Birthdays, walks and Liverpool

Birthday party at Fiona and James'. Not many photos of us semi smart so I thought I'd put this one on

Some more same old, same old. Hygienist and dentist, health checks at the GP and hospital and slowly getting stuff out of the loft to sort through. It's getting harder as we've done the easy boxes! Indoor climbing, we like Thursday as there regularly seems to be an old men's climbing club, so we like the music that is played! Two for one cinema tickets, Naked Gun this week, very silly! Sunday club, Monday club, and an evening out with Manu and Crystal at a lovely little food court we'd never have known was there.

Abbie and Jenny, Brian's eldest and youngest granddaughters

Saturday was the annual gathering at Fiona's for all the birthdays, hers, Jenny's 21, Brian, Paul (x2), Abbie and James. A lovely day out, James BBQing, and everyone else eating and drinking.

Becky on the right, Brian's middle granddaughter with Nick and Jessica

Monday we set off to Liverpool. This was Brian's second destination request, so I'd looked for housesits with cats. We'd got one for a long weekend, which got brought forward to Wednesday, and we thought we'd have a couple of nights in a city hotel before. An easy journey up to meet Phoebe, John and their new baby Marigold and the two cats Bunny and Ducky, all recently returned from Kuala Lumpur. Quick house run down, key collection and we headed to our hotel. Dump the bags and go for a walk. Through Albert Dock, past the Beatles story and soaking up the atmosphere. We stopped for a drink at the Museum of Liverpool which we then thought we'd have a look around. I banned Brian from reading everything, we didn't need Neolithic Britain, but Liverpool city and some of its famous inhabitants was all good.

The best photo I've got of my daughter Fiona and James. She won't pose for a photo so I have to catch her unaware - and then she complains its not a good photo!

Walked up the river towards the ferry terminal and the statue of 'The Fab Four' which we didn't queue to have our photo taken with, and on to Bold Street, a foodie street with lots of independent eateries, as recommended by Phoebe and John. A pint and the crossword at a pub, to stop us eating too early, before a great mixed meze.

A local walk from our house in Alvechurch on a beautiful, warm Sunday

Tuesday, our first stop, after breakfast, was the Anglican Cathedral. It is the largest Cathedral in Britain and the 8th largest in the world, though it is the longest and largest Anglican Cathedral in the world. We arrived in time to dash up the tower for a great view of the city before joining the 11.00 guided tour. Very informative. It was designed by the 24 year old Giles Gilbert Scott who also designed the red phone box, and was constructed between 1904 and 1978. It is a wonderful building where not only can you have your religious wedding ceremony, but also the wedding breakfast and everything else!

Albert Dock, Liverpool, a beautifully restored dock with warehouses converted to apartments and full of restaurants, shops and museums

We then went to Quirky Corner, not typically celebrating Liverpool, but very entertaining, full of optical illusions and confusion for the brain. Better, in some ways, for adults than kids as they are more likely to accept what they see while we are more aware that something is 'wrong'.

Liverpool has many statues of its rich history of music. Here's Billy Fury

We followed this with a light lunch before heading to the Cavern Club, because it has to be done. It's actually not the original Cavern as this was closed to make way for a ventilation shaft for the Mersey Tunnel, which never happened. The Club still has a great vibe and has music all day from 11.00 am. We stopped for a bit and had a good look round, though didn't have a drink as that would probably have been it for the day. 

It also has a rich maritime history. In the19th century it was one of the worlds major ports for general cargo and became known as the gateway to the New World for mass emigration of Europeans to the Americas, but it also has a dark history from a century earlier as a crucial leg in the triangular trans-Atlantic slave trade. In the 20th century it was at the forefront of the Atlantic wars in both WWI and WWII as convoys of ships tried to evade German U-boats to keep Britain stocked with food and supplies. This propellor is from the Lusitania, an unarmed passenger ship topedoed by a German submarine in May 1915 leading to the loss of life of 1191 passengers and 405 crew and causing outrage around the world

The Catholic Cathedral was our last big stop for the day. It was designed by Lutyens, meant to be bigger than the Anglican Cathedral, in fact meant to be the second biggest in the world with a dome bigger than St Peter's in Rome. It was started in 1933, beginning with the crypt which was finished in 1958.

The actual cathedral itself had to be scaled down due to cost, finally being designed by Gibberd, after plans by Giles Gilbert Scott's brother were turned down and was completed in 1967. I like it, particularly the stained glass, but apparently it has had many architectural problems.

The oldest dry dock in Liverpool, the Canning Graving Dock and, in it the historic Edmund Garner pilot cutter built in 1953

A Vietnamese meal on our way home was the end of a second successful day.

Wednesday we had a Beatles cycle tour. There were just the two of us, with two trainee guides and an assessor. We learnt lots. The electric bikes made it easy and thoroughly enjoyable, they may however lead to a lot of expense! I'm just going to copy what Brian sent to Phoebe when she made the mistake of asking where we went! 

Inside Liverpool museum and, down there is the steam engine LMR 57 Lion, still able to operate and used in a number of films. The steel girders top right are a section of the old Liverpool Overhead Railway (see next picture)

First stop was 'A Case History' sculpture which was concrete cases as used by famous people including the Beatles. Sounds weird but quite interesting. It's right by the Liverpool Institute where John & Paul studied and paid to have it refurbished. Paul turns up every year to present awards.  

This is an actual carriage and all that remains of the Liverpool Overhead Railway that operated from 1893 until 1956. It was the worlds first overhead railway, originally to serve the docks but also passengers. It was known as the 'dockers umbrella' as they used to shelter from the rain under it  

Second stop: Ringo's childhood home Madryn St and later Admiral Grove and the old Empress pub where he used to drink. 

Third Powis Street where Peaky Blinders street scenes were filmed. 

Fourth: Penny Lane.

Fifth: Dovedale Primary school, John's first school.

Sixth: Quarry Bank school (now Calderstones) John's senior school.

Seventh: John's childhood home . 

Eighth: Simon Peter Centre, hall where John and Paul first met, over the road St Peters church with Eleanor Rigby grave. 

Ninth: Strawberry Fields. 

Tenth: Paul McCartneys childhood home (where over 200 Beatles records were written).

We cycled back along the river from Otters pool where we had actually stopped to have our sandwiches on Monday. Amazing trip with Liverpool Cycle Tours, we learnt a lot.

Three iconic buildings in Liverpool, the Liver building on the left with its two Liver Birds, the Cunard building and the Port of Liverpool building (apparently the PoL building took its design from a rejected design for the Liverpool cathedral)

Off to the house after this, via Lidl, and a relaxing afternoon with the cats, trying to rest our worn out legs and feet!

There's someone on top of the Liver building doing some work on one of the Liver Birds. Apparently they are each 6m high

Thursday we got the bus to the 'shelter in the middle of the roundabout' at the top of Penny Lane, though there was no 'pretty nurse selling poppies from a tray'. We walked from here, down Penny Lane, to Sefton Park, which we had cycled through, but it was nice to walk around and go into the palm house at our own pace. This was followed by a meal on Lark Lane, again as recommended by Phoebe. Liverpool really is a foodie treat.

The Beatles 'Fab Four' statue. Always a crowd of people queueing for a photo with them, I snapped this as one group left and before another arrived

Friday bus back into the city to get a 'Ferry 'cross the Mersey ' because we can, as part of a 50 minute river trip. Each day in Liverpool there has been a different cruise liner at the cruise port, but it was only today we actually got close enough to see a name. Today it was the Bolette, the Fred Olsen ship that we went on to Norway with mum, and then to the Seychelles on. What are the chances?

Arriving at Liverpool Cathedral. I've just realised I don't have a good photo of the outside so I'm going to look on the internet for a good one...

The Beatles Story was our last visit, it had to be done! As ever, we spent far longer than the norm, listening to everything on the audio guide and reading everything on the walls.

There you go, that's what it looks like, dominating the city and reaching its highest point. The largest Anglican Cathedral in the world. The view from the tower is outstanding, so we had to do it...

Saturday, the Bank holiday Saturday in the middle of International Beatles week we thought we'd give Liverpool itself a miss. Instead getting the Mersey rail metro from Cressington, changing in the city to go north to Crosby Beach where we had a walk to look at Anthony Gormleys Another Place art installation. 100 statues of men looking out to see, each one weighing 650 kg, they are covered at high tide slowly becoming exposed as the tide goes out. I found it quite moving, despite WhatsApp comments from Bill and Mark about ruining a perfectly good windsurfing beach! No soul some people!

Today is our last day, so chill and blog, except it's sunny, so I've written, we are going to have a bite of lunch before popping out to a nearby nature reserve....

Climbing the stairs inside the tower. The peel of 13 bells down there is the highest in the world and the biggest bell is second in size only to the bell in St Pauls Cathedral in London. Big Ben bell in Westminster Tower at the Houses of Parliament comes in at number 3 

Just realised I haven't even mentioned the cats, Bunny and Ducky, they are a joy. New to this country, they have never had access to the outside, so to have access to a backyard is an absolute novelty. Bunny is the adventurous one, breaking into the meter cupboard in the middle of the night. Fortunately the access under the bath has been blocked off as she found her way in there and under the floorboards on her first night here, meaning John had to get the side off the bath and floorboards up first thing in the morning! Ducky is the more cuddly and has been sleeping on the bed with us. We chose to sleep in the back room with the bigger bed so there would be room for all of us, so fingers crossed we might get Bunny too for our last night.

At the top, Jackie peering through

So we had a pleasant enough walk, though the nature reserve wasn't really. We walked by the river and talked to two individual people. It's what we have to say about Liverpool, it's lovely to talk to strangers.

A detour to Lidl for a couple of things and a weird route home found a little lost dog. I hopped out, got woofed at, but it seemed to know which gate it wanted to be behind so I let it in. It then wouldn't let me in to ring the bell so I hope it was the right house! At the very least it now won't get run over!

As advertised, the views are outstanding all round. You can see down to North Wales in one direction. This is a view of the Mersey River, the docks and, in the distance the Irish Sea stretching across the horizon

Inside it's huge. Originally it was planned to have two towers with internal columns to support the roof, but it was decided to not have internal columns and no fixed pews so the internal space could be used for a variety of things, serving not only as a church but as a social gathering area. The compromise was that the open structure couldn't support two towers, so it was modified to one. Pop concerts are held in here and it's possible to get married and have the whole reception here afterwards. It's the income from such activities that allow them to keep entrance free for visitors.

We had a guided tour and here our guide, who was also named Brian, points out the inscription of the first stone laid by King Edward in 1904. 

This is not the main altar but a side chapel

Entering Quirky Corner a bizarre building of optical illusions that play with your mind. Even the entrance here was weird  

We were let into a room on our own with apparently no way out. A notice said to find the secret door. We eventually found it by lifting the telephone receiver, which caused a bookcase to slide open. Perhaps I shouldn't have told you that in case you go!

I'm just going to put a few of them on, but there were many

I'll leave you to work out how its done

The upside down date stamp may give this one away!

We finished by having to come through a hall of a maze of mirrors. We had to wear gloves so we didn't mark the mirrors and it made it completely disorientating. We had to walk with our hands out in front as it might be a mirror that we'd walk into or it might be the way out. There were dead ends meaning we had to turn round and, at one point Jackie just disappeared as she walked the other side of a mirror. It was very strange and I could imaging some people getting in quite a panic. It was fun but we were quite relieved to go through a door to get out

On to the Cavern area of the city and here's a statue of Cilla Black, she worked at the Cavern as a cloakroom attendant

The iconic Cavern Club where the Beatles performed over 200 times in the early sixties, along with other very famous Meresyside bands closed in 1973 and, on the right is the original entrance. It was forced to close and the warehouse on top demolished to make way for a ventilation system for the underground railway. The shaft was never built and the Cavern was simply left filled in with rubble. There were hopes it could be reopened but the original structure couldn't support the nine story building planned above it. Instead the original bricks were removed and re-used in a new Cavern, deeper than the original and using 75% of the original area. The new Cavern has looks the same as the original but has a second stage and serves alcohol, the original didn't

Here  we are inside. There's live music all day and every day. This, apparently is an exact replica of the original (and a bit lower underground from the original, but in a similar place. Apparently the original was a dingy, smelly place, but the new one is fabulous and packed full of memorabilia 

The Beatles (with Pete Best, the original drummer) performing in the Cavern in circa 1960

We were there

Another performer on the second stage. It was just a short walk from the other stage but no overlap of sound could be heard, they got the acoustics right

I can't begin to list the famous bands that have performed here, there are so many - everyone wants to perform at this iconic location. Queen played here in 1970, at the time Freddie Mercury lived in Penny Lane (we rode past his house), made famous by the Beatles song of the same name (the first single I bought in 1967!)

Jackie outside the Cavern Pub next to a statue of John Lennon

Time to go and have a look at the Catholic Cathedral, just along the road from the Anglican cathedral. It was originally planned to be bigger than the Anglican one and it's footprint and crypt are huge, but WWII and costs got in the way and the part above ground is much smaller, but very striking

It has a central altar and the crown on top lets light flood in. It's very modern and very iconic

A panorama the other way to show it's openness

The crypt downstairs shows the huge size of the site. I know this doesn't look that big but once you start to wander around it is big, very big. Second only to St Peters in Vatican City

The bombed out church of St Lukes, left as a shell following the Blitz on Liverpool during WWII

In the grounds is the sculpture 'All Together Now' aka 'The Truce Statue' by Andy Edwards. Inspired by the song All Together Now by Liverpool band The Farm, commemorates a moment of unity during the first world war. During a pause in fighting in December 1914, soldiers along the Western Front left their trenches, shook hands, sang carols and played an informal football match in No-Mans Land

This was our first stop on our Beatles cycle tour the next day, so this section is 'Beatles heavy'. This is a sculpture 'A Case History' by John King and shows cases carved from stone to represent famous people of Liverpool. The guitar cases are the Beatles and there's a Yoko Ono bag

Its right next to the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts where Paul McCartney once attended. On a later visit after the Beatles were famous he found the building to be in a poor state of repair so paid for it to be completely refurbished and now attends the presentation ceremony each year, handing out awards

Stop two, The Empress Building. It used to be a pub that Ringo Starr frequented. It's now a barber shop. The building featured on the cover of Ringo's first solo album, Sentimental Journey. His later childhood home is one of those houses down the street to the side

We're in the Toxteth area of the city now and outside Ringo's first childhood house in Madryn Street. Jackie's looking at the house opposite which has the Beatles in mortar on the walls. Easy not to see, but we spotted it quite quickly. All these houses became very run down and almost no-one lived here and certainly didn't want to come here, but they've all been renovated but retained all their original features. There is no blue plaque on the wall as Ringo Starr is still alive and you only get a blue plaque if you've been dead 20 years. George Harrison has only just got one on his house

A slight deviation from the Beatles, but a place I wanted to come to. This is Powis Street, the next street along from Madryn Street. If you've seen the TV series Peaky Blinders you'll recognise this. It was used many times as a backdrop during the series to depict a typical street in Birmingham post WWI

We had to go here! Penny Lane, the famous Beatles song released in 1967, it's Paul McCartney's writings on life in the street in the 1960's. It was the first record I bought and cost 6s 3d, which is just over £0.31. If you haven't heard it before or want to watch it again: click here. This is the original sign and has had to be protected as people were chipping bits off to take as souvenirs. It is actually signed by Paul McCartney, now difficult to see and I'm pointing to it. He signed it during his Carpool Karaoke with James Corden a few years back. If you haven't seen it, it's worth a watch, you can watch it by following this link: Paul McCartney You Tube   

John Lennon's first school. Yoko Ono has given this school a lot of money

The white building through the trees is Calderstone School on Harthill Road. It used to be called Quarry Bank and was the secondary school John Lennon attended and after which he named his first band the Quarrymen

John Lennon's childhood home and he has a blue plaque. Yoko Ono bought the house and gave it to National Trust for safekeeping so it is possible to look round it. He was bought up by his aunt Mimi as his mother, Julia was living with another man after her husband vanished and Mimi reported her to social services. There was always rivalry between the two women and, after an argument here Julia left, crossed the road behind us and was hit by a car and killed

In this hall John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met. John Lennon and his Quarrymen had been performing at St Peters Church fete on 6th July 1957 and before their evening performance here one of the band introduced his friend Paul to John. An unimpressed John asked Paul what he could play and Paul, a better musician than John at the time played a song with all the correct lyrics that impressed John so much he asked him to join his band. Paul told him he'd think about it! 

The hall was open so we crept in. The stage they played on would have been at the back on the right and you can see marks in the wall where it used to be

Kyle, our guide showing us a painting of the first meeting

This photo was taken on the day of the fete and the first meeting. This is John Lennon and the Quarrymen performing on the back of a flatbed truck

That's the hall across the road from St Peter's Church and we are now in the church cemetery. The Beatles used to sit on the wall in the foreground looking into the graveyard as it gave them  a good view along the road in case anyone saw them smoking.

This was their view as they sat there smoking pondering their futures. It inspired one of their future songs Eleanor Rigby. Watch it on Youtube: click here If you zoom in to the grave on the second row to the left of the one with the large Celtic cross you'll see Eleanor Rigby on the headstone. Further along just out of shot is a grave of McKenzie. Father McKenzie appears in the song too, so you can imagine those names embedding themselves into Paul's mind at that young age 

There's the headstone with Eleanor  Rigby's name on a little clearer

Next stop was Strawberry Fields, made famous on the 'double A'  single Penny Lane and written by John about his boyhood playground. A childrens home used to stand here, now demolished and John used to climb the wall and play in the grounds. He had his favourite tree he used to climb, a line that appears in the song. The tree may still be there but hasn't been identified to stop people climbing it

The picture is the original childrens home on glass and, behind, the visitors centre today

Inside the visitor centre is the original piano John Lennon used when he composed and recorded his song 'Imagine'

Now we're at 20 Forthlin Road, the childhood home of Paul McCartney. It's another National Trust property and it is possible to go inside. If you watch the Carpool Karaoke on the link I gave earlier you will see he visits the house and goes inside, playing his old piano. Over 200 Beatles songs were written here in that front room

We got there just before the hordes of visitors. This was just as we were leaving

Just before we finish with the cycle tour, this is Max a trainee guide who did a bit of the talking. He's a great young guy and sounds just like one of the Beatles. He is bass player in his own band, Keyside and here's a link to one of their songs written by their lead singer. You can see Max in a little of the video playing his guitar. It's a good song and, you never know, they might become famous! Watch it here

At our housesit in Cressington and this is Ducky cat with Jackie

And here they are on the windowsill in our bedroom for the week

Next day we were out in Liverpool again and I had further Beatles stuff to tick off. Here we are at the top of Penny Lane tracing some of the places mentioned in their song. This is 'behind the shelter in the middle of the roundabout' sadly there was no 'pretty nurse selling poppies from a tray'

The barber shop on the roundabout, no banker sitting waiting for a trim though

St Barnabas church at the top of Penny Lane where John Lennon used to be a choirboy

The palm house in Sefton Park. All its windows were blown out by a nearby bomb in WWII and it was largely left to decay due to lack of money. George Harrison donated £750,000 to help rebuild it but didn't want any recognition. His name doesn't appear anywhere 

The next day we were back in Liverpool again as we felt it necessary to take a ferry across the Mersey, in the line of the famous Gerry and the Pacemakers song (watch it here) 

The ferry takes a longer route during the day of about an hour, only doing a straight across and back at rush-hour for commuters. We set off up river, turned, docked in Birkenhead, where we didn't get off then sailed down river past the shipyard, turned and came back to the Gerry Marsden pier in Liverpool. On the way out we went past the cruise terminal and in dock was the ship we've cruised on twice, the Fred Olsen Bolette, once to Norway on a 5 day cruise with Jackie's mum, and the other a 32 days cruise through the Suez canal to India and then the Seychelles. How coincidental

This is the new Everton football ground, the Hill Dickinson Stadium just undergoing its finishing touches ready for Sunday's first home game at their new home ground. The start of a new era and it will be the first time Everton have played a home game at a different stadium in 135 years. It's also one of the reasons UNESCO have voted to remove Liverpool from its heritage list as they consider too much modern development has adversely affected its heritage

Liverpool at a distance. There you can see the Liver building on the left, the Cunard building, Port of Liverpool building, the new Liverpool museum, the brown buildings towards the right are the refurbished warehouse buildings around Albert dock and the big wheel on the right

The Cammell Laird shipyard, still operational and currently building a new ferry for the Mersey. It has a long history of building major British warships and is a town in itself for all the people working there

We followed the ferry with a visit to the Beatles Story museum which was very good. Here we're in the section where the Cavern has been recreated

There's their re-creation of the original Cavern

Amazing photograph on the wall. Sitting on the left is Brian Epstein, the five members of Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas, the four members of Gerry and the Pacemakers and the four Beatles (zoom in to read their names)

The re-created NEMS record shop (North End Music Stores), a family business run by Brian Epstein in the 50's and 60's 

Look at that chart! It must be from around 1963 and I was 8 years old and remember all those songs!

The Sergeant Pepper room, it went through the whole of their stories, together and as solo artists finishing with John Lennon's white room and an endless playing of Imagine, followed by an extensive gift shop. A great visit

Upside down house. We didn't go in

We got home to find one of the pussy cats, we suspect Bunny, had levered off the skirting board in the hall. Who'd have thought that was possible!

I didn't see this but saw the pale look on Jackies face as Ducky leapt up onto the bannister above the stairs. Apparently there was a bit of a wobble but she didn't fall. She's done it before John and Phoebie told us

Bunny sitting on the table only because she wanted to catch a fly on the wall out of reach above her

On Saturday we caught the metro train to Crosby as we wanted to see the Another Place sculptures on the beach. However, first we went to the next station on as we wanted to walk up the coast first to Blitz Beach. During WWII Liverpool and Birkenhead were bombed heavily to try to put the major port out of action. Many houses were destroyed and the rubble was moved here to shore up the shoreline to stop coastal erosion. Today its worn down to round shapes and has been distributed along the seashore but it all tells a story of loss and hardship of a proud city

Bricks, windowsills, lintels, every chunk tells a story. Hard to comprehend the destruction 

We turned around and walked back to the sculptures, Another Place by Anthony Gormley, 100 cast statues which stretch 3.2km along the beach, each weighing 650kg. They were placed there in 2005 so are 20 years old. There is rust on them but they are going to be there for another 30, 40 or even 50 years

We didn't count them, but only saw 20 or so, it was only about an hour and a half after high tide so many were still submerged

They are life sized as you can see

We finished with lunch at Inside No. 4, an interesting place but not weird like the Inside No.9 TV series (weird in a good way, we really enjoy that)! 

Ducky seems to quite like Marigold's pram which they've left in the hall. Not sure whether she should be in it or not, they seem to have free run of the whole house

Spending the night on the bed with us

And very playful. We've really enjoyed looking after these two and we've thoroughly enjoyed Liverpool and all it has to offer. We can thoroughly recommend Liverpool its a great place. We've had a week here and still not seen everything, we haven't even been over to Birkenhead on the Wirral or been through the Mersey tunnel - we'll have to come back!