Going off to Liverpool

Outside Mendips...is John home?

Where the Quarry Men made their first record.

Casbah Coffee Club: Paul painted the Rainbow ceiling and George painted the brown.

The Babershop on Penny Lane...

Mom with a Ringo photo inside the Hard Days' Night Hotel

The Cavern Club

It's coming to take us away.....

I am acting out Ringo's "Don't push the button" scene from Yellow Submarine at the Beatles Story.

Days 3-4 of my trip: Liverpool England

Day 3

My mom and I took the train from London to Liverpool and ended up on Lime Street, which caused us to break into singing "Maggie Mae." We check into the Hard Day's Night Hotel, which is an AMAZING hotel!! I high recommend it for the bathtub alone! Then we walked down to the Albert Dock where we went into the Beatles Story museum. The museum had some neat items in it, but if you are like me, then you really didn't need to listen to the guided tour on the headphones. I already knew all of the things they were saying and could even quote some of the interviews I was hearing. After that we went to the second part of the museum and watched a cute but cheesy 3D film and saw the Julian Lennon White Feather exhibit. The White Feather Exhibit was AWESOME!!! So many neat things to see there!

After all of that and a lunch with poor service at the Ha Ha Cafe, we met the Magical Mystery Tour bus for a tour around Liverpool. I can see that a private taxi tour would have given more information, but the bus tour was fun and really wasn't as bad as I thought it might have been. We saw George's childhood home, The Sentimental Journey pub, Strawberry Field, Brian's home, Penny Lane and so many other places that you have only heard about. It all ended back on Mathew Street. Mom and I went into the Cavern and stayed there for a few hours singing Beatles songs with along with a guy on stage who was doing a Lennon tribute. It was such a great feeling to be singing Beatles songs with other Beatles fans in the Cavern!

Day 4

Our day started off with a walk to the Albert Dock to meet the mini bus that would take us on the tours of John Lennon and Paul McCartney's childhood homes. While waiting for the bus, we met a cab driver named Billy who would end up being an awesome thing! Going into Mendips was really neat for me since I am a John fan and I have read and seen everything John Lennon you can think of, so I had this mental image of what the place looked like. It was just so amazing to be in John Lennon home from when he was a kid! I can't even begin to explain it. Paul McCartney's home was neat as well. They have photos all over Paul's home (taken by Mike Mac) that really are neat. It was especially cool to look out the window into the backyard exactly how the "Chaos and Creation in the backyard" album cover was taken.

After the tours (and a good lunch at a pizza place), we called Billy the cab driver to see if he could take us out to the Casbah Coffee Club for our tour (thanks to those of you from this blog that helped me get the phone number and book the tour!). Well Billy is a big Beatles fan from back in the 1960's and used to do private tours of Beatles sights. He was so friendly and he went out of his way to show us the building where the Quarrymen recorded "In Spite of all the Danger."

The Casbah Tour was given to us by Roag Best (Pete's brother and Neil's son). I can't believe all of the things John, Paul, George, Pete and Stu painted in that basement club is still there! Everything from where John carved his name with a pen knife to where Rory Storm hit his head on the ceiling is still there! After the Casbah tour, Billy picked us back up and took us to the train station.

I really enjoyed Liverpool and I am so glad that I had the chance to go!