Our last day in Liverpool started with the usual wholesome breakfast for the children and much-needed caffeine for the grown-ups. We all then ran upstairs, striped our beds, grabbed our bags and loaded the coach before saying goodbye to the hostel and heading out to the Albert Docks  and the Maritime Museum. As interesting as it was for the children to learn about the tragedies of the Titanic and Lusitania, two nights of non-stop chatting had taken their toll and, after an hour, some the choir began to resemble the extras from Night of the Living Dead.

They were soon rejuvenated, though, after few spins on the Liverpool Eye, which is similar to the London Eye, only with a scouse accent. Some of the boys were over the moon that we received an additional go-around when the man in the booth was rubbing his face as we passed (apparently), thus missing the fact that we should have finished our go and sent us round on a bonus trip.

Oh and we visited a huge sweet shop too, which may also have helped to wake the children up.

Lunch was a relaxed affair at Pizza Express and gave everybody a further chance to recharge the batteries before we headed off to the ‘other’ Cathedral for Choral Evening Prayer.

Joking aside, the service in the Metropolitan Cathedral was lovely. There was plenty of organ and choral music to enjoy, and was particularly enjoyable when a number of Melody Makers who were starting to nod-off to the soothing tones of the choir were abruptly woken by a good blast on the organ. Poor things.

Our informal concert then followed Vespers. It was a scaled-down version of yesterday’s performance, but was once again delivered to a very high standard, and – at risk of upsetting Shean — it must be argued that the acoustics were better here than in the Anglican Cathedral. There can be no argument, though, that every single person who came to Liverpool to watch the choir on its inaugural tour of Mr Bower’s home city was immensely proud of the choir and the way the children performed and behaved.

So that was that. This has been a wonderful trip and an amazing experience for the children, some of whom are seasoned travellers, but some of whom were away from home and their parents for the very first time. Anyone who had a hand in bringing this weekend to fruition must be thanked and congratulated.

There can be doubt that when Mr Bowers announces another such trip (which he surely must) it will be met with the Melody Makers established expression of agreement…

…Yessssssss!

Well, we made it through the night with no major dramas, which is always a positive when on a trip with forty 6-11 year-olds.

After a late (ish) bedtime followed by an early start (some rooms were up at 5am), the Melody Makers were down for a hearty full English breakfast in good time, good order and well dressed.

Looking out of the window it was immediately obvious that the weather wasn’t going to play ball today and the top of the Cathedral tower was shrouded in cloak of grey mist — all ready for our tower tour later on. But we left the hostel in great spirits, nonetheless.

On arrival at the Cathedral there were google-eyes and dropped-jaws in abundance. For the majority of our group, adults included, this was their first glimpse inside this awesome building. The place is huge (it is the largest Cathedral in the UK) and easily stood up to the expectations Mr Bowers had fostered in everybody.

Our day in the Cathedral began with a short film about its construction followed by a vertigo-inducing trip to the top of the tower – two lifts and 108 steps. Although it was a touch soggy up there, we could just about see through the low-hanging clouds and down to the floor 360-feet straight down. A quick packed-lunch was then followed by a rehearsal.

As expected the informal concert was up to the usual standard of the Melody Makers. Even though they were dwarfed by the sheer size of the space they performed in,they more than made up for this with the enthusiasm and competent manner in which they delivered their repertoire. The choir were once again joined by Bethan Dudley-Fryar and their combined voices filled the space of Liverpool Cathedral quite nicely, earning a warm reception tom the small audience who were present. Their programme was similar to the Bath Abbey concert on 13 May.

A tear-jerking moment came when it was time to say goodbye to those leaving the choir after this trip. Elan, Annabelle, Neils, Hayden, Elinor, Hannah, Lily H, Lily P, Isabel and Alexander were all presented with a gift of thanks by Mr Bowers — which then got slightly trampled as the choir left the stage. Thank goodness they weren’t fragile. It goes without saying that these choristers will be missed.

After the concert, a tour of the Cathedral was followed by a brilliant organ demonstration given by Dr Ian Tracey (The head organist at the Cathedral) who took us through every key, pipe, stop and pedal. He proceeded to shake the Cathedral with the lower frequencies before “pulling out all the stops” to give all present in the building a really good blast of what the massive organ is capable of.

Mr Bowers, who was a boy chorister and then the Organ Scholar in 2004-2006, then gave us a wonderful exhibition of his talents on the organ. It was a delight to see him playing surrounded by his Melody Makers, all of whom seemed very proud of their choir master. Magical.

Leaving the Cathedral to glorious sunshine we returned to the hostel for some down time, dinner and a quiz. A round of hot chocolate and a quick room tidy rounded off the end to very successful, but very tiring day. Bring on day three…

P.S. We apologies for the temporary lack of photos on the blog, but the wi-fi connection in the hostel isn’t very good and we’re struggling to upload them. We will post them as soon as we can.

So here we are in Liverpool at last. As this post is being written the children are all washed, brushed and in bed reading a book. Easy.

Our journey up North was no more eventful than Mr Bowers having to step-up and rid the bus of an interloper in the form of a bumble bee. He heroically caught the little creature before humanely letting it out of the window on the motorway. Hopefully it could still fly!

The kids were incredibly well behaved for the whole five hours and there was not one single incident of travel sickness. Wonderful.

Once safely arrived at the youth hostel we had a quick turn around before hitting the bowling alley, where the Melody Makers of Bath Abbey showed the kids of Liverpool how to smash those pins. Intricate team tactics were in evidence, as were celebrations and a few commiserations  A spell in the amusements followed, where two-penny fortunes were made and lost, cuddly toys went ‘a beggin’ and some nail-biting air hockey contests were undertaken.

Dinner back the hostel consisted of gourmet chicken burgers, pasta and cheese cake (and salad), followed by an awesome piece of birthday cake in celebration of Annie’s birthday. The children had the chance to run off the day’s travelling in the hostel garden with games of tag, gymnastics contests and running an import dance school.

There were some other points of interest seen during the day including a pink fire engine, one and half cathedrals; crazy articulated lorry racing; the gate to China Town; plus a pair of vans driving around and around in circles in a futile attempt to bump-start one of them.

Finally, we rounded the day off with yet more cake as we helped Katy Garner celebrate what is the second birthday of the trip. Good times.

(Photos to follow)

After a smooth journey and a stop for lunch, we’ve arrived in Liverpool safe and sound.

We had some lovely views on the journey.

(More photos to follow)

We’re now going to settle in before heading off to the bowling alley.