We woke to the sound of beer cans blowing in the wind and decided to write a folk song to depict our day. Of course you'll still get our blog but as we're off to the Cavern Club tonight we thought a song would be the order of the day and in keeping with the cultural side of Liverpool. Yesterday was a great day and today we are going to be day trippers to Liverpool.
After carrying out our early morning ablutions with Maice taking half an hour to decide which coat to wear, we headed off in search of breakfast. The only place open was Chez Morrisons, so we dined on a 5* supermarket cooked breakfast which we thought would set us up for the day, and then went in search of the train station. Half an hour later we were at the Pier Head, in the shadow of the Three Graces and the Fab Four.
It's going to be a hard day's night as we're off to the Cabin Club at 7.30 tonight which is not located on Penny Lane, as Maice thought, so we will stay in Liverpool all day.....goodness knows what time we'll get back!
The weather is rather changeable at the moment, sunny spells amongst cloudy skies with a threat of rain. We're hoping it stays clear for most of the day as we don't want to turn up at the Cavern Club looking like drowned rats.
So we arrive at Secombe pier and decide to take a ferry across the Mersey, well you've got to haven't you. Of course I've done it hundreds of times but Maice hasn't...they even played Gerry and the Pacemakers, Ferry across the Mersey on the way over. It was a bit of a choppy crossing and the chairs and tables started moving around and nearly went overboard. Thankfully neither of us suffered any sea sickness and after our fifty minutes on the Mersey we walked around the Albert Docks, had a tour around a tug boat, very interesting and much bigger down below than one would expect and then went to the Maritime Museum. We could only afford an hour but it was an hour well spent. Next stop on our whistle stop tour' of Liverpool was Marks and Spencer's for our free coffee, courtesy of my complimentary monthly coffee vouchers.
Having enjoyed a well earned sit down, we set off to the Radio City Tower where we bought a ticket to ride and were whisked up in a lift that made our ears pop. Thankfully neither of us suffer from vertigo so we didn't have to call for help! The vista from up high was quite amazing and we had a birds eye view of the city for just £5.50.....what a bargain.
We were both feeling weary by this time but had to tread the long and winding road to the Anglican Cathedral via ....Fact or Fiction? William Gladstone's birthplace in Rodney Street, born 29th December 1809 and served four terms as Prime Minister?. We walked into the cathedral which is the largest in the UK and were treated to an Easter production of The Passion, so we watched and listened and it was rather lovely. What a treat. We were quite blown away by the cathedral not only by its vastness and its height but the stained glass windows were beautiful. Hidden away was the Lady Chapel which was the size of a normal church and we both said it was our favourite part of the cathedral.
Coming out of the cathedral it started to rain so we quick footed it down Hope Street, passed a sculpture of suitcases in the middle of the pavement, yes, you heard right and wearily climbed up the fifty six steps to the Metropolitan Catholic Cathedral of Christ the King more affectionately know as Paddy's Wigwam. What a contrast. Very modern in comparison to the Anglican cathedral with some awesome stain glass windows and abstract sculptures. Our favourite was Lady Madonna in the children's chapel. We were so blown away by our Cathedral experience's we made our way down the fifty six steps to the cafe for a nice coffee, which somehow turned into wine! (refer to first blog......travellers with.....!). Both feeling a bit squiffy we contemplated calling the 'yellow submarine taxi company', I kid you not, but we got talking to Eleanor Rigby behind the bar, I kid you not, who advised us to walk back into town as it was a short distance.
We found Matthew Street, home of the Cavern Club quite easily and set off in search of a nice restaurant for supper. We didn't need to be at the venue until 7.30pm and it was only 5pm. Unfortunately everywhere we liked the look of was full so we ended up at the Spice Centre for an Indian. Well, we had a delicious meal which we ate all too quickly and decided to see if we could get into the club. It was only 7pm but they let us in however we ended up queueing up inside the club in order to get into the Cavern Club Lounge where the 'Beatles' we're playing. They finally let us in at 7.45pm and then this guy came on with his guitar and the Beatles didn't come on stage until 9.30pm!! Having been on the go all day sightseeing and walking the length and breadth of Liverpool we were practically falling asleep on our very uncomfortable seats and at the interval we decided to leave. We had to make sure we got the train back to New Brighton. Well, you'll never believe this. We were standing on the platform minding our own business when this official (we'll call her the Rottweiler) of the railways accompanied by two community enforcement officers walked up to this suited gentleman and asked him why he had tipped his lucozade onto the platform and asked if he was going to mop it up. Now this guy was about 6ft 4 and was with his woman and two friends and he became very subservient and said 'yes, give me the mop'. The Rottweiler then said 'you won't be going home on the train tonight' and promptly frogmarched him and his friends off the platform. You see, you don't mess with a scouser, particularly a law enforcement officer and more particularly, a woman.
Well, folks, as you are aware we are blog writers, not paperback writers and after this blog we have one more to submit to see us through the end of our holiday.
As it's Beatle's day, we’ve set you a task. How many Beatles song titles were written in the making of this blog?
Well peeps, happy days. It's now twenty minutes past midnight, well no actually, it's twenty six minutes past one as the time has leapt forward. Typical, on the day we could do with an extra hours sleep, we go and lose one!
Here's hoping to wake up to a lovely sunny Easter Day.....
M&A xx