Beatles Tour

Blogs to come:

1. Liverpool Cathedrals

2. Hope University Campus

3. London

Well, here are the pictures from my Beatles Tour.  I was never a Beatles fan.  I am not sure I could have named you a song other than Yellow Submarine, even though I have never even heard that song.  I decided to go on this tour because my friends needed one more person to go to complete the five person taxi tour.  So, I agreed even though I thought I would be bored.  Well, I was wrong about that.  I really enjoyed getting to know the history of the Beatles.  It was so exciting hearing the tour guide explain the sights to us.  I didn't know that the Beatles were such a huge part of the history of Liverpool.  If you ever find yourself here, go on the tour, because you also get to see a lot of the city of Liverpool too.  When we first arrived in Liverpool, a native asked if we had heard about Liverpool in America.  One of the girls answered, "Well of course!  You gave us the Beatles!"  The native laughed and said that there was more to Liverpool than the Beatles.  I loved the tour, but I have to agree that there is far more to Liverpool than the Beatles.  Why else was it named the Capital of Culture this year?

Here is the tour taxi.  The tour is called "The Fab Four Taxi Tour."

Here is the infamous Cavern Club.  This is inside on the walls as you go down the winding stairs into the club.
Here is the Cavern Club stage.
This is Matthew Street, "Birthplace of The Beatles."

Here is a Beatles store on Matthew street.
Here is a statue of Eleanor Rigby.  It is called "All the Lonely People."
A closer look at the name of the statue.
Here is where John got married.  
This is John Lennon's birthplace.
This is the plaque on the side of John Lennon's birthplace.
This is at Lennon's birthplace.
This is a monument to the Beatles Tours.  There are luggage scattered about symbolizing the seasons of their popularity.  
Another part of the monument.
Us five girls who attended the tour: Me, Megan, Jess, Carly, Whitney.
A part of the Liverpool Art Institute where some of the Beatles went to school.
Liverpool Art Institute.
"Ye Crack" is a pub that they went to. It is a block or so away from the institute.
Ringo Starr's childhood home.
"The Empress" is the building that appeared on Ringo Starr's first solo album.

The Palm House.  George donated money to protect this building before he died because it was one of his favorite places.  It is beautiful in person.
Penny Lane street sign.
This is a part of one of their songs.  The song mentions several of the places in the following pictures, all of which are on Penny Lane.
This is a bad picture, but on the other side of the building, this place was named "Sgt. Peppers Bistro."  Interesting.  Did you wonder how they got that name for their album?  Now you know.
This is also in that one song.  There is a barber shop that is mentioned.
A look down Penny Lane.  
This is a barber shop which has some original pictures of the Beatles.
Here is one of the pictures.
George's House was in the middle.

The house where Paul grew up.
Us in front of his house.
The keeper of the house.  Kinda looks like one of the Beatles, huh?
This is where Paul and John first met.
This is the plaque on the building.  It says, "The Quarry Men featuring, Eric Griffiths, Colin Hanton, Rod Davies, John Lennon, Pete Shotton and Len Garry performed on the afternoon of 6th July 1957 at St. Peters Church Fete.  In the evening before their performance in this hall Ivan Vaughan, who sometimes played in the group, introduced his friend Paul McCartney to John Lennon.  As John recalled...'that was the day, the day I met Paul, that it started moving."
The picture on the right is a picture that John drew when he was little.  The newspaper article on the left accompanies the picture.  It says, "Whale that gave birth to a Yellow Submarine."  The suspect this how the name Yellow Submarine came about.
This is inside the meeting place of John and Paul.  There used to be a stage here, where they would play.
Here is a poster for the 50th anniversary of the place where John met Paul.  They signed it.

This is Jess and the Caretaker.  He was about 15 when John and Paul met.  He was friends of both.  He retold the story like it was yesterday for him.
This is the cemetery where some of the Beatles family is buried.  The The Quarry Men also played here before it was completely a cemetery.
This is the Rigby family grave.  There are several people buried in this one grave.  Eleanor is one of them.
This is George "Too Good" Smith's grave.  He was John's uncle.  

This is George "Too Good"s house.  John lived here with him when his mom gave him up.
Here is the plaque on the house which says the John Lennon grew up here.
Here is Strawberry Fields.  It was a girl's orphanage.  
The gate to Strawberry Fields.
Inside Strawberry Fields.  The guide said that the orphanage was a very dark color, and you couldn't see it at night.  It was torn down a few years ago.  John used to sneak in here and play with the girls.

Downtown Liverpool or as they say "the city centre"

Okay, so I had to add this picture at the last minute, because it was accidently deleted.  Please see below for the introduction to this post.  This is the Walker Art Gallery, designed by HH Vale in 1882.

Hello!  I took this trip to downtown Liverpool on the 16th, I think.  It is very beautiful.  There is a  second "shopping centre" (mall) a little closer to our university (or "uni" as they say).  We discovered that mall on the 17th during our Beatles tour.  I don't have any pictures from that place yet, and I will be posting the Beatles pictures in the next day or so.  Anyways, these pictures are from downtown Liverpool. 

Here are some pigeons.  The picture doesn't quite do justice to their enormity, but trust me they are the size of small chickens.  

 This is St. John's Gardens.  (It lies behind St. Georges Hall)  It was named for St. Johns church which stood here from 1783 to 1887.  There were sitting areas around the statue, which you can sort of see to the right of the picture.  Outside of the surrounding seating area is a beautiful garden, but that picture didn't quite turn out the way I wanted so I am not posting it.  Sorry.

Here is your stereotypical red telephone booth.  Sorry it is sideways.  I don't know how to fix it.  The girl in the tye-dye shirt is my friend Jess.  She doesn't know this picture with her butt is on here.  heehee!

Here is a fish and chips shop.  This is not one of the nicer ones, but I chose this one for a reason.  Look to the left of the building.  There is a sign that says, "To Let."  That means, "For Rent."   I just think that is funny.

This is the County Sessions House.  It is apparently used as offices for National Museums Liverpool.

This is a statue outside of St. Georges Hall.    This is what I believe to be Zeus.  He is holding a street lamp.  Hera (Zeus' wife?) is on the other side of the entrance, also holding a street lamp.  No picture of her, sorry.

This is the Steble Fountain (by Paul Lienard) located diagonally from St. Georges Hall.  It was very pretty.  The wind began to blow fiercely as we were standing beside it, throwing in our coins.  We got pretty wet from the water that blew on us.  Oh well.  I threw in a penny from England's currency, which is actually like worth two pennies in America, so my wish better come true!

This is a pretty sight.  The building in the far back is the County Sessions House.  The building in the corner of the bottom left corner is the St. Georges Hall.  There is a statue of a man standing on this monument.  This is called Wellington Column.

A closer look.

This picture is supposed to be after the fountain,  but this is the plaque from the Steble Fountain.

This is a random shot of the skyline of Liverpool.  Trust me, this is only one of the skylines.  Liverpool is so huge!

This is the Wellington Memorial, designed by George Anderson Lawson.  It commemorates soldiers.  This is in front of St. Georges Hall.

The Empire Theatre.  Evita is showing.  You can see lions at the bottom of the picture.  There are four in front of St. Georges Hall.  They are called The Four Recumbent Lions, sculpted by William Grinsell Nicholl.

This is also in front of St. Georges Hall.  It is called the Equestrian Statue of Queen Victoria.  One of our first days in Liverpool, an older man walked up to my friend Megan and told her not to fall for a man on a horse.  We think he might have been referencing this. HA!

 This is St. Georges Hall or St. Georges Plateau.  It contains concert halls and law courts. 

Another skyline.

This is a few blocks from campus.  We call it the village.  The city centre is about a 20 minute bus ride.  Can you believe that we live in Liverpool and it take 20 minutes to get to downtown Liverpool?  This place is very, very large!

Here is a mail drop box.  Ours aren't this fancy in America.  Sorry, it is sideways.

I just added this for pure humor.  Crisps are Potato Chips and Biscuits are Cookies.

Next comes the Beatles Tour pictures.  This weekend we are going to go see some of the local cathedrals.  Tomorrow I am observing at my primary school, so wish me luck!