In preparation for visiting Liverpool, I gathered our British pounds left from a previous trip to London.  My goal, after the next few weeks, was to have no pounds or euros left. We always tried to tip tour guides in local currency so that is where most of it was destined.

Our luck at avoiding really wet weather had left us. At each previous stop, it seemed we were one step ahead of the big rains to come.  Today, August 3rd, we were going to get wet.

We boarded our bus and got a bit of information along the way.   

We passed the Royal Liver building, the tallest building in Europe until the 1940s.  The first picture is what we saw out the bus and the second is a better picture from the internet.  The clocks were large enough so sailors could know the time from their ships.

The Cunard building was the home of the cruise line. Twelve million Europeans used Cunard to emigrate to North America.

This building is the Port of Liverpool building.  Together these three buildings are known as The Three Graces.

From 1840 to 1900, Liverpool was the world’s busiest port. Currently there are eight miles of docks.

Part of the port is Royal Albert Dock. It was developed in 1846 and named for Queen Victoria’s husband.  Albert Dock had secure, fireproof warehouses. Cranes lifted heavy loads.  Traders could buy and sell wares before import taxes were paid.   Albert Dock procedures cut in half the time it took to unload and load ships.  

This picture shows an abandoned Royal Albert Dock in 1980, when time and silt greatly reduced its stature.    In 1986 a Maritime Museum opened in an abandoned warehouse and restoration began.  Restoration continued over the next twenty years and, with the Three Graces, became part of Liverpool’s Unesco World Heritage status. 

We were headed to the Royal Albert Dock because that is where The Beatles Experience is!

Since the early 1960s, when The Beatles first made their appearance, Liverpool has played a leading role in the formation of the world’s popular music culture. 

We are a decade too young to be serious Beatles fans but we were certainly aware and knew some of their major hits.

The Experience started at the very beginning, a very good place to start.  (Oh wait, that isn’t a Beatles’ song.)

The group, with a different drummer, began playing at the Casbah.

They bought their first instruments at Hessey’s Music on Mathew Street.  We walked Mathew Street later in the day.

We saw a remake of the Cavern Club where the Beatles performed 247 times, making it the most famous club in the world.

August, 1962: Peter Best was out and Ringo Starr was in as drummer.

The Beatles appear on the Ed Sullivan Show February 9, 1964.

Beatlemania!

Costumes from the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band Tour.

There were sections of the museum dedicated to each of the band members. These are the things we learned:

Paul McCartney is the most successful recording star ever.

John and Paul were very successful song writers together but George Harrison wrote some of their great songs like Let it Be, Love You Too and Here Comes the Sun.

This is the rebuilt Cavern Club.  The original was demolished in 1973 but the new one built with the same bricks and same dimensions. In addition to the Beatles,  there is a list a mile long of other past and current stars who have played there.

George was stabbed in his home and his wife went after the intruders.

Ringo was the only one to remain on good terms with all the other Beatles after the break up. Ringo was also the voice of Tommy the Tank Engine we learned about at Isle of Man.

There was a large section of the museum dedicated to John Lennon.

We left the museum and went to explore areas of Liverpool significant to the Beatles.

This is Mathew Street. 

It is paired with Beale Street in Memphis as the two most musical streets in the world.

Liverpool is in the Guinness book of records for the most artists with number one singles of any geographical location in the world.

There was no alcohol served in the Cavern Club so the Beatles and others made their way to The Grapes between sets.

Outside the Cavern Club is this statue of Cilla Black. She was the coat-check girl at the club.  With their help and encouragement, she was able to go on stage with the Beatles.  She was signed by their manager, Brian Epstein.   She was the top female recording star in the UK in the 1960s and 70s with songs like “Anyone Who Had a Heart” and “You’re My World”.  She later had a career as a television personality.

I did not know the name Cilla Black so did a bit of research in writing this.  I thought it was interesting that her name was really Priscilla White.  I found this photo.

Enroute to more Beatles’ sites, we passed the Liverpool Lime Street Railway Station. It is the “oldest still operating grand terminus mainline station in the world”. 

I find it interesting that so many places we travel have the oldest of this or that.  I feel like I should have been keeping a list!

We also went past the Liverpool Empire Theatre, venue of the last Liverpool concert site of the Beatles.  It was held on December 5, 1965.

The group Queen recorded epic song Bohemian Rhapsody for the very first time at The Empire.

The Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool is the largest cathedral in Britain and the 5th largest in the world. It is the largest non Catholic Cathedral in the world.  Paul McCartney auditioned for the boys choir and was not selected.

Decades later, Paul McCartney’s live album, Oratorio, was recorded in the cathedral in 1991.  Paul had asked that the old choir director be present, and he was.  Our guide said they had a very sweet, cordial conversation.

The 1967 song Penny Lane was on audio as we drove down Penny Lane.

The song was about life on the lane and Liverpool in general.

Strawberry Fields was a girl’s orphanage during John’s youth near where he lived with his aunt.  Now it is a non profit work training center for Liverpool youth.

This was John’s childhood home when he lived with his Aunt Mimi.  Aunt Mimi and her husband had taken him in when life with his parents was unstable.  Still, it was often lonely and difficult after his uncle died.  His aunt did not appreciate his music noise.

With the massive success of the Beatle’s, Aunt Mimi felt like a prisoner of her own home with people always outside.  John bought her a home away from the city.

We drove by the street that had the house in which Paul McCartney lived for several years. Our bus was too big to go directly so this is a picture from the internet. It was a hangout for the Paul, John and George to practice and write songs.  It is labelled by the National Trust as “the birthplace of the Beatles”.

It was in this house that they practiced the newly learned B7 chord and incorporated it while writing “I Saw Her Standing There”.

Ringo lived across the street from where this mural.  He was a sickly child.  Ringo taught himself to play drums at an early age.  He played as a left handed drummer on a right handed drum set.  This allowed for his unique sound.

This Beatles sculpture is the most photographed sculpture in Europe.

It was a marvelous day learning about Liverpool and the Beatles along with Cindy and Darrell.

We celebrated a good day with martinis – chocolate martinis for the guys, a lemon drop martini for Cindy and an espresso martini for me!

Next up: Sea Days and Loch Ness