Liverpool

Liverpool

Lori and I spent St. Patrick's day weekend in Liverpool, a coastal town in the UK, home of the Beatles, and about a 90 mile drive from Derby.  The drive is mostly motorways and an easy drive.  

The first stop was the Liverpool Cathedral, which is the 2nd longest and 5th largest (by volume) cathedral in the world. It's a baby in terms of age from most of the cathedrals in the country, it was started in the early 1900's and was opened in 1978.

 A big cathedral needs.. big bells.  

A nice view from the top of the Cathedral looking toward the Mersey River and the docks.  Albert Dock are the brick buildings just to the right of the Ferris wheel.  The arena is just to the left and where we parked later for the day.  Albert dock has the Beatles and Maritime museum, and a number of restaurants and shops.  Liverpool used to be one of the top 5 docks in the world, but changes in goods and the invention of containerized ships has greatly reduced the amount of goods shipped through the port.  Lots of jobs lost and Liverpool is still trying to recover.   

The gate to Chinatown in Liverpool - Lori had bad timing (from the borrowed picture-taker..1, 2, click, 3)

The builder of the Cathedral (Giles Gilbert Scott) also invented the red telephone box later in life.

Maintaining churches is expensive and they creatively look for sources of income..  When we walked into the cathedral, they had set up an area in the main church to film a UK TV show "Wilkinson's Real Deal", similar to the Antique Roadshow TV program in America.   People were bringing in  their old treasures for appraisal and if they were worthy, they'd get filmed for a later TV episode.   Somehow, the parable of the money changers came to mind.. we stayed clear just to be safe.. 

No sea town is complete without a Duck which tours through Liverpool including in the water around the docks.  We passed on this trip.

This is a picture of the Catholic Cathedral in the city, rather modern in design to say the least.  We toured it later in the day and went to mass in the crypt.   The original plan was a more traditional stone structure, and construction started in the 30's which built the underground crypt but progress stalled in 1941 due the WWII. A new plan and construction start again in the 60's and finished in 1967.

The Albert Dock was a collection of shops and museums

If you need accommodation in Liverpool, you can sleep in the yellow submarine from 399 GBP ($600 Weekdays) to 599 GBP ($900 weekends).  Sleeps 8, it's a copy of the sub in the film Hunt for Red October and was built for use as a 5 star apartment.  There's a 52" 3D TV in the lounge and the bedrooms have cable.  

Merseyside is the river that runs through Liverpool.  The maritime museum is free and was a nice visit, a lot of focus on the history of the docks and the three shipping disasters (1912-1915) of the early 1900's.. The Lusitania (which started WWI), the sinking of the Titanic (The White Star Line was head-quartered in Liverpool, and many of the crew were from Liverpool), and the sinking of the Empress of Ireland (sailed from Liverpool and sand in 1914 in the St. Lawrence Seaway in Canada after striking another ship).  

The American Civil War began on 12 April 1861 and ended in Liverpool on 6 November 1865, when the last Confederate warship 'CSS Shenandoah' surrendered in the Mersey.

A model of the SS Lusitania 

 A life preserver from the boat

Found this interesting... the last Titanic survivor recently died in 2009.

A floor of the museum was dedicated to the slave trade, which was a part of the shipping triangle between Africa, America, and Liverpool. 

Liverpool's Three Graces.. The farthest building with the clock tower and is the home of the Royal Liver Building  (Insurance company), The second is the Cunard Building, and the closest is the Port of Liverpool Building

A few dry docks still left in Liverpool.

The Beatles's Museum in the Albert Docks area was a little pricey , but worth a visit.  I had forgotten most of the story so it was a good catch-up (Lori and I were too young).  Their stardom took off in 1962, and the broke up in 1970.  The band started out in Liverpool as the Quarrymen.

To make it out of Liverpool, they played in Hamburg Germany 

The song Strawberry Fields Forever, was written by John Lennon and inspired by his memories of playing in the garden of a Salvation Army house named "Strawberry Field" near his childhood home.  The song Eleanor Rigby was written by Paul McCartney.  The name was intended to be fictitious, however a tombstone in the graveyard of St Peter's Church in Liverpool, where John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met contains the gravestone of an individual called Eleanor Rigby. Paul McCartney has conceded he may have been subconsciously influenced by the name on the gravestone and bbizarrely, the real Eleanor Rigby lived a lonely life similar to that of the person in the song

 Tribute to John Lennon

Everything over here seems to need an explanation... 

Lori and her lions our front of St. George's Hall.

The Beatles's Walk - The Beatles's first gained fame by playing in the Cavern, and underground pub in central Liverpool.   The warehouse over the bar had to be razed to its poor condition, but a replica was built nearby.

Mathew Street, where the Beatles's got their start. 

Paul and Lori

The Albion building - former headquarters of the White Star Building.   In 1912, when news of the disaster of the Titanic reached the offices, the officials were too afraid to leave the building, and instead read the names of the deceased from the balcony.

The end of a good weekend

And a rough start to another week... squeegee in hand to remove overnight spring snow.. Megan, I miss the warm garage..