"Where to, mate?" the cab driver asked as I rolled my suitcase out of London's Paddington Station after a flight from Chicago followed by a ride on the Heathrow Express.

"Euston Station, please," I said. "I'm taking the train to Liverpool."

"Liverpool? You better practice up on your Scouse," he said disapprovingly. "That's what they call the way they talk up there. No one can understand them."

Indeed, anyone who hails from Liverpool is a Scouser, but there's really no language barrier today.

I had imagined Liverpool to be a tough, brawling city, once a major port but now left to nurture memories of better days. What I learned was that the Liverpool of today is a world-class destination. A pulsating musical scene has evolved from the early days of skiffle music and the Mersey Beat, and there are compelling museums and shopping, lodging and dining choices, including a new restaurant by British cooking maven Jamie Oliver.

This summer the city will add a new Museum of Liverpool. The main attractions generally are walkable from the central area while the clean and efficient Merseyrail transit system provides access to sites farther away with an economical day pass. The pass allows visitors to explore another British standout, the historic city of Chester, only 15 miles away.

For shoppers, the 2-year-old Liverpool ONE center downtown — a $1.5 billion redevelopment with 160 shops, bars and restaurants over 42 acres — is the focal point.

The best place to get one's bearings in this city of about 450,000 is just before sunset from a window-side perch in the bar of the Panoramic Restaurant, 34 floors up in the West Tower on Brook Street.

Out the windows to the north, the River Mersey spills into the Irish Sea beyond the golfers' mecca of Royal Birkdale and the resort town of Southport. Ferries still cross the Mersey near remnants of 12 miles of docks that once gave Liverpool the title of world's biggest port and the center of European emigration to North America.

Just below on the waterfront are the Three Graces — three signature buildings that are part of the city's World Heritage Site designated in 2004, and farther south, the Albert Dock — with many museums, restaurants and bars housed in a historic waterfront complex. It is home to The Beatles Story exhibition; the Merseyside Maritime Museum, revealing the city's ties to the Titanic; and the International Slavery Museum. Also on Albert Dock is the Tate Liverpool, displaying modern and contemporary art.

It had taken just two hours to reach Liverpool Lime Street Station aboard one of the frequent London departures offered by Virgin Trains. That makes it possible to visit Liverpool as a day trip from London, although anyone who does that will be missing a lot.

My earliest knowledge of Liverpool had been formed by the early Beatles of the 1960s and "Ferry Cross the Mersey," sung by Gerry and the Pacemakers. The song is still played today aboard the three famous ferryboats that continue to make the short crossing from central city to the Wirral Peninsula.

Liverpool carries a disturbing burden as the financial hub of the African slave trade in the 18th century. From street names to architecture, so much of the city's history is tied to human bondage that putting it in the past is not an option.

"The whole town was built on slavery," said my cabbie, Trevor. "Right on the Pier Head, there's a place called the Goree. That's the last bit of land the slaves saw when they left Africa." (Goree is an island off the coast of Senegal.)

Liverpool recognizes this stained past at the International Slavery Museum, where the theme is "setting the truth free." Over a period of 400 years, until slavery was abolished, at least 12 million Africans were put to work on plantations in the Americas. Liverpool's role was at its height in the mid 1700s, with ships from the port transporting 1.5 million Africans into slavery.

Although few slaves actually saw Liverpool, the wealth brought from slavery through shipping, textiles and agricultural products played a huge role in shaping today's city. Each year the museum sponsors a Slavery Remembrance Day Festival, where the voices of lost generations come alive in the words "Remember not that we were sold, but that we were strong."

Its prominence as a major port also gives Liverpool a diversity unique in Europe. It has the oldest black African community in the United Kingdom, and Europe's oldest Chinese population.

I stayed in the city's Commercial District at the modern Atlantic Tower Thistle Hotel, which offers commanding views of the nearby waterfront, the Mersey ferry dock and of the Three Graces — the Royal Liver Building; the Cunard Building, former headquarters of the shipping line; and the Mersey Docks and Harbor Board building. The Liver Building is "the nest" for the city's symbol, two Liver (pronounced lee-ver) birds sculpted in metal that perch on separate clock towers. Just across the street is Albion House, the former headquarters of the White Star Line, operator of the Titanic.

A block from the Atlantic Tower hotel is one of Britain's best-kept secrets from World War II, a museum simply called Western Approaches. From an underground warren deep in the bowels of a block of offices the Allies conducted the Battle of the Atlantic. The top-secret command post directed the tenuous sea link that kept Britain supplied during the war. A huge map room shows in detail where the cat-and-mouse game pitting naval convoys and their escorts against Nazi U-boats, warships and aircraft was played out in a prolonged battle that claimed 120,000 lives.

A short ferry ride away is The U-boat Story. The exhibit is built around the U-534, one of only four German submarines from World War II surviving in preserved condition. The 240-ton boat is cut into four sections, allowing visitors to see the tight crew quarters, command center and torpedo bays. It was sunk off the Danish coast by RAF aircraft at the end of the war and was not discovered again until 1986. In 1993, the intact sub was brought to the surface by a team led by a Danish adventurer.

The Beatles' legacy is kept alive these days at crowded clubs that include venues once frequented by the four, such as the Jacaranda pub on Slater Street and the renovated Cavern Club and other haunts on Mathew Street in the Cavern Quarter. Tour buses and taxis take fans from downtown to John's and Paul's childhood homes, Strawberry Field, Penny Lane and the churchyard grave where Eleanor Rigby is buried. In conjunction with his 70th birthday in 2010, an 18-foot-high memorial to John Lennon by American artist Lauren Voiers was unveiled in Chavasse Park.

The city's signature musical events are the annual International Beatle Week Festival at the end of August. It is coupled with the two-day Mathew Street Festival, a free musical extravaganza that is the largest in Europe.

My short visit was not nearly enough time to explore what is an energetic, engaging and historic city — or to make it to the British Lawnmower Museum in nearby Southport. But that's for next time.

WHEN YOU GO

For general information: www.visitliverpool.com or www.visitbritain.com

Atlantic Tower Thistle Hotel rates start at $130 per night, but splurge for a room with a magnificent view overlooking the city's Pier Head: www.thistle.com

For information on rail passes and train travel throughout Great Britain: www.britrail.com

International Slavery Museum: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism

Panoramic Restaurant and Bar: www.panoramicliverpool.com

The U-Boat Story: www.u-boatstory.com.uk

Western Approaches Museum: www.liverpoolwarmuseum.co.uk

Photos:

Scheduled to open later this year (2011), the Museum of Liverpool will join other landmarks on the city's Pier Head.

Made famous in song, the Mersey ferry heads to Liverpool's Pier Head. Photo courtesy of the Mersey Partnership.

A statue of British King Edward VII keeps watch over the Royal Liver Building, atop which sit the two Liver birds that are symbols of the city. Photo courtesy of Carl H. Larsen.

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