All You Need is Love

It’s been three weeks since I left Ulverston and I’m back!  I actually arrived back Wednesday afternoon, but haven’t done anything of note until Saturday.  Not because I was jetlagged ( I solved my issue with jetlag by staying up really late Wednesday and having a few Pear Ciders to make me extra sleepy), but because of the rain!  Now, it rains here all the time, just ask Mumsy and Don.  However, the Lake District (Cumbria) has been getting an unusual amount of rain lately.  In fact, Thursday saw the worst downpours I have ever witnessed and even caused several area schools to be dismissed early.  Early dismissal due to rain – there’s a first for everything.  Roads flooded out, rivers overflowed their banks and towns such as Cockermouth wound up with 5 feet of standing water. As of right now, 1,000 people still can’t return to their houses.  We even made International News, which shows you how bad it was since Cumbria hardly ever even makes the National News over here.  Luckily, Ulverston came out okay.  The worst that happened here is that the gutters filled up and water is running down the street.

 

Saturday came and I was extremely excited- time to pick Katie up from the airport!  Our wonderful friends Katie and John Felty (who feed me,entertain me and allow me to watch the Bruins in HD on their glorious television while Kevin is away) as well as my sister Cailin (also called Mini-Deal or just Mini) were nice enough to come visit us for Thanksgiving.  Yes, I know English people don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, but that doesn’t mean we can’t.

We decided that since we were in Manchester picking up Katie, it would be a great opportunity to swing over to Liverpool (a short drive away) and see the sights.  Mostly, I wanted to visit the Beatles Museum as well as any other spot made famous by the Beatles that I can.  When I was in Middle School and High School, I was OBSESSED with the Beatles.  I have a metal Yellow Submarine lunchbox that I took my lunch to school in, the Beatles entire catalogue on CD (plus a lot of great Vinyl belonging to my Dad) and quite a few Beatles shirts.  I even wore all black to school every year on 8 December to commemorate the day John Lennon died.  Needless to say, Liverpool has been on my list of places to visit since Kevin took the job here.

Albert Dock

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Beatles Museum is located on Albert Dock down on the waterfront in Liverpool, so we headed down there first.  We started off with a double espresso for the tired Katie, walked around so I could take a few pictures and then headed to the museum.   The museum details the career of the Beatles from the schoolboy days of the Quarrymen through present day.  The museum was excellent and I would recommend it to everyone, not just the Beatles fans.  For me, the best part of the museum was the part dedicated to Yellow Submarine.  Mini and I usued to be obsessed with this movie and watch it ALL the time.  We LOVED the Blue Meanies!  The exhibit had some of the cartoon drawings from the film in huge size on the wall as well as a huge replica Yellow submarine that you could walk through – complete with real fish in the portholes.  I only wish Mini were there to share in my delight!

Blue Meanie! 

Also interesting to me was the exhibit at the end detailing what each of the Beatles did with their lives after the Beatles broke up in 1969.  Although I am a huge Bowie fan as well as a huge Beatles fan, I somehow missed that John Lennon co-wrote “Fame” and even provided the guitar track and backing vocals.  Also, his signature orange sunglasses in his Plastic Ono Band faze were because he found orange to be an inspiring color (I think John Felty would agree).  Many people know that George Harrison was a member of the fantastic Traveling Wilburys along with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne, but not many people know that Harrison financed and had a role in the hilarious Monty Python flick “The Life of Brian”

 Can you spot George?

After the Beatles Museum, we walked down along the water to Pier Head where several large buildings were located. 

The walk to Pier Head brought us through Albert Dock gate and along and very uneven but pretty cobblestone path.

The first building was the Port of Liverpool Building, which served as the Mersey Docks and Harbor Board Headquarters from the time it was built in 1907 until 1994 when they were relocated.    

Next up was the Cunard Building, home to the main offices Cunard Line from the time it was built in 1914 until the 1960’s.  In addition, it served as passanger facilities for any passengers taking Trans-Atlantic Cunard boats from Liverpool.

Finally, the Liver Building. Built in 1911 for the Royal Liver Assurance group, it was the first building to ever use reinforced concrete.  Atop the building sits two Liver birds (which look like cormorants to me).  Legend has it that if the birds  were ever to fly away, Liverpool would cease to exist.  Perhaps this is why they have rigged those birds with so many safety lines.

By this point, it had started drizzling, but we decided to try and find a cathedral that we had driven past on our way in.  We didn’t wind up finding the cathedral, but we did find Mathew Street!  Mathew Street was the home to The Cavern Club, where the Beatles played 262 times in their early career.  It’s often considered the Birthplace of the Beatles. The original Cavern Club was torn down, but it was rebuilt with the original bricks and with many more seats than the original had.  I’d still love to see a show here some day. 

I didn’t get to find Penny Lane or Strawberry Fields, but there is always next time.  Plus, I DID get to see New Moon with Katie (and Kevin!), so my day was almost perfect