Our flight out on Friday morning forced me to be awake earlier than I have been in a long, long while. Taking a 6:30 a.m. flight sounded good before it was the morning of! In fact, taking a 6:30 flight meant we had to take a 4:30 a.m. bus ride to the airport. It was well worth it, though, as that meant we were able to spend all of Friday touring around Liverpool. We spent Friday mid-morning and early afternoon walking around the Albert Dock, which is a fun area of Liverpool. There are all kinds of restaurants and museums there.
The dock itself used to be an old port for the city. Though it has an industrial look to it, it's actually quite posh and exciting. There are tons of restaurants on the dock, and we decided to have lunch at one before going on our tour of The Beatles life in Liverpool. We went to a place called "What's Cookin?!" for lunch, and had an absolutely delicious meal. Soon after, we walked down the block to catch our bus. The bus was easy to spot once it rolled around the corner for us to board.
Before getting on, the five of us who were in Liverpool wanted to take a picture in front of it. It looked just like the Magical Mystery Tour bus of The Beatles. We went to a lot of different locations around Liverpool, including the four house in which the Beatles either were born or grew up in.
One of the other locations we went to was Penny Lane. Apparently, the signs get stolen so frequently, they used to paint the street signs on the brick behind where this one stands now. Our tour guide told us that the sign we saw had only been there for a couple of weeks. The stories we heard while on the bus were fascinating. Our tour guide was wonderful, and had actually met Paul McCartney. One of the coolest stories was about the song "Strawberry Fields (Forever)."
Strawberry field is actually an orphanage in Liverpool, near where John Lennon grew up. When he was a child, he used to go play in Strawberry Field, and would get in trouble for it. He didn't quite understand what the big deal was, and say it as "nothing to get hung about," as the song itself famously says. It was absolutely incredible to go to Strawberry Field and take pictures in front of the gate that John Lennon himself used to walk through. The tour was definitely one of the best ways to spend the weekend. I learned so much about The Beatles and saw places that, chances are, I will never make it back to see. One of these places was the Cavern Club. Though the one we saw was a reconstruction of the one that the Beatles had played in, it was still cool to sit in and listen to music.
The Cavern Club played host to The Beatles 292 times. It was where they were discovered by Brian Epstein and where he famously offered to become their new manager (after Allan Williams gave them away!). It is one of the coolest bars/pubs I have ever set foot it. Just being in a place where Paul McCartney has performed (he performed by himself at the new Cavern Club in the 90s) was mind-blowing.
Friday night, we played it calm and just hung out at the Cavern Club for a couple of hours. There was a live singer there, who was absolutely fantastic. He did covers of Beatles songs as well as many popular songs of today. After that, we went to dinner at a Spanish tapas restaurant, though not English at all, it was delicious. We ate more food than I think I've ever seen in my life. It was well worth it.
Saturday morning, we got breakfast at the hostel, then made our way to Albert Dock again to go to the Maritime Museum. It was a very, very cool Museum that documented all different parts of Liverpool's history. On the first floor was an exhibit about the Lusitania, Empress of Ireland, and the Titanic. It had actual items that were from the three boats, as well as miniature models of the boats.
The items, like the life vest from the Titanic, were really cool. Also, we were able to see things that show just how the boats sinking affected Liverpool. On the floor above that, we were able to see an exhibit about the history of Liverpool. There was a movie that showed how Liverpool had developed from the 1200s until now. It was an incredibly well done video and I felt like I actually learned a lot about Liverpool.
Later, we took a train to Manchester and went out to dinner at a fun restuarant in the Printworks area there. The next morning, we hoped on a flight back to Brussels.
Sunday, I spent the day with Maria and a couple of friends that we met in Brussels. Maria's Belgian "boyfriend" plays soccer for a semi-professional team in Brussels, so do all of his friends. On Sunday afternoon, we went to see one of the friends, Dempsey, play with his team. It was the semi-pro team for Jette, which is a neighbor of Brussels that I go through everyday on my way to work. The game was really fun, and we were able to get a little bit of Belgian culture.
Today, I went to check my mailbox, as I was expecting to get a small package from my mom. Turns out, I had two packages, one large one from my mom (which I LOVE), and one from some Theta's at Mizzou. What a Valentine's Day! It was so nice have such a wonderful weekend and come home (in Brussels) and have a little bit of home (the US) come to me!
Hello Susan,
ReplyDeleteenjoyed your blog and I am glad you enjoyed your Valentine day trip to Liverpool. I hope it was not too cold for you.
Best wishes
Rob (In Liverpool)