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!