retiredmartin

Opportunities for doing six new GBG pubs by public transport in a day are vanishingly thin once you reach the dizzying heights of 88% Guide completion, which is why us tickers need their own chauffeurs, private jets and ability to bend the ticking rules.

Merseyside offered a rare prospect of multiple ticks this year, even though NONE of them were in Liverpool itself, with micropubs along the coast taking over from ex-Cains boozers and new Wetherspoons as the dominant entry.

Not a cheap day out. £40.30 off-peak, plus the £5.50 add-on for Merseyrail little tram/trains trundling up and down the coast.

I opted for the mobile ticket, and then spent a nervous half hour near Widnes waiting for WiFi to deliver the ticket.

As City fans know, the welcome for visitors can be fiery,

and I didn’t want to get in trouble for not having a valid ticket.

But I love Liverpool, it’s got better beaches than Manchester (or Sheffield) for one. And there’s better songs about Merseyside than than there are about any other place except Goole.

I always sing this one as I leave Lime Street, even though only 0.3% of Scousers have ever heard it.

By tradition I walk from Lime Street to Moorfields to admire the ongoing roadworks around St Georges Hall.

It’ll look good when it’s finished, at which point it’ll become a Brunning & Pricey in a bid to restore Liverpool’s UNESCO listing or something.

Gorgeous architecture, but you knew that.

I needed to be focused (stay focused, RM), or I’d have been distracted by the string of already-ticked GBG entries in the commercial city. Perhaps I’d do one of them (Vernon ? Excelsior ? Ship & Mitre ?) at the end of the day when the ticks were in the bag.

Or new places called Dead Crafty and Tap & Grind that probably sell a lot of Pravha. The Tand will know; he’s my Liverpool scout.

Eagle-eyed readers will notice that irritating Motion Disabled tag on some of these photos; somehow I’d switched to mini-video mode by sitting on my phone.

Will it ruin my photos of shredded duck in Southport ? We’ll find out together.