Honeymoon Tour: Liverpool - Day Two

We really only had half a day in Liverpool for day two since our plane to Dublin was in the evening. We still made the most of it and managed to some pretty cool stuff into our half a day. First, we returned to Albert Dock for the National Trust tour of John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney's childhood homes. Unfortunately we wen're allowed to take photographs of the inside of the homes (lame!) but it was still really neat to walk where the boys did all those years ago.

We visited Paul McCartney's childhood home located at 20 Forthlin Road right in Liverpool.

This home was owned by the local authority and the McCartneys moved in in 1955. They didn't even own their own home! That's how normal the family was. Can you believe the incredible journey Paul had?? Insane. Anyway, does "she came in through the bathroom window" mean anything to you? Well, we got to see the bathroom window. Apparently, Paul would miss curfew and his dad would lock him out (what a dad thing to do) so Paul would take the alley (it looks like a black door to the left in the photo above) to the back garden of the home, climb up a red pipe, and climb into the bathroom window. Kind of neat. The National Trust wanted this home because of how many Beatles songs were written in it.

We also saw Mendips, John Lennon's childhood home located at 251 Menlove Avenue in Woolton. John lived with his Aunt Mimi because by all accounts his mother sounded like a piece of work and they decided it was best that John did not stay with his mother. John's bedroom is the room with the four windows near the center of the home. By the way, it's a semi-detached home so the gray and yellow paint mark two different homes. 

I took this photo from the wikipedia page because I couldn't find the one I took and I wanted to point out a few things. First, the blue circle under John's bedroom windows is an English Heritage blue plaque, given when the person has been dead for 20 years. For this reason, Paul's house does not have a plaque...yet.

I also wanted to point out the little overhang in front of the front door. Aunt Mimi used to rent a bedroom out to a student in the area and if Paul and John were playing music late at night they would go into the overhang room. It's supposed to have really cool acoustics but I was too shy to sing when we stood in there. We also learned that people didn't really use the front door. Apparently, everyone except for doctors, lawyers, or official visitors, would use the back door entrance because it led into the kitchen where the floor was tile and a lot easier to clean. If you entered in the front door you entered onto carpet and it was harder to clean.

Fun fact, did you know that Aunt Mimi was judgmental of Paul McCartney before she first met him? She thought he would be too gritty or something...but Paul was a charmer and she liked him instantly. Fascinating.

After the tour ended we visited the Liverpool Cathedral. This cathedral houses the United Kingdom's largest organ and is a fixture in the Liverpool skyline. It's also the largest cathedral in Britain. The inside is just as impressive:

Just look at the lectern:

The cathedral also houses the world's heaviest bells. These are in a tower that visitors can climb up and look out at Liverpool. It was a rainy day when we visited but we still climbed the tower. Can I just say...staircases in Europe are scary and tiny.

The bells rang out a rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine" after his death. Also, all of the bells have a name, which I think it pretty cool:

After we climbed up to the tower, this was the view of Liverpool:

And that was Liverpool! We caught our flight to Dublin and we were onto our last leg of our honeymoon. Visit again to see what we got into in Dublin. Hint: Guinness, churches, and cliffs, oh my!

Honeymoon Tour - Liverpool: Day One

If you are a fan of The Fab Four then you know that they originated in a little English town by the name of Liverpool. My husband is a HUGE fan of The Beatles (HUGE) and when we planned England as a honeymoon destination we both knew we would be adding on a quick stop in Liverpool. It was only an hour or so train ride from London and we got to do all the Beatles-mania stuff. I think the husband really enjoyed it. First up, the Magical Mystery Tour, a 2 hour bus tour that visits a variety of Beatles-famous locations, including a bunch of childhood homes (you can't go in on the tour), the church where Paul met John, restaurants, schools, and pubs they visited, Strawberry Fields, etc. By the way the bus totally looks exactly like the ticket:

The bus drove down Penny Lane and the guide told us that people kept stealing the Penny Lane sign so frequently that the town tried to paint it onto the brick wall.  However, the fans then tried to chip away at the bricks in order to get a piece for themselves so the town eventually returned back to the normal signs. I assume they still have to replace it somewhat frequently. 

You've heard of the song Strawberry Fields Forever, right? The tour stopped at the real Strawberry Field, which was not a field of strawberries. It was a Salvation Army kids home located in John Lennon's childhood town, Woolton. Also, fun fact, John and Paul used to bike to each other houses when they were younger--wish I could have grown up in a time when I could bike to a friend's house! John Lennon would often climb the fence of Strawberry Fields to play with the kids in the home, much to the owner's complaint! Our tour guide told us that John's Aunt Mimi (he was living with her) told him that if he kept up with his antics they would hang him. The lyric "Nothing to get hung about, Strawberry Fields forever" makes a lot more sense now, right? This is the gate, though the actual gate has since been replaced and we saw the real gate later on in a museum.

Along the way we saw Saint Peter's Church, where a headstone reading Eleanor Rigby is found. We also saw The Empress, which was featured on Ringo Starr's first solo album. To be honest I had no idea about that and wouldn't have remembered it if they didn't paint it above the window.

We also stopped by the childhood homes of Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Because only people on a tour through the National Trust (who look after the residences) can go inside, we weren't able to actually go into the homes. But we could stop and take photos outside. So we visited Paul's childhood home at 4 Forthlyn Road and John Lennon's home. Naturally we also booked the Trust tour for the next morning so we could see the inside. It was really interesting to see where these mega stars started.  This is John Lennon's home.

On the way back to the hotel, which by the way was named A Hard Day's Night Hotel, (Beatles themed and actually really nice), we passed by the Liverpool Cathedral, which was incredibly impressive. We planned to visit the cathedral the next day. But seriously, look how intense the cathedral is:

We had a quick delicious meal of too much Cuban food at a place on the Albert Dock. Seriously, we bought a bunch of tapas and I'm convinced we ordered one of everything on the menu:

Everything was delicious!

After lunch we stopped at The Beatles Experience, a museum dedicated to everything The Beatles. Throughout the museum they had a mix of authentic objects and staged scenes. For examples, they staged the Cavern Club so you could take pictures. Although you could just go to the real Cavern Club too since it was only a short walk away.

We got to see Ringo's gold sparkly drumkit, which was used during The Concert for George Harrison a year after his death:

These were sold at auction for about $64,000.

They also had a replica "white room":

We also stumbled upon this super cool Beatles statue near Albert Dock:

Overall, it was a really good day. And we were looking forward to continuing our Liverpool adventure the next day. Be sure to check back again to see what we did on day two in Liverpool!

Honeymoon Tour - London: Day Four

On our final day in London we tried to move in with Kate Middleton returned to Kensington Palace for a tour. I learned something as we were waiting to go inside: the royal grass is cut by royal horses. Think I'm joking?

There is the royal lawn crew. Seriously.

I guess they don't want to disturb the royals' precious beauty sleep! Kensington Palace was having an special exhibition of Princess Diana's various dresses that she wore during her lifetime. But first we toured the King's and Queen's Apartments. This is me on the Queen's staircase. I'm ready to move in any time!

Just check out these ceilings!

And I got to tend to official royal business. Lol.

After Kensington Palace (which is FAR from Buckingham Palace, even by cab), we headed to the train station for our next adventure: Leavesden. What's in Leavesden you ask? 

Leavesden is home to the studios where all the Harry Potter movies were filmed. Since they finished shooting they opened up the studios to us mere muggles for "The Making of Harry Potter" self-guided tours. It.was.epic.

You get off the train and board a shuttle that is right there waiting for you to whisk you off to Hogwarts the studios. You are greeted immediately by Wizard Chess pieces (yes, the actual pieces from the movie).

Then you go inside and there's a short video welcoming you to the studios and then you enter the great hall. This is the door to Hogwarts, literally.

From there it's kind of a choose-your-own-adventure. Everything is in two warehouses and you can spend as long as you like going through. They have all the sets, props, wigs, costumes, etc and you can see and read about it all.  The exhibit that was being shown while we were there were costumes. Between Kensington Palace and Harry Potter it was a regular clothing theme!

You can also get audio guides to tell you about everything. Be warned, the audio guides are LONG. We ended up sitting in the butter beer cafeteria listening and watching all of them so we could then walk around and enjoy what we were seeing. They also had the various backdrops from the movies. For example, Dumbledore's office:

and Diagon Alley.

And last but not least, le piece de resistance.....a full to-scale model of Hogwarts. This thing could have inspired tears from the right fan. I was just in awe from its size.

It doesn't look like it would be very large but check out the people on the right side of the photo. That will show you the scale. It was incredible to see.

After we made it back from the Harry Potter studio we swung by Abbey Road. Naturally, we had to pose on the crosswalk.

And that marks the end of our London leg of the Honeymoon Tour. The next day we headed to Liverpool. If you're not interested in the Beatles you may want to skip that post!

Honeymoon Tour - London: Day Three

Our third day in London proved to be an absolutely gorgeous day. Is it odd to you that I didn't notice it rain at all during our time in London?? Anyway, we spent day three doing some historic exploring and filling ourselves to the max on tea. We started at the Tower of London, which was a short walk from our hotel. By the way, The Tower of London is not just a tower. It's like a little community of buildings ranging from old, very old, and ruins.  

One of the first things we saw when we entered the tower was "Traitor's Gate," where the various prisoners would arrive. In case you didn't know, tower prisoners included Anne Boleyn, Sir Walter Raleigh, and even Elizabeth I.

I think it's safe to say that's not a gate I would want to come through! 
Next up was the White Tower, which to be honest was the first thing I noticed and is the most attention-demanding building inside.

The White Tower was built by William the Conqueror in 1078 (uhm, wow!). Fun fact, the staircase (you can see it in the photo above) was made of wood so that if the tower was ever under siege they could burn the stairs and there would be no way for people to get in. Good to know. Fortunately, we were assured that the stairs would not be burned while we were inside.

The White Tower has also served as an armoury, treasury, prison, menagerie, Royal Mint, public record office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of London (though now they are on their own about fifty feet away). It was also believed to be where the "two princes in the tower" were killed and it is also the site of executions and imprisonments of Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey, and Sir Walter Raleigh. Hence the nickname Bloody Tower. 

The Tower of London still houses the Crown Jewels (which you can't take photos inside UGH) but the jewels are not located in the White Tower anymore. The crown jewels were so neat and some were SO SO beautiful that I reallllly wanted to take photos of everything. I learned my lesson in Buckingham Palace though and I wasn't going to mess with the Beefeaters at the Tower of London. So I left my phone in my purse and just walked around the jewels. Turns out there is much more than just jewels and crowns inside. They have Maces and the items used to carry and distribute the oil for coronations. So cool!  Also, the State Sword of Ireland was out being used on the day we walked through. We were told that if an item was missing that it was out on official business. I have to ask though -- what official business required the Sword of Ireland?? Fascinating.

My sister told me to look for the ravens at the Tower of London. Legend has it that if the ravens ever to leave the Tower of London, the White Tower would crumble and a great tragedy would befall England. At first I was disappointed to see cages for the ravens, but then I realized the cages were open to the outside and the birds could move freely. I saw one proudly sitting at the top of the cage. 

 

On the other side of the community is a bunch of tudor style homes. In fact, these are the only remaining original tudor style homes in England because the rest burned in the Great Fire. One of the tudor homes is the "Queen's Residence." Your know, in case Her Majesty ever decided to have a sleepover or something. See the right most windows? That is where Anne Boleyn stayed before her coronation...and then a few years later before her execution.  Yikes.

The little red fleck you see by the tree in the photo is a guard. The Queen's Residence is guarded at all times, even when no royalty is present, which is pretty much always. We also learned about the Ceremony of the Keys, which occurs nightly.

After the Tower of London we walked over to Tower Bridge. You can see how close together they are!

Tower Bridge was really neat because you could walk across the upper part (you can see in the photo above) above the cars and water. Here's another photo of me hamming while Andrew is....doing something. 

I feel like Tower Bridge is one of the most recognizable spots in England. Everyone has seen this bridge before.

We went up into the top level where you could walk across and portions of the floor were see-through! They were made of a material that was strong enough to hold 6 elephants. I took a selfie and used the mirrored ceiling for a variety of photos.  It looks like we're floating.

 

We then stopped by the boiler room which housed all the old mechanics for raising the bridge. Now the bridge is raised by more modern means but Andrew wanted to see all the old stuff. The gears were HUGE but oddly enough I don't have any photos. Afterwards, we decided to act like Brits and go for some tea.

Let me just say, if you go to London be sure to book a tea tasting somewhere. You will not regret it. We booked ours at Fortnum & Mason's Tea Salon. How cute is this table?!

The menu had all the tea and tea sandwich choices. Andrew went with the sweet option and I went with the savory selection. Look how happy he as among his tea and tea sandwiches, scones, and desserts! See that three-tired tower of deliciousness? We EACH got one. We were in foodie heaven.  

And bonus points, everything was replenishable! So, I could have eaten 40 tea sandwiches and all would have been fine. Don't worry, I did not eat 40 tea sandwiches. But how cute is this ceasar salad in an egg cup with cheese straw? Adorable. And very delicious!

I think that's all we did on day three in London. We walked around a bit more after our tea extravaganza but we were really feeling tired (and full!) so we ended up just going back to the hotel, cracking open some of our French champagne, and calling it a night.  

See what we were up to on day four in London when I post next time! We're headed back to Kensington Palace!