Southport to Liverpool - Europe to the United Kingdom - CycleBlaze

August 8, 2025

Southport to Liverpool

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I am happy to report we rode into Liverpool today - and we lived to tell you about it!

We constantly marvel how every day’s riding is different. It’s usually  challenging for us, but everyday the challenge is for a different reason: it  could be the weather, the rain, the wind, its too hot, its too cold, the elevation is excessive, the ride is too long,  the traffic is too scary, there is no shoulder, we get lost, there is gravel. You name it, there is always something that stresses us out. And yet……we still embrace those challenges and are happy at the end of the day; sometimes the happiness is relief because we made it, and sometimes its just because this is just so fun!

Today we thought we had a cruiser of a ride to Liverpool, because there was virtually no climbing, the ride was short (38 km) and up until the the very last few km, it was all on a designated cycle route (Cycle route 62). That sounds like a recipe for an easy ride, but it wasn’t.

First, getting out of Southport was tricky. We learned there is a lot of traffic on the very busy road between Southport and Liverpool and the road connection to access the cycle trail was messy. We had to swing through a vey busy roundabout in heavy traffic. 

Second, we had a bad cross-headwind once we were on the cycle trail. It was also right next to the busy road (innocuously described as the Coastal Road) so it was just a constant unpleasant push for about 6 km. 

Pano showing the estuary and the distant shoreline. Absent from the shot is the stiff cross wind coming off the water and the extremely busy and noisy traffic behind the camera.
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The easiest part was the next bit. We wound up on a quiet tiny paved lane that rolled right through some agricultural fields. We are finally seeing some crops - which we haven’t seen for awhile.  We stopped and took off a jacket - it was still windy but the sun was peaking through. 

Third, we had a very long gravel section. It was dry out and the conditions were generally good, but the vegetation on the side of the trail was pretty aggressive and we were constantly brushing up against nettles and other troublesome plants. England is lush and the vegetation on even paved trails tends to get crazy; we spend a fair bit of the day trying hard not to get whacked by a wayward branch or omnipresent stinging nettles impinging on the trail. 

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It quickly got more narrow as we traversed this otherwise lovely trail.
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The long gravel section was part of the Transpennnine walking trail so there were a fair amount of walkers; everyone was patient and stepped aside so we could pass. 

Fourth, outside of Liverpool, we hopped on the old towpath for the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. It was a great trail from the standpoint of it being a quiet way to ride through a busy city, and we saw a lot of cool houseboats, and water creatures: swans, ducks, fishermen. But the trail itself, although technically paved, was in such bad shape that it was like being on gravel. We also started seeing some serious trash in places. 

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We then peeled off into Liverpool traffic about 5 km from the center of town.  This was good and bad: the good was that there was SOME modest, marked cycling infrastructure in places, and the traffic wasn’t going crazy; the bad was that we had to make a really awkward right turn and the traffic signal didn’t seem to accommodate bikes to make the turn (at least we could never figure it out). We pulled over, studied the very busy traffic pattern and eventually just did a scoot across 4 lanes of traffic. That is the kind of thing that freaks me out; Dave, on the other hand, embraces the challenge. 

By the time we reached downtown Liverpool and the central walking mall, we had that sense of exhilaration: Yes, we made it!  To add to our enjoyment, it was Friday afternoon on the mall, so everyone was out walking around and it was a great, big city scene.  There was a musician playing on the mall and it was a festive atmosphere. (I remember that same sense of euphoria last summer when we arrived in Paris and rode for 11 km from the train station all the way to Versailles).

The scene on Lord Street.
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Our first job was to locate the Specsavers, the landing point of the specks we ordered two weeks ago in Penrith. We arrived at the Specsavers on Lord Street and I stayed outside with the bikes while Dave went inside to check things out.  It was all good news:  they had all three pairs, they all fit, and Dave in particular was relieved he could relinquish the use of his old pair of cycling glasses that he had refashioned to use as regular progressives.  

I was so used to seeing Dave like this: 

I think I'm rocking this new look.
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But the new Dave looks like this: 

Meh. How boring.
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The third pair we ordered was for me, a non-prescription pair of cycling glasses. Dave now asserts I will have no excuse and must wear them all the time. We shall see (no pun intended).

The saga of the eyewear was extremely positive. It stunk that Dave lost them but, we worked the problem, figured out a solution, and relied on the kindness and efficiency of the Brits to help us. It was all good. 

After Specsavers we sat down and split a burrito bowl at a little Mexican place - sort of like the Chipotle chain back in the US. We were right next to the guy playing the music on the mall so it was awesome.

This dude has some serious chops and was a delight to listen to.
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We then made our way to our hotel located on the Liverpool waterfront. Google maps said it was a 5 minute ride but it took us 15 minutes because of all  the lights and necessary downtown maneuvers. We made it through and are comfortably ensconced at the Crowne Plaza for the next three nights.

We are so surprised at how much we enjoyed the last week; the ride from the Lake District to Liverpool was a “transitional stage,” we had no particular expectations, but we loved the variation. The other night at dinner we were musing generally on our tour through Britain and Dave says something to the effect: “when we planned this tour I thought we were riding in Britain because we wanted a longer tour and had to leave Europe to deal with Schengen Treaty restrictions. Now I really like riding here, (especially Scotland) Band I could see us becoming back here.”

He then gets this horrified look on his face - I have a list of tours we hope to do while we still can - we were not exactly looking for MORE places to tour. Ah yes, an embarrassment of riches!

Life is good. 

Today's ride: 38 km (24 miles)
Total: 3,415 km (2,121 miles)

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Jacquie GaudetAh yes. My list of future places to go also never seems to get any shorter because nothing ever gets permanently crossed off!
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