Liverpool: The Magical Mystery Tour

As of March 1st, we've lived in England one whole year. Seriously! A year has never been filled with so many things, yet gone by so fast. When we were deciding how to celebrate our England-aversary, I suggested we get our Beatle-mania on and head to Liverpool, and that's just what we did.

The only "must do" item on my list was the Magical Mystery Tour. We arrived in Liverpool by train on Friday and first thing Saturday morning we headed off to the oceanfront and got on the Magical Mystery Bus. The tour was sold out (we pre-paid 6-weeks in advance) and it was obvious to everyone the bus passed on the street that the bus was filled with nerdy, Beatles-loving tourists :-)

Magical Mystery Bus

One of the first stops on the tour was to see both of Richard Starkey's (AKA Ringo Starr's) childhood homes. They were only a block away from each other - one was amongst a group of boarded up council houses (houses for the poor) and the other was down the road, behind the pub in the picture below. People still live in his second home (behind the pub), so we could only do a quick drive-by. The current owner of Ringo's old house came out and waved hello at our gaudy bus! Sadly, it all happened so fast, I only got a picture of the pub.

Ringo Starr's neighborhood

The bus drove on and rounded a bend where we got have our first off-the-bus moment. Penny Lane is a rather long street filled with shops. This intersection (below) seems to be the place all tourists are able to take a quick selfie before heading back to the bus (or car, etc). If I look a bit wane in the photos below, that's because I was suffering from quite a nasty bug I caught flying home from LA. I was hopped up on LemSip (UK's answer to TheraFlu) and cough syrup and soldiered through the weekend. 

Penny Lane

Then we stopped off at George Harrison's house. Someone still lives here, but the tour company had received the okay for tourists to get off and photograph the house, so long as we don't pester the occupants. George, like Ringo, lived in a small, 2-up, 2-down house. Which meant there were only two rooms upstairs and two downstairs, with the toilet outside! In the Harrison household, one of the downstairs rooms was only used for formal occasions, so six people (two parents and four kids) basically lived in the kitchen and two bedrooms. Those are some cramped quarters!!!

George Harrison's Home

Off to Strawberry Field, where John used to spend his days playing and daydreaming.

Strawberry Field

Strawberry Field take two

John Lennon's childhood home was purchased by an anonymous American woman (rumored to be Oko Ono) years ago and is now managed by the National Trust. If you look closely, you can see a blue circle plaque that adorns historic homes. Blue plaques can only be placed on a home if the honored deceased has been gone for at least 20 years. John lived with his aunt and her family in this home after his parents split. Years later (as a teenager) John re-connected with his mom who was also a fan of music. Sadly, she was run over and died very near this house one night after a visiting her teenage son. 

John Lennon's home as viewed through bus tourists

Paul McCartney's childhood home is now owned and run by the National Trust. Like John, Paul's mother died (from breast cancer) when he was a teenager. This was one of the things the two young men bonded over while they formed their band and began writing music. One song that was written in this house, by a 14-year old Paul was "When I'm 64." It's hard to believe such an iconic song was written by a 14-year old!!

Paul McCartney's home and our tour guide

The tour guides threw so much Beatles trivia at us over the course of our two hour tour, I'm surprised I remembered any of it at all! Once the tour was over, we were given free passes to the Cavern Club, the pub/venue where the Beatles played over 250 times prior to becoming the biggest band on the planet. 

Bill and I made a bee-line for the club, as it was early Saturday afternoon and knew it would only get busier as the day wore on. Sadly, the club was ready packed with pushy tourists. The live band was okay, but there was barely any standing room and the bar was four people deep waiting to be served. After being plowed into by a camcorder-toting tourist with his teenage son in tow, I took a photo and we left in search of lunch somewhere a bit more sane.

The (in)famous Cavern Club