Touted as the European Capital of Culture just under two years ago, Liverpool has a reputation to uphold. Home to The Beatles and a once, famous shipping port of England, there is plenty of interesting historical buildings and things to see and do in this city. On the flip side, you have its infamous reputation as a rough part of the country and its chav-friendliness for hordes of hen and stag weekends. Seeing that almost every chain bar seems to exist in the city centre seems to be proof enough. It might even be the first city to support, three, separate Revolution chain bars all within walking distance of each other.

Fortunately Liverpool’s gastronomic experiences seem to be promising as long as you step away from the chain restaurants and various pubs littered around the city. A combination of several blogs, websites and Harden’s guide helped me enjoy most meals with great food and reasonable value. I’ll promise to post reviews of the places on my other blog when I get around to it.

There’s even one great boutique coffee store serving a mean flat white called Bold Street Coffee. I wanted to enjoy the coffee at Rococo as well but despite its great takeaway value (£1), seemed to lack that important pre-requisite – well made coffee (sorry!).

There are plenty of things to do as a visitor with much of the tourist action centred around the docks. Not only do large cruise liners dock in, but the famous Mersey Ferries that carry people to the other side conduct regular tours travelling up and down the Mersey accompanied by a voice recorded tourguide. Down at the Albert Docks you’ll find the Merseyside Maritime Museum and the International Slavery Museum, both with very good installations at the moment.

You’ll also find the Tate Liverpool currently exhibiting a really well made, and free, sculpture exhibition as well as a two floor, paid for, Picasso exhibit. There’s some great videos of some residents critiquing the art and discussing amongst themselves whether or not they think they are good pieces of art. It’s hilarious. There’s also a really interesting interactive exhibit where you put headphones on, entering a floor where disco lights flood and you’re encouraged to dance to form part of the artwork. Pretty decent soundtrack as well.

At the other end of the docks, you’ll find one of the two locations of The Beatles Story detailing all you ever wanted to know about the original boy band (and more!) in an audio tour guided museum. Be warned that you will need to queue and, once inside, will generally be pretty packed with visitors. I think it’s still worth the money with some really great recreations, memorabilia and things that make you feel like you’re a part of it.

As I mentioned earlier, Liverpool is dotted with plenty of historical buildings and one piece of mesmerising public art is the building just outside of Moorefields train station. Richard Wilson, the artist behind this work, “Turning the Place Over” creates a strange sensation as you watch the egg shaped disc rotate around to expose raw building work only to seal up moments later.

More than that, Liverpool has some really friendly people although the Scouser accent really takes some getting used to (and I thought I’m generally pretty alright with accents).