Tuesday – Beatlemania

Jet lag must have caught up with us as we were both amazed to sleep until 8 AM this morning.

As you could tell from yesterday’s post, the song I think of when I think of Liverpool is “Ferry ‘Cross the Mersey” by Gerry and the Pacemakers (The song is 50 years old this year!) But, of course, when you think of Liverpool, the Beatles automatically come to mind. Under beautiful sunny skies, we walked back down to Albert Dock to commence our Magical Mystery Tour of the Beatles Liverpool.

REMEMBER: Pictures can be enlarged in a new window by double clicking them.

The guide on the bus was a native Liverpudlian and remembers the Beatle era well. He was wonderfully entertaining, and I think it the best bus tour of a city that I have ever taken. Elaine concurs. We stopped at all the Beatle high points and learned little known facts about the band back to their days as the Quarrymen and when the drummer was Pete Best.

Pete Best missed the glory years and the money and then gave up his musical career. When the Beatles anthology album came out many years later, it included 11 songs with Pete Best. He got a windfall cash payout for that and proceeded to restart his musical career. He still tours with the Pete Best Band.

Stops on the tour included:

Penny Lane (in the neighborhood where they grew up)

Strawberry Fields (where the boys spent happy memories as children playing in the garden by that name at a Salvation Army children’s home

George’s birth home at 12 Arnold Grove. (He often went by the name of Arnold Grove when trying to travel inconspicuously.)

Paul McCartney’s childhood home (where he and John composed dozens of the group’s biggest hits).

The Cavern Club (It was non-alcoholic when the Beatles were performing there. So they used to frequent other pubs when the need arouse, as it often did.)

The tour ended at the Cavern Club. Having done some prior research, we quickly checked out the Cavern Club and then walked down Matthew Street to the Grapes Pub. This is where the Beatles escaped the Cavern Club for their frequent alcohol fixes. We had a couple of pints and engaged the bartender about the inscription above the bar (“I. W. T. Y. I. Y. B. M. A. P.” – know what it means? Answer below somewhere.)

Then we had an uninspiring but much needed pub lunch (with more pints) at the Liverpool Pub before wandering back down to Albert Dock for a ride on the Liverpool Eye and a stop in a Beatles’ Memorabilia Shop.

By now it was almost 3:15 PM and we headed back to the Nadler for a rest before dinner. Dinner tonight will be at Lunya Restaurant. A report will be included at the start of tomorrow’s blog entry.

Cheers for now!

Miscellaneous Liverpool Shots:

PS: I. W. T. Y. I. Y. B. M. A. P. means “I will tell you if you buy me a pint”. The barman told me, and I bought him a pint.