As a Beatles fan, I've obviously been wanting to go to Liverpool for a long time! It was a bit surreal actually being there finally! It was different than I was imagining.. but good different! I can't wait to go back and spend some more time exploring the Beatles' sites.

View of the city from Albert docks

Main shopping street- Whitechapel

Albert docks! It's been done up all posh-like.
Loads of nice restaurants and shops.

Window display of the you-know-whos.

We went to The Beatles Story museum on Saturday morning. There is nothing really new for Beatles fans, but the items and displays are great. You get an audio guide included, too, which had all different Beatle-related people giving stories, etc. It was very well done. This is George's first guitar! Incredible....

Hanging out with John....

Recreation of the Cavern Club (in the museum)

Albert Docks

After the museum, we took a Magical Mystery coach tour.
We got to ride around Liverpool in a giant yellow-colored bus!
The guide was fantastic, though. Here's (one of) Ringo's childhood
homes (down the lane on the left). The pub there was on the cover
of his solo album Sentimental Journey.

Self explanatory!

One of George's childhood homes!

Gates to Strawberry Field

John Lennon's home he lived in with Aunt Mimi. Sadly, we
couldn't get off the coach for a proper photo. There are tours that let you
come inside (along with Paul's house) but we didn't do that one (read: ££££).

Can you hear them? The choirs of angels singing? This is
"AHHHH!" Sir Paulie's last house in Liverpool! I still can't
believe I was standing right there on his sidewalk in front of the gate!
I mean.. Paul's stood there! Surreal is an understatement!

The boys at the Cavern

Lead singer of a band performing inside the Cavern *Pub*
(different from the *Club*). They were alright. They did a cool
version of Yer Blues, though!

Display of Beatles' stuff behind the stage

It's Paulie's guitars!!

The Hofner is signed with "Cool Cavern- cheers! Paul
McCartney Dec 14 '99."

Empire Theatre- site of many early Beatles' concerts as well as
the Liverpool premiere of at least one of their movies (forget which!)

Odd, out-of-nowhere, Chinese gate opening onto
China Town apparently!

Liverpool Cathedral (one of them at least- there's also a
modern Catholic cathedral down the road).

Interior of the cathedral

Ferry 'cross the Mersey!!! It was breezy, but fun! :) Yes,
I sang the song!

The classic, iconic view of the city with the town hall and Liver birds.

Traffic coming home was a nightmare! I will say that the trip was
a blast! I can't wait to have the chance to go back to Liverpool. I
would like to go during better, warmer weather and just walk around
more. Maybe I'll spot Paulie!

I have wanted to go to Blackpool for a long time. It's got a reputation as being rather kitschy, but it was a lot of fun!! We stopped here for a night on our way to Liverpool. It was well worth it! The only complaint was the freaking wind. It never stopped blowing. I had to stop caring that my hair was a tangled mess the entire time.

On our way to Blackpool. It still looks a bit weird
seeing cars on the other side of the road like that!

This is our hotel. I enjoyed it. Oddly, we were the youngest
people there. I think all the other guests were 65 and older.
I'm not kidding.

The train! The train!

View of the famous Blackpool Tower. You can see
how strong the wind was by the peaks of the waves.

Freezing on the boardwalk!

View of the shore and promenade

We caught a beautiful sunset over the water.

One of the piers

2p slots! You put in your money and a metal bar at the
back rakes the money forward. The idea is to get the change to the
edge in front so it falls down into the winner slot thingy!

Pleasure Beach is what Blackpool is all about! It's basically
an amusement park. It was very amusing (despite the wind)!

Inside the scary ghost ride.

Go carts!! This was my first time. I loved it!!

It's hard to tell, but this is a ride. You get brought up into the air.
Each arm of the "palm tree" rotates as well! It was actually
a really beautiful view of the sea and the city from up there! :)

I couldn't resist... I got my palm read!! It was fun! She talked so fast though that I had a hard time remembering it all. She did mention that the next 3 years will be lucky and that September 14th is going to be an important date. Oh, and I'm going to have some tummy troubles that I see a doctor about, but it won't be anything serious and I'll be fine!

On the same day I went to Dickens' Museum, I hung out in the Bloomsbury/Russell Square area. I really love this section of town! It's beautiful! It has lots of Georgian-style squares of which Russell Square is the largest. Lots of artists and writers lived in this area, too (I can see why!) It was a fairly quiet area- not a lot of tourists. I might have to work my way back here for another wander before I leave.

Fountain in the center of Russell Square. This is a recent (past few years) addition to the park.

View of Russell Square

This is nearby Bedford Square. It is where the famous peeps lived.
The British Museum is around the corner from here.

A peek into the private (as in residents only) Bedford Square.
I wanna live here and have one of those keys!!!

The Fitzroy Tavern is where many of the 19th century
writers, etc hung out. I called it the "Aux Deux Magots" of
London. I just had to go for a pint here!

Finally!! Wheat beer in London!

The pub was already quite full, so I asked to share tables with this man.
He was very nice! We ended up chatting a bit, with him giving me tips about
places to go in Liverpool and Oxford. (He even lived in Liverpool during
pre-Beatlemania, but wasn't interested! He told me his sister has a photo
taken with the Beatles in her back garden!! She also went to the Cavern at
lunchtime to see them perform! Holy Cow!)

The downstairs bar area where the artists, etc hung out back
in the day.

In my on-going quest to visit off the beaten (tourist) path places, I headed over to the Charles Dickens' Museum. It is the house he lived in while writing Nicholas Nickleby and the series of Christmas Stories (of which A Christmas Carol is the best-known). The house is well preserved and maintained. The museum covers 4 floors of the house with interesting explanations of the exhibits in each room. Well worth a visit!

Dicken's Front door!

Official plaque on the outside of the house. The National Trust tends to do
this for places it owns. Helpful!

Shown here as the library, but apparently in his time, it was the kitchen.

Front room. The statues on the window sill are on loan from some
library or something while it's being renovated.

Back garden

This just screams "Dickens" to me!

Section of Dickens' own hand written manuscript for Nicholas Nickleby

Front living room with some of his furniture

The view from one of his upstairs bedrooms

Entry into the house

View of the surrounding houses on his street. It's a lovely neighborhood.