk to someone who mentions King Oswy in passing. (I didn't mention it aloud, but he's one of my historical heroes.)

The castle was Beeston Castle in Cheshire, which is magnificent and almost from my time - Earl Ranulf, who built it, was familiar to me from crusading and Plantagenet history. It's a long way up, but it's worth every step for both the history and the amazing view - which encompasses Welsh mountains, Jodrell Banks, and the Pennines.

Then we went to the Cheshire Dairy Farm Ice Cream Factory where I was faced with the impossible task of deciding what kind of ice cream to have. I got a double cone - scoops side by side, not one atop the other - with one scoop butterscotch and one scoop gooseberry crumble. We wandered their little animal farm: ducks, geese, a guinea hen, guinea pigs, rabbits, and - ooh, yes, insert drum roll here - budgies. One looked like Peter, another rather like Jubilee. Though I should report that my Peter and Jubilee are currently in the dog house, long-distance, since I got email from their babysitter reporting on their crimes. They staged a successful cage-break, taking advantage of her kindness. And then they stole her key-ring. Devious little con men, those guys are. With no conscience, either!

After ice cream, we went to Speke Hall, a place that looked like somewhere Lymond and Philippa might live, or visit. The orchard had the loveliest apple and pear trees. We talked to a woman demonstrating and describing apothecary techniques, though they were too close to closing for us to talk to the beekeeper, the owl-keeper, or the herbalist.

Then we went to eat at The Pub in the Park, one of the biggest pubs I've ever seen - Liverpool has a knack for size! - and the food was rather amazingly good and well-priced as well. Come to think of it, my roast beef dinner with potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and four vegetables, cost less than my breakfast of coffee and a bacon bap. Location is everything. Inside the elegant hallway, when you enter, with a double staircase and double wooden doors, there is a large fibreglass figure of Barney the purple dinosaur.

In the car on the way back, we listened to Gareth David-Lloyd's beautiful voice reading Torchwood: Into the Silence. I loved the way he read Jack's voice. And Ianto's - so perfectly done, of course. There's a wonderful moment in which Ianto wishes he'd never told Jack his father was a master tailor, because he'll be stuck with the millinery duties forever. That amusing sentence takes on a whole new meaning after Children of Earth!