Liverpool has been a really good stop on the way to the Isle of Man.

I never knew the city that well, but as the gateway to the wider world beyond the island, it is full of nostalgia. Liverpool, it seemed to the small Prudence, was the beginning of everything!

It is now vastly different from the city of my childhood and youth, and we enjoyed beginning to explore the redeveloped Albert Dock area.

We had lunch at Gusto (I was particularly taken with their version of the affogato, which added Disaronno, an almond liqueur, to the normal ice cream and black coffee).

We visited the International Slavery Museum, which spells out in no uncertain terms both the historical barbarity and the ongoing destructive effects of this vicious practice.











And we strolled. Along the historic Mersey River, past red brick and stately stone.













This is definitely a place to come back to.