Liverpool 2

Did you know the Beatles were from Liverpool? It's weird, you would think they'd mention it more!

The second part of my Liverpool trip with my girlfriend featured some visits to the Beatles tourist spots. I wasn't really planning to do many of these, the only one I really wanted to do was the childhood homes of Lennon and McCartney.

Lennon's house was great, you can really imagine a teenage, rebellious but secretly sensitive teenager stalking through the place. It's hardly working class hero by the way, its big and quite posh. In this picture I'm standing next to the porch where, get this, he practised his guitar (he wasn't allowed to play in the house itself apparently) and he and Paul wrote some of their early songs because the acoustics were so good. And that's me, standing there. That brought a little lump to the throat.

Paul's house was a smaller place, and because of this there was less furniture and rooms to walk round, although this was made up for by the really great pictures taken by Paul's brother Mike which were displayed in each room. In one John and Paul are sitting reading the words and chords to the recently finished "I Saw Her Standing There" and the picture hangs just above where they were sitting. I'd recommend this trip to the two houses highly, even if your not much of a Beatles fan, which I don't think most of the people on the trip were, it's a cool bit of social history. Like the Black Country Museum but more recent. In both of the houses the guides (who live in them all year round) were really interesting, especially the lady in John's house who was a genuine Cavern Club attendee. Talking of which, we visited there too. Or the the rebuilt one which is just up the street. There was a Beatles tribute band on, and it was rammed and it was only a couple of quid in, so it was pretty good.

Liverpool itself is a great city, one of my favourites I think. It was a good trip, with Clapton, the Beatles, the city and all the very cool, and free things to see and do. And Maria was excellent company too! I wish we'd gone for a bit longer really. Perhaps another month...