Beatles Pilgrimage tour: Part 2 London

My Beatles Pilgrimage tour Part 2 – London

From July 9-12, 2013, my mom and I were in London as part of the Beatles Pilgrimage Tour.    There is so much to see and do in London!  There is a lot of great Beatles things as well as non-Beatles things.   I really like London.   I think it is the easiest “big city” to travel around in and the people just seem really nice.  

Day 4:  London

The majority of this day was spent traveling by train from Liverpool to London.   It is a pretty easy 2 hour train ride.   The Virgin Trains are similar to the Amtrack Trains here in the United States, but this one make less stops than the Amtrack does.  

We arrived at Euston (rhymes with Houston) Station and walked to our hotel, The Premiere Inn.   Our tour group got check into their rooms except for (no surprise here) our room was not ready.  Seriously!   This is just how it goes for us.     We got to check into the room about 45 minutes later.   The room was pretty nice.   It was a big upgrade from the hotel we stayed at in London in 2010!    We found it strange that there was a big bed and then one small bed.   But whatever….we just go with the flow.

We met our tour hostess, Lucy.   Lucy is a great guide!   She is a fan just like you or I.   She had just seen Paul in concert two weeks earlier and had a lot to share about that.   I am just so glad that I met Lucy.  I think we will be Beatle pals for a long time.     She took us over to the British Library (it was near the hotel) where they have a section of Beatles handwritten lyrics (recently some were donated by Hunter Davies).   You can’t take photos in there, so I don’t have any to share.  But it was very neat.   John wrote the lyrics out to “A Hard Day’s Night” on a birthday card Julian had laying around.    

Then we traveled to Buckingham Palace and saw the insanity about the baby-to-be that was going on around there.   News trucks just camp out there all day and all night just in case the baby comes.   We walked around Hyde Park and Green Park.     Then we had dinner at the Hard Rock Café in London and took a tour of the vault.    The London Hard Rock Café has Stu’s original bass guitar.    They also have one of John’s army jackets.   What was missing that I saw last time was the shirt John wore at the Troubadour Club.    I looked online and noticed that it is now part of a traveling exhibit that the Hard Rock is doing.   I wonder if they learned what shirt it was from this blog?

Mom and I outside of Buckingham Palace

Stu's bass guitar

Day 5:  Henely-on Thames

We traveled by train to the town that George Harrison and the Harrison family called home, Henely-on-Thames.   Henley is a very quaint little river town.    I can see why George liked Henley so much.   I can honestly say that I enjoyed my time there. 

We went to Friar Park, which was a highlight of the trip to me.     I have typed out countless stories for this blog of fans who met George at the gates of Friar Park.   What I had in my mind while typing those stories is not what the place actually looked like.   It is so neat to see that you were wrong about what you pictured in your head.     The front gates are actually right by the road.  I thought they were set back a ways and there was a road that lead up to them, but nope…they are right there off a main road.    Of course you aren’t allowed to go any farther than the front gates and you can’t even see the main house from the gates (I thought maybe you could), but it still was just so neat to be standing outside of George’s home!   

We had lunch at George’s favorite Henley pub, the Row Barge.   The Row Barge is a great little pub!   The people in there were so friendly and kind to us.   The food was good and the atmosphere was great.    They said that Dhani had been in there just the previous night and they were expecting him that very night!    They only had good things to say about George.   If you ever find yourself in Henely, the Row Barge is a must!

We walked to the church and saw Dusty Springfield’s grave and then down by the river and had ice creams.  

The evening was free to do whatever you’d like in London.    My mom and (with Lucy’s help) went to see Jersey Boys at the theater.    Since I am a big theater geek, I wanted to experience the theater in London.  It was different than in the States and was a great experience.

the gates of Friar Park

Day 6:  London –Beatles driving tour

On this day we drove all around London and surrounding areas and saw a lot of Beatles sights.    We saw many of the places that were used in the movies, A Hard Day’s night and Help! (Marylebone Station,  the Turk’s Head, the pub where the Beatles jumped out the windows in Help, the river where Ringo walked etc etc etc).   We went to Abbey Road (always exciting!) and saw so many houses that I can’t even remember them all.   I know we saw the flat Ringo owned and let John and Yoko live there, Brian’s home on Chapel Street,  the apartment the Beatles shared on Green Street, The Asher’s house, Cavendish Avenue…and more.  

My favorite part of the day (and possible the whole trip) was going to Chiswick and seeing where the guys recorded “Paperback Writer” and “Rain.”    The tree was still there and so were all of the statues that you see in the film.      It has changed at all.    Pretty amazing!

Brian's Chapel Street House

The tree where the Beatles sat for the Rain promo

Day 7:  London – Beatles Walking tour

In the morning we completed our tour with a walking tour to see the sights that were easier to see on foot.     Most of the things I saw on the walking tour were repeats for me.      We saw the Bag o’ Nails (where Paul and Linda met), the Apple rooftop (the front had scaffolding over it), the Palladium, Paul’s MPL offices, the loo from “Not only but also” and several clubs.   

Then we stopped by the Beatles store to shop and I bought several books and things that I have never seen in the United States.     Our next stop was Notting Hill for a little shopping and onto the Sticky Fingers restaurant for our last dinner.   

I am ready to barge into the MPL office!

Overall we had a great trip to London!    But I still have Hamburg to report about.