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!