Tuesday, 4 December

(A second page of Liverpool pictures from a later trip is here)

George Harrison died last Thursday, after a long battle with cancer. I had been meaning to do some traveling while Jen was busy with school work, so I decided to go to Liverpool to pay my respects.

The train ride took about an hour and three quarters, passing through the gorgeous peak district and the not-so-gorgeous city of Manchester. Apart from some sprinkles, the weather was fairly good. It was the first fairly sunny day in about two weeks.

Here are some pictures I took. As always, click for larger versions.

I started by looking for the tourist information office in hopes of finding a free map of the city. If this office actually exists, which I doubt, it is extremely well protected. A series of confusing and contradictory signs guard against any possiblity of discovery by tourists.
In my futile search for the tourist office, I eventually randomly happened upon Matthew Street...
... home of the famous Cavern Club, where the Beatles performed an amazing number of times in their early years.
It was apparently largely reconstructed in the 70s, but it still has a lot of atmosphere. You enter by going down about two and a half stories underground. The massive brick arches, lit mostly by small candles, still give a strong impression of cavernness. They had a book of condolences for George, which I signed.
The whole street is dedicated to the Beatles. There were memorials at least every 10 yards.
After Matthew Street, I headed down to the Albert Docks, which have been redeveloped as museums and shops. At one point, most of the ships going to America left from Liverpool. The wealth generated is demonstrated in several massive buildings, including the Cunard Line headquarters, shown here.
The Albert docks contain a bizarre floating map of the British Isles. We live around the near end of the gray lump running down the middle of England.
Another view of the docks.
And another. This is the Maritime Museum, which had some interesting exhibits on the battle of the Atlantic during WWII. Along with several other major British museums, it has recently dropped admission charges. Yeah!
The Yellow Submarine. The Beatles all lived here in the late sixties. The thing in the background is a radio tower.
Liverpool has some great Victorian architecture. The washed-out looking building in the back is the town hall.
I was excited to find out that you can take a tour of the "Western Approaches", a WWII bunker which held the command center for the battle against German U-Boats. It is protected by two meter thick concrete, and has cool wall sized maps. Think Dr. Strangelove.
... or at least, that's what I heard. A sign in the window says they're closed from October 31 to March 1. Hmmm... October 31... Wasn't that around when Osama bin Laden was last heard from?
Back in Matthew Street, there's a shopping mall called the Cavern Walks. It's mostly fasionable womens clothing stores, but it had a few Beatle themed restaurants and this statue.
I had a bit of trouble figuring out which one was George, (the bronze casts were a bit chunky) but I think this is him here.
I spent the rest of the afternoon making my way out to Penny Lane. It's a quiet little suburban street. I think it means something that after all their fame and travel this is the place that they wanted to remember.
The shelter in the middle of a roundabout, now a restaurant.
A view down Penny Lane from the square. The sun was just setting, around 3:30. December in Britain.
Penny Lane from the other end. Around the corner form here is John and George's elementary school. It wasn't very photogenic, though, and school was just getting out, so I didn't feel like explaining to parents why I was taking pictures of their six-year-olds.
On the way back I stopped at Liverpool's Anglican cathedral. There's also a Catholic cathedral in town. Both were built in this century, but while the Church of England chose a neo-Gothic design, the Catholics chose a neo-Star Trek look. This one is a lot more successful. I don't know if you can tell from this picture exactly how truly massive this building is. The street is much steeper, and the building set much further back, than they appear.
St. George's Hall, near the train station. It's hard to tell in the (4:30) dark, but the flag is at half mast.