Liverpool contained the first hills I had seen in the UK. This may be a strange observation, but I noticed that every area in the UK that we’ve ventured to thus far had been relatively flat, except some small inclines in Windsor, but none too significant. We had to walk up hills for dinner, a half-hour trek to a Greek restaurant that served us entirely too much food.
Liverpool is an industrious, port city, and soccer town that sits right on the River Mersey that leads out into the Irish Sea. I thought I was looking right at the ocean when I first saw all of the water, and only learned after research that that wasn’t true. Nonetheless, it was captivating.
The main attraction, and surely what my instructors were looking forward to the most, was the 3-hour guided Beatles tour. I appreciate the Beatles for their contribution to rock and roll history, but I didn’t get to witness the era. I wish my parents could’ve taken my place for this one. They would have really loved this. I won Mother’s Day from all the way across the pond by sending my mother photos throughout the tour. I stopped taking too many pictures with my camera and started documenting the experience mainly on my phone so I could send things to her immediately.
We got to see the childhood homes of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and Ringo Starr. We got to see Penny Lane and Strawberry Field. We heard the real story about how John Lennon and Paul McCartney met and where one could say that rock and roll started. We saw the church where Paul McCartney was a choir boy and the graves outside where he got names for songs such as “Father McKenzie” and “Eleanor Rigby.”
I do not want you to think that I was unappreciative of this experience. I really did love this whole experience from beginning to end. I am not the world’s biggest fan of the Beatles, but I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy their music. My favorite part of this day was to see Helen, Jan, and Robin, just absolutely beaming for the whole 3 hours.