Liverpool, England

 Our tours here were in the afternoon.  I went on a "Steps of the Beatles" tour and, since Michael had no interest in that one, he did the "Victorian Port Sunlight and Tea".  This morning, as we were docked again, we walked off and wandered a bit around the port area.  As usual, it's not the most scenic part of town, but we did find a few interesting things.

The Royal Liver Building (pronounced live-er, not liver like the internal organ)

A Titanic Memorial to the engine crew 

You have to sing the song in your head when you see this.

                                            

No explanation necessary - this is Liverpool, after all.

It was a pretty quiet Sunday morning, although the church bells were wonderful.  This part of town has lots of restaurants and bars, some of which were open already and some of the patrons at the outside tables had been there a while, I believe.  

This phone box has been converted to a full-blown defibrillator station. 

And this one is still a working phone, although who uses it, I wonder.  This is a K2 style (Kiosk design 2) which was first used in 1929.  The K6 above (defibrillator now) was introduced in 1935.  The designs that followed were not nearly as attractive.

Michael took a tour of Port Sunshine which is a company village built by Mr. Lever, of Lever Bros. and later Unilever fame, at the end of the 19th  century.  He built about 800 houses, a church, a school, and store for employees of his soap manufacturing plant.  He found the tour interesting and worthwhile.

My tour, on the other hand, was a disappointment.  Our guide was not very good, to say the least.  He seemed to know his stuff, but had trouble with the microphone so one couldn't always hear what he was saying.  And he made the stops unnecessarily long and disorganized.  Here are a few highlights.

Ringo grew up down this street and frequented this pub on the corner.  They put up this mural in case anyone didn't know this.  And there's a plaque above the door saying that the building appeared on the sleeve of Ringo's first solo album.

The modest street where Ringo lived with his mum until he was about 23.

This is the last original Penny Lane street sign since all the others kept getting stolen.  The Council finally put the plastic cover over it after Paul McCartney signed it in 2018.

The Penny Lane restaurant has the lyrics to the song in gold above the awning.

The "shelter in the middle of the roundabout" where Paul used to wait to transfer buses for school.  It's now being turned into a restaurant called "Sgt. Pepper Bistro"

Paul's house from age 14-21.  This house and John's are now part of the National Trust and can be toured for a fee.  (What about Ringo and George?)  The house next door is for sale now for about $300,000.  It's a 3 BR/1 BA and all of 986 sq. ft.  And you have to put up with the tourists out front at all hours.

We also drove by Strawberry Fields, which used to be an orphanage behind John's house.  And we stopped on the street where the Cavern Club used to be.  They played there 292 times from 1962-63.  Last was a visit to the Beatles Story, a sort of museum.  I guess I'm glad I did the tour just because it felt like I should, but it wasn't the best tour.  I heard that another group with a different guide had a great time.

This used to be the ship's registry office.  The locals call it the "stripey bacon" building.

Dinner at Sette Mari tonight where I tried the lasagne.  Still not my favorite restaurant.  I would probably be better off just making a meal of the yummy appetizers and may just try that next time unless they have the veal chop on the menu.