N. 53°24’47” W. 02°58’78”
My container ship is not coming to Liverpool. I have been here for a week waiting to board the Joni Ritscher but at the last minute the ship has been diverted to Antwerp because of repairs in the Liverpool docks. So I leave Liverpool not by sea but by train through the network of tunnels that were cut into the limestone hills to create the world’s first railway.
Half of the continent fled from Europe through these tunnels travelling by ship towards the promises of America. But I’m travelling in the opposite direction – Virgin train to one of the channel ports, cross-channel-ferry and then train again to Antwerp.