What a ferry good destination

11:20am Saturday 19th July 2008

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ONE million visitors are expected to descend on Liverpool this weekend.

In what promises to be one of the busiest weekends in the city’s year of culture celebrations, the banks of the Mersey will be packed with 800,000 spectators to view the Tall Ships race, while 200,000 spectators will be watching the golf at the Open, up the coast at Royal Birkdale.

Already this year, more than three million tourists have visited Liverpool, taking the measure of what the European Capital of Culture for 2008 has to offer.

One highlight of the year-long programme is the Gustav Klimt exhibition at the Tate. In what is a major scoop for Liverpool, the gallery has secured the first exhibition in the UK of the Austrian artist’s work.

Celebrated for his erotic and ornate pictures of the female form, often embellished with gold, the works of Klimt (1862-1918) have adorned postcards, posters, calendars and coffee mugs for decades. His most famous painting is probably The Kiss – or The Portrait of Adele Block-Bauer, which was the most expensive painting sold when it went under the hammer for $135 million dollars two years ago.

I had been an admirer of Klimt since my teenage years, so seeing some Klimts in the flesh, so to speak, was the main reason for my visit to Liverpool last weekend.

Billed as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, the exhibition has a lot to live up to, and fans won’t be disappointed. It’s fascinating to see Klimt’s work up close; to admire the tiny brush strokes that build up to create his soft-focus, almost translucent style.

Included, too, are earlier paintings, mostly portraits, which reveal Klimt to be a master craftsman, capturing his sitters with the near perfection of a photograph.

The exhibition seeks to place Klimt in context, and presents works by his contemporaries, including Josef Hoffmann, the architect and designer who shared Klimt’s view of ‘total art’. Together, they championed the dual themes of simplicity and opulence in art, architecture, fashion, furniture and other decorative objects.

I travelled to Liverpool with my sister, Yvonne, letting the train take the strain. We left York early on Saturday morning and arrived just two hours and 15 minutes later at Liverpool Lime Street.

We’d been to Liverpool many years ago and were aware it had changed, but were not quite prepared for its dramatic reinvention. This may be a city of culture, but it’s also a city of cranes. You can barely turn a corner without stumbling across a major building development as Liverpool undergoes a multi-billion-pound facelift for the 21st century.

A mammoth work in progress is the £1 billion Liverpool One development, the biggest city centre retail project in Europe, due for completion by September.

Meanwhile, shopaholics can get their fix on Church Street, the Coney Street of Liverpool, home to all the top high-street brands. The nearby Metqaurter is a mecca for label lovers, where you will find Armani, Hugo Boss, Timberland and MAC.

Work continues apace down on the docks, where a new ferry terminal is being built and the new £164 million Arena and Conference Centre is becoming the toast of the town, staging the likes of Ringo Starr and Diana Ross concerts. Its reputation will be cemented further when it hosts the MTV Europe Music Awards in November.

Klimt is not the only artistic draw the city has to offer. Equally adorned, but not quite as coveted (financially at least), are the Superlambananas, the 120 or so half-lamb/half banana sculptures which have been scattered across Liverpool.

Each has a different decoration – we saw one covered in builders’ hard hats, another in grass, while the one in the lobby of our hotel, the super-stylish Radisson, had a leather seat fitted into the banana curve.

They are a fun, visual treat for visitors. You can pick up a map that marks the location of all the Superlambananas, and hunting them down would be an amusing way to weave your way round the city – particularly if you come with children.

Of course, no trip to Liverpool could really be complete without paying homage to the Fab Four. We walked down Mathew Street, home to the The Cavern, which closed in 1974 but has been rebuilt a few doors away and is still a live music venue today.

To step back into the Liverpool of the Swinging Sixties, you have to visit The Beatles Story, at Albert Dock, where the world of John, Ringo, Paul and George is expertly recreated through props, scenes, music and video. It’s worth the admission price alone to sit in the recreation of The Cavern, complete with the coffee shop where Cilla Black once served.

We couldn’t resist taking the ferry across the Mersey, but had to pinch ourselves when the infamous Gerry And The Pacemakers’ song blared out through the loud speakers.

Just in case we missed it, they played it again as we disembarked. The ferry affords an unrivalled opportunity to view the spectacular skyline of Liverpool, impressive enough to rival that of Sydney and New York, and to listen to the informative guide, which tells the story of how Liverpool became the gateway to the new world.

As we stocked up on snacks at the M&S shop at Lime Street before catching our train back to York, we agreed that Liverpool was a city on the cusp of change.

There may be trendy shops, fancy bars and international concert stars and artists coming to the city now, but its reassuring to know that the city is still proud of its past. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Fact file

•Radisson SAS Hotel Liverpool, pictured, Old Hall Street T: 0151 966 1500 www.liverpool.radissonsas.com •We travelled from York to Liverpool with First TransPennine Express. Prices start at £22 return. Students can take advantage of the ‘Student Getaway’ ticket which starts from just £11 return. This is only available from the website www.tpexpress.co.uk and customers must go through the student link.

•The Beatles Story Albert Dock T: 0151 709 1963 www.beatlesstory.com •Get the low-down on Albert Dock, home to six museums and galleries, including the Tate, and 17 cafés and restaurants as well as hotels and shops at: www.albertdock.com •Gustav Klimt, Painting, Design & Modern Life In Vienna 1900 (Runs until August 31, 2008).

Tickets cost £8, £6 concessions, members free. Pre-booking is recommended, either online or by telephoning 0845 600 1354.

The Tate, Albert Dock www.tate.org.uk/liverpool •Get on the trail of the superlambananas at www.gosuperlambananas.co.uk •Liverpool 08 Highlights for the rest of the year include: September 4: Simon Rattle returns to his home town to conduct the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Philharmonic Hall.

October 2 to January 19, 2009: The UK’s biggest exhibition for 20 years of Le Corbusier, one of the greatest architects of the 20th century, will take place at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ The King, Brownlow Hill.

October 30 to November 29: Pete Postlethwaite takes on the role of King Lear at the Everyman Theatre, Hope Street.

November 6: Liverpool’s Echo Arena plays host to this year’s MTV Europe Music Awards.

Find out about more events at: www.liverpool08.com •Tourist information: Telephone: 0151 233 2008 or visit www.visitliverpool.com