Day 61: You’ll Never Walk Alone

24/09/2021

It was a bit of a disaster last night, this sharing a room thing went about as well as expected. Eloise made sure she checked on Lachlan every five minutes. I think we managed five hours of sleep. Eloise obviously didn’t come to Liverpool to sleep, so we were up early ready to explore. They both shortly fell asleep in the pram.

We headed towards Abbey Road, which was not worth the detour. The rest of the street did not look any better. No zebra crossing was in sight.

We sensed we were heading in the right direction and eventually made it to Anfield Road.

We had almost made it to Anfield, but first we needed breakfast. The freshly baked Klopp pie, steak and German beer, was a delicious combination. Eloise settled for a crossaint behind the Sir Kenny Dalglish stand.

We made our way through the Anfield Paisley Gateway behind the Kop, did a quick Bill Shankly pose and rushed off to start the tour.

We started going up the new Main Stand which was pretty speccy. They had this cool VR display so you could see and hear what match day is like as you walked around.

William Shankly OBE (2 September 1913 – 29 September 1981) was a Scottish football player and manager, who is best known for his time as manager of Liverpool. Shankly brought success to Liverpool, gaining promotion to the First Division and winning three League Championships and the UEFA Cup. He laid foundations on which his successors Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan were able to build by winning seven league titles and four European Cups in the ten seasons after Shankly retired in 1974. A charismatic, iconic figure at the club, his oratory stirred the emotions of the fanbase. In 2019, 60 years after Shankly arrived at Liverpool, Tony Evans of The Independent wrote, “Shankly created the idea of Liverpool, transforming the football club by emphasising the importance of the Kop and making supporters feel like participants.

Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892. It was originally the home of Everton from 1884 to 1891, before they moved to Goodison Park after a dispute with the club president.

Eloise had her press face on the moment she sat down in Klopp’s media chair.

We went into the visitors change rooms, designed to meet standards while being as uncomfortable as possible. There were eleven shirts on the wall selected by Jamie Carragher as the best opponents he had faced.

Then to the home change room where even the lights automatically change to the same brightness as outside.

As we made our way to the tunnel, the tour lady explained how the players used to tap the ‘This is Anfield’ sign as they walked out. When Klopp became manager, he would only allow players that had won trophies to tap the sign. Eloise had done an amazing job keeping up so decided she was worthy.

We then made it to the hallowed turf and worked our way around the most famous corner in world football and took a seat in the Kop. Eloise jumped up onto a chair and it folded in half, Eloise is now afraid of the Kop.

Spion Kop (or Kop for short) is a colloquial name or term for a number of single tier terraces and stands at sports stadiums, particularly in the United Kingdom. Their steep nature resembles a hill near Ladysmith, South Africa, that was the scene of the Battle of Spion Kop in January 1900 during the Second Boer War.

After an hour it was then onto the museum.

For those that don’t know what happened in Istanbul 2005, do yourself a favour and watch this.

We could not leave without some sweet merch from the LFC Superstore. Eloise wanted some shoes, surprise surprise, but they were about five sizes too big. She then got muesli bar on Gerrard’s top so it was time to dash.

We did a quick walk around as much of Anfield as we could, past the Hillsborough memorial. Behind Anfield Road Stand was closed as they have already started the expansion. We checked out a few more murals around the corner and then caught the bus into the city to see the River Mersey.

The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the two standing-only central pens in the Leppings Lane stand allocated to Liverpool supporters. Shortly before kick-off, in an attempt to ease overcrowding outside the entrance turnstiles, the police match commander David Duckenfield ordered exit gate C to be opened, leading to an influx of supporters entering the pens. This resulted in overcrowding of those pens and the crush. With 97 deaths and 766 injuries, it has the highest death toll in British sporting history.

We were surprised by the size of Liverpool and how busy it was. There were some incredibly large solid-looking buildings.

When we got to the River Mersey we walked past the titanic memorial, looks like cruise ships are back.

A quick snap at The Beatles Pier Head and it was time for lunch, the fab 4 cafe seemed appropriate. It was a beautiful afternoon so we ate lunch under Edward VII. Eloise was having fun chasing away all the seagulls and pigeons. She was running after them for a long time and started chasing them with a bottle. We decided it was probably time to move on again.

We continued past Tate Liverpool, the Merseyside Maritime Museum and The Pumphouse before making our way back home on the bus, again exhausted.

The River Mersey is a river in the North West of England. Its name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon language and translates as “boundary river”. The river may have been the border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria and for centuries it has formed part of the boundary between the historic counties of Lancashire and Cheshire.

Bedtime. Change of tack. We tried to walk them to sleep, which turned into a half marathon. Hopefully, we all get some more sleep tonight.