All You Need Is Love

L I V E R P O O L

It was sad leaving Llundudno yesterday because it was just so darn beautiful!  But we were excited to take the Magical Mystery Tour in Liverpool and need to leave by 10:00am to make the 12:30 Tour.  So after our "full Welsh breakfast" UGH!  we took off.  Actually we didn't have a "full" breakfast, instead we had fruit, yogurt, cereal and coffee.  We just can't take anymore heavy breakfasts or food although I think we've been good eating fish....but the beer????

We arrived in Liverpool on, what, another glorious day?

 We found our way to the docks and booked in for the 12:30 tour.  Just enough time to tour the "fab 4 store"!

 The store is filled with pictures and mementos and tons of every kind of souvenir you can think of....

 ......of course including tee-shirts.  Millions of different tee-shirts.  This is just the smallest wall of tee-shirts.

 Outside there is a ferris wheel and

 Whippy ice cream!!!! Yum.

 And a yellow submarine and

 Lovely clear blue skies and water like a mirror!

 She's got a ticket to ride!

 And he's got a new tee-shirt!

Ringo (Richard Starkey) was born in Dingle in 1940 on this very poor, boarded up street.  He was the oldest Beatle!

Then he moved here and, the Empress Pub pictured here and below...

Was the pub pictured on his solo album, Sentimental Journey. Here's a tidbit, it was the first solo album released by a Beatle.

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes

In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs of every head he's had the pleasure to know and all the people that come and go stop and say "hello"

On a corner is a banker with a motorcar, the little children laugh at him behind his back...

Behind the shelter in the middle of a roundabout the pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray and though she feels as if she's in a play, she is anyway

The youngest Beatle, George, was born on this street.  He was only 14 when the Beatles were formed and played their first gig!

George's little house - 6 people in 2 bedrooms!

This hall behind St. Peter's Church was where Paul and John met for the first time

Strawberry Field near John's Aunt's house just down the road from where he grew up.

Looking tired and a few pounds heavier!

Home where John grew up.  After his family moved out it was sold to somebody else and eventually it came back on the market.  After John's death in NYC Yoko Ono bought the house and gave it to the National Trust.

This is Paul's childhood home and is the first "contemporary" home purchased by the National Trust.  Most of the first Beatles album, Meet the Beatles in the States and Please Please Me in the UK, was written here.

The Empire Theatre was where the Beatles performed their last concert together in the UK.  The final final concert was performed at Candlestick Park in San Francisco!

 So there's your Beatles history lesson whether you wanted it or not.  The tour was fun, lasted about 2 hours, heard all kinds of Beatles music and tons of interesting tidbits about one of our favorite bands.  Very nostalgic.  Now back in the car and another 2+ hours north into the Cumbrian Mountains and Windermere where we stopped for a beer in a bustling outdoor garden.  Everyone is outdoors!  I've never seen sundresses and bare arms here before!

Here comes my Beatle with a pint for him and a half for me on a HOT day.

 We decided for our dinner we'd just buy a bottle of wine and some cheeses and a baguette and relax at our hotel later.

Lovely Windermere

 We drive another 7 miles or so north heading to our final destination today, Grasmere.

 Here we sit in a very nice room overlooking the tiny village of Grasmere.  Fortunately my little cock-up didn't cost us anything as The Moss Grove Organic was able to sell our room last night!

Tonight I was exhausted and went to bed early, watched a little TV and read a bit before falling to sleep by 9:00pm.  Didn't take any pictures of our room unfortunately but it was very nice with a HUGE bathroom and tub fit for a very tall person which Gordon slipped in to while a watched TV.  We feel pretty much done with travel and are ready for our own home comforts.  That's where we'll be tomorrow!