EUROPE: Liverpool

Thursday, April 26th, 6:00 am

Bryant and I arrive in Liverpool!

After an exhausting first couple days, it felt wonderful to get a good nights sleep. (And finally be able to shower, even though the shower was the tiniest little thing you've ever seen.) We had to be ready to get off the ferry at 6:00 am, and finally arrived in the city around 6:30 am.

Waiting to dock

Liverpool

The outside of the "Hard Days Night Hotel"

Our hotel was right around the corner from The Cavern Club, where the Beatles became famous.

The Cavern Club has had The Rolling Stones, Beatles, Elton John,
Queen, Eric Clapton, Adele...etc. all play there.

The area around our hotel

 The awful part about arriving so early was that our hotel would only hold our bags, but not let us check in. We also quickly learned that Europeans don't like to get up early. NOTHING (aside from a McDonalds) opens until at least 8:00 am.

A shopping center by our hotel

 

Our hotel finally let us check in around 1:00 pm and we were super grateful when they did!

All of the rooms are Beatles themed and we happened to get Paul McCartney circa "Sgt. Peppers" days.

And here we find Bryant sleeping...shocking, I know...

Heated towel rack?! Yes please!!

Oh, hello Paul

When you walked into the room you had to put your key card into a slot at the door to be able to turn anything on, then we had this intense control panel by the bed.

As part of the package we purchased at the hotel we were supposed to get two tickets on "The Magical Mystery Tour", which takes you around to all of the Beatles sights in the city. However, Bryant and I took a nap and overslept. We thought we just had to go down to the lobby to catch the bus but it turns out we had a 10 minute walk down to Albert Dock so we ended up missing the bus. 

(To say that Bryant was "upset" with me is putting it lightly...)

So we ended up getting a personal "Beatles Taxi Tour"

Albert Dock

Albert Dock

Albert Dock 

Here's our lovely little tour guide:

RINGO STARR

 Here is the birthplace of Ringo Starr, aka Richard Starkey.

It was definitely in a ghetto area, even back in the day. Its since been closed down and the city wants to demolish all of the area, but people keep protesting to keep this "historic Beatles sight" alive.

Ringo Starr's home

 Our sweet little tour guide kept telling Bryant and I, "Now this next stop, you both have to sing!" annnnnd...we never sang for the poor guy.

(Did he really expect us to break out in song?)

PENNY LANE

"In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs

Of every head he's had the pleasure to know

And all the people that come and go

Stop and say hello."

"On the corner is a banker with a motorcar

The little children laugh at him behind his back

And the banker never wears a mack

In the pouring rain, very strange."

"Behind the shelter in the middle of a roundabout
The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray
And though she feels as if she's in a play
She is anyway."

The church where Paul McCartney's brother, Mike, was married.

GEORGE HARRISON

George Harrison also grew up in a lower class area like Ringo did. The street's name is "Arnold Grove", which George used as a pseudonym when they would travel. He even had a passport created so when people would come up and ask if he was George he could say, "Nope. I'm Arnold." and produce evidence to back it up.

Birthplace of George Harrison

STRAWBERRY FIELDS

JOHN LENNON

When John Lennon was born his father left his mother, who became emotionally unstable and eventually died. John was raised by his Aunt Mimi in this house, which was definitely moving him into the middle/upperclass area.

John's aunt used to make him and Paul practice their songs in the tiny little room in front because she couldn't stand all the noise.

The room that John lived in

John with his Aunt Mimi

PAUL McCARTNEY

And finally the home of Paul. There's a lady who currently lives there and according to our tour guide, "she's evil". (I think she's probably nice to large tour groups, but not nice to the little taxi's who probably stop ALL THE TIME.)

After our tour we went back to the hotel to warm up (yes, it rained the whole time).

This was part of the staircase at the hotel. 

 The pictures they had were amazing! 

They also had Beatles music playing in the lobby all the time.

We went back to the shopping center to have dinner.

Bryant's burger

My amazing Duck sandwich. (my mouth still waters every time I look at this. BEST FOOD EVER!

After dinner we had two tickets to see the Beatles Tribute Band at the Cavern Club.

It was such a fun night! The band was pretty impressive and it was funny to see EVERYONE singing along and going crazy for a group of impersonators. 

 

This was the Adele section:

You have to go down probably three flights of stairs to get to the main area. 

On Friday morning we had an 11:00am train bound for London.

This is the Liverpool Lime Street Station

Leaving Liverpool

Liverpool was a beautiful city and it was fun to be able to see so much Beatles History, which we both completely loved.

The next stop: London

Total distance from Liverpool to London: 211 miles