12th & 13th day - Liverpool

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Kath and I spent the weekend in Liverpool.
Unfortunately we missed the last train from London that went direct to Liverpool so we had to catch a train then a bus then another train and it took almost 5 hours!
When we arrived we trooped around Liverpool trying to find our accomodation, it took a while but we got there eventually.

We dumped our stuff and then headed down to the meeting point for the Magical Mystery Tour - the Beatles Tour. It was pretty cool. It went for 2 hours and we saw the childhood homes of all 4 Beatles, this was a little bit strange though because a couple of them are owned by ordinary people now, and so everyday that get bus loads of people coming to stare at their houses. Kath and I felt a bit uncomfortable about this. John and Paul's childhood homes are now own by the National Trust so it wasn't so weird standing outside the front of their homes.
The tour guide was really good, he knew heaps of random facts that I find really interesting to hear.
We also went to the real Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane. Lastly we ended up at the Cavern Club where the Beatles did heaps of gigs when they were starting out.

After the Beatles tour, we went down to the Liverpool Pier and caught a Ferry across the Mersey - apparently this is a really well known song by Gerry & the Pacemakers... I didn't know it but Kath did and she was very excited about taking the ferry. It was a nice ride although it was absolutely freezing.

When we got off the ferry we had dinner and then just headed back to the apartment (we got an apartment rather than a hotel room). It was somewhat of a luxury simply to have a lounge room and a tv (Kath's place doesn't have a tv).

The next morning I woke up earlier than Kath so headed out and had breakfast at a cafe.

It was absolutely freezing in Liverpool by the way, especially on Sunday becausing it was drizzling, I wore my coat the entire time I was there and rarely felt the need to take it off.

I then went for a wonder around the city centre but it was really strange because it was pretty dead, most of the shops were closed and there weren't that many people around.

Kath and I checked out at 1pm and after grabbing a bite to eat made our way to the train station. Oh, something I want to mention, Liverpool has been granted the title of 'European Capital of Culture 2008' and so to commemorate that they have put up statutes all over the place, they are the same shape but each is decorated differently. They are called Super Lamb Bananas, basically it is a lamb but their tails are shaped like bananas. It is very random but I thought they were so cute and took a photo of one whenever I saw one. There are over 100 of them throughout Liverpool.

Ok, at the train station were were able to get a train direct to London which was much better.

Kath and I then had a quiet night back at her house.

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