Thursday 3 September

Thursday 3rd September 2009

Liverpool

We have had a brilliant day, despite the very wet and cold weather. Even Liverpudlians are saying how cold it is. We went to the Anglican Cathedral, which looks really old but it building commenced in 1904 – that was good, because they included lifts to the viewing towers, unlike St Paul’s. We both felt very anxious as we were climbing the bell tower because the noise of the wind was VERY loud; however we persevered and made our way up to the viewing area at the top of the tower to get a 360 degree view of Liverpool. Amazing! I’m sure we caught a glimpse of Ireland.

We were going to go to the Catholic Cathedral, just down the road, but it was just too wet, windy, cold and blustery. My 2 pound umbrella blew inside out, so it was abandoned. Heading off into the city centre we passed some rows of beautiful Georgian terrace houses and quite a lot of derelict warehouses- there is a real mixture of wealth and poverty in Liverpool.
We wandered around the shops for a little bit, mostly because they were warm and out of the wind, before heading off the Albert Dock area, reclaimed and refurbished with galleries, museums, restaurants and shops. The Tate Gallery has an amazing collection of sculpture – Picasso, Dali, Henry Moore, Ron Mueck and fabulous paintings by Freud, Picasso and heaps more. Two floors were devoted to sculpture today and one floor was devoted to sculpture of the human form over the past 100 years. This section was brilliant with gold marble mirrors flashing dance floor music (via head phones) a real walk in installation, disturbingly beautiful.
After lunch in the Tate we joined our Pool of Life Tour. Carl Jung called Liverpool the Pool of Life – a rich melting pot of people and cultures, it being a port city. Our tour was a Beatles tour. Our guide, Phil, is an accredited and registered Beatles guide – what a brilliant job – who was passionate and proud about Liverpool and the Beatles. The tour was advertised for two hours. We started at 2pm and at 7pm Phil dropped us off in Lark Lane – a lovely restaurant area not far from Dingle, which doesn’t have any lovely areas, really. Phil was very entertaining with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Liverpool. He said too that most Liverpudlians don’t like the English; they are looking outwards to the world, not inland towards England! Even the English hate the English. So far we have heard the Welsh, the Irish, the Scots all hate the poms, but we were surprise to hear they even hate themselves.

We visited the childhood homes and schools of John, Paul, George and Ringo, as well as Brian Epstein’s. We stopped off at each place and there were numerous photo opportunities. We drove along Penny Lane, and saw the barber shop, the shelter in the roundabout, the fire station, and we stopped at Strawberry Fields, an orphanage near to where John and Paul grew up. Phil took us to the Church Hall where John and Paul first met and the church yard where Paul first heard John and the Quarrymen play. At the Cavern Club we were taken to the backstage area where Paul played on Dec 31, 1999 and had a couple of drinks, again, to toast the Fab Four. Phil then took us to The Grapes, a pub all the bands frequented as the Cavern Club did not serve beer after 8pm. We sat in the same seats, “the boys” sat in. Here we met a bloke, from Chester, who comes to Liverpool every year for a week – for the Beatles Festival, and then stays on because he loves it. Sadly we missed the Beatles Festival. There are many monuments to the Beatles around Liverpool, but there was very little before 1980. It took John’s death for the people of Liverpool to get things going.

On our tour of 6 people there were 2 Aussies, 2 Mexicans, an ex-pat pom who lives in Sydney and a Korean journalist, who is writing a book. The Korean’s English was a bit limited and he kept asking Dick to clarify what Phil was telling us. The book should be an interesting one with Dick’s interpretations providing an interesting twist.
Liverpool is a great city – beautiful buildings, many, many art galleries, several interesting museums, good shops and of course, significant cultural heritage, especially for Beatles fans. Two days was not enough. I’d like to come back.