Liverpool

I like Liverpool; well, the bits I've seen of it between conference sessions, anyway. My impression of the city is the following.  At some point in the last few decades, Liverpool, a traditionally industrial city based around shipping, realized that its industry was dying. So it decided to reinvent itself into a city attractive to tourists, and it did so quite successfully, managing to spruce up the city centre while preserving its historic character. The docks have all been renovated and a long promenade has been added along the water. Restaurants, hotels and shops have been tucked into the old-school brick facades of pumphouses and drydocks. Strikingly modern towers have gone up beside heritage buildings, adn they've even erected a ferris wheel! The city's easily walkable, there are maps and signage everywhere. It's a tourist's dream.

As I took a taxi to my hotel from the train station, the driver remarked on how I was going to be staying close to the mall, and I gave an ( internal, non-audible) groan. "Big deal," I thought, "so what if my hotel's close to some big disgusting big-box mall; that's not what I came to another continent to see." Now, Liverpool 1, the shopping centre to which he was referring,  is indeed a mall. But it's this neat, architecturally daring, open air shopping neighbourhood consisting of a bunch of pedestrian streets, parks, and shops on several levels interconnected by steps and escalators. The downtown core around the mall is a sprawling pedestrian zone, and so Liverpool 1 kind of blends into its surroundings. I am not a huge fan of malls, and I do acknowledge that this is just a bunch of chain stores, but that being said, it's really neat and a much more attractive way to bring chain stores to your downtown instead of just building a big box mall i the suburbs somewhere and gutting your inner city.