HusBand on the Run

And a bell was ringing in the Village Square

For the rabbits on the run

Up and at 'em early in the morning, time to do me some exploring of the Liverpool streets around the hotel.  Sadly, it was a Solo run, as I couldn't shake the sheets madly enough to get my running buddy Heather out there with me.

Down by the Mersey ferries, on Pier Head, heading towards the river Mersey is a fairly new addition to the city of Liverpool, that of a close-to-lifesized statue of the four lads that made the city famous more than half a century ago.

The bronze statue was only added in 2015 after the owners of the sorta-nearby Cavern Club felt the city needed some type of commemorative gathering point to honor John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

I took advantage of the damp morning to run with the Fab Four to the ferry dock

Each of the statues has a secret detail that speaks to the individual:

• John is carrying two acorns, symbolic of his and Yoko's wish for world peace (after their marriage, they sent acorns to world leaders asking that they be planted across the globe as a symbol of world peace)
• Paul is carrying a camera - a possible nod to his photographer wife, Linda Eastman, or a reflection of the camera he carried with him on the band's visit to Paris in January, 1964
• George's spiritual beliefs are reflected in the Indian mantra written across his coat belt.
• Ringo has the number 9 on the sole of his shoe, referencing his Liverpool zip code

The unveiling of the statue - sculpted by Andy Edwards - coincided with the Beatles' final show in their hometown, at the Empire theater in 1965,  

From there, it was a run along the River Mersey itself.

The river gets its name from the Anglo-Saxon language, and translates into "boundary river," possibly because it is believed to have once separated the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria, not to mention the boundary between the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire.

The river spawned the brand of music known as the Merseybeat, something the Beatles came to embody.

And of course, as music historians Pauls Askew and Marion would be quick to point out, the river itself is the inspiration for Gerry and the Pacemakers hit song, which can be viewed here:

Ferry Cross the Mersey

Interestingly, the walkway along the Mersey has become yet another site for the love locks that have cropped up at chained locations across the world.

For those who haven't seen them elsewhere, the padlocks are supposed to symbolize a couple's love, usually with their names or initials emblazoned upon the lock.  The key is usually thrown into the nearby water to symbolize unbreakable love.

Chains, my baby's got me locked up in chains

It took a bit, but with the help of the trusty iPhone maps, I was able to wander around and find something I'd been hunting for since arriving in Liverpool - the statue dedicated to Eleanor Rigby

A handbag on her lap, shopping back to her right, a Liverpool newspaper on her left, Eleanor Rigby sits beneath a plaque reading 

ELEANOR RIGBY

ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE

Sculpture by Tommy Steele

A thank you to the people of Liverpool

December 3, 1982

From the Album Revolver, August 5, 1966

Eleanor Rigby, died in the church

And was buried along with her name

Nobody came

Father McKenzie, wiping the dirt

From his hands as he walks from the grave

No one was saved

All the lonely people

Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong?

Next up: time for a very special tour

The Beatles Story - And What a Story It Was!

Time, finally, to share pics and memories from a period of 48 hours that will indelibly rate among the greatest experiences of my life, on a myriad of levels.

Warning: if you're not a fan of the Beatles, or even remotely interested in their fabled story of success, the next few blog posts are not for you.

Time to cut away from London proper for a couple of days and head northward, all the way up to Liverpool, where once upon a time, four lads formed a band that would forever changed the landscape of rock and roll music.

This excursion was made possible with the support of viewers like you, but most especially, our driver, Paul Askew, United Kingdom music aficionado.  The music trivia contests he participated in while driving north and listening to radio broadcasts will forever remain one of the more accomplished and astonishing bits of nigh-unto Rain Man trivia prowess that we've ever witnessed.

A light mist awaited us on arrival to Liverpool, but the Rain didn't matter, because we were heading to Albert Dock, and the Beatles museum that resides there.

Albert Dock on the River Mersey opened in 1846 and was the first structure in all of Britain to be built from cast iron, brick and stone, with no structural wood.

During World War II, the dock was requisitioned by the Admiralty and served as a base of operations for boats in the British Atlantic Fleet.  It was damaged during air raids on Liverpool, and never quite recovered economically, closing in 1972.  Redevelopment began in the 1980s, though, and the dock was reopened, evolving into the tourist attraction it is today.  (It's also a fun place to log some running miles, but more on that in a later post)

Heather captured the start of our tour, and yes, she was quite correct in her observation.

The Beatles Story is the largest permanent exhibition in the world devoted purely to recounting the Beatles' story from their modest start in the nearby neighborhoods of Liverpool through their meteoric rise to the top of the charts.  Music guru Paul Marion, not to mention my brother Jimmy, are sure to already know all of the information provided within the walls of the tour, but damn, for this diehard Beatle fan, it was a glorious immersion into immortal music.

You can wander through the tour at your own pace, using an interactive electronic system along the lines of an iPod that takes you through audio narratives of their careers - sometimes in their own words, sometimes in that of their loved ones.

The Star-Club was a music club in Hamburg, Germany, where many of the giants of the music industry played, including 13 historic performances by the Beatles in April, May, November, and December of 1962.

We'd see the real (or reconstructed version of the Cavern Club the next day, but for now, the facsimile provided a colorful backdrop for Heather and I.

As blog readers know, we had already hit the authentic Abbey Road crosswalk and Abbey Road studios down in London itself, but the recreation was a nice brush with history.

Fast forward to 8 p.m. on Sunday, February 9, 1964 (I was still being baked at that point), and 73 million people tuned in to hear Ed Sullivan shout "Ladies and gentlemen....the Beatles!" leading the foursome into All My Lovin' and television folklore.

Beatlemania had arrived.

In 1966, the Beatles released Eleanor Rigby as the B-side of Yellow Submarine.  It remains, to this day, one of my favorite Beatles songs ever, but it took on new poignancy and even greater gravity when I took to running and exploring the streets of current day Liverpool, seeing some of the many homeless that still dot the landscape and shelter in doorways to escape the cold and rain.

Paul McCartney was often asked who was Eleanor Rigby, and the answer might reside in St. Peter's Graveyard Woolton, where Rigby's name can be found on a tombstone in a cemetery near where Paul and John Lennon first met one another and that served as a shortcut for the pair on some of their buddy walks.  Paul has often said the name was implanted into his subconscious from one of his many pass-throughs of the cemetery, and it stuck with him.

All the lonely people - where DO they all come from? 

 And our friends are all aboard

Many more of them live next door

And the band begins to play

Waiting to take you away 

The most prolific writing tandem in music history 

One of the  most powerful scenes in the museum comes at the end, with John Lennon's New York piano, and Imagine playing soulfully overhead.

Imagine

You may say I'm a dreamer.  But I'm not the only one.

Outside the museum still stands the stone arch at Salthouse Dock 

I could have spent even more time just absorbing the recordings, the recollections, hell, just listening to the music that accompanies you through the corridors.  It was an unforgettable remembrance of an historic stretch of time When We Was Fab

Though I know I'll never lose affection

For people and things that went before

I know I'll often stop and think about them

Tuppence, the Bard, the Muffin Man and Cybermen - Oh, the Harrods!

All around the cathedral the saints and apostles

Look down as she sells her wares.

Although you can't see it, you know they are smiling

Each time someone shows that he cares

Though her words are simple and few

Listen, listen, she's calling to you

"Feed the birds, tuppence a bag

Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag

After Jack finished feeding the birds, it was nigh time to get Andrew the authentic English pub experience he'd been craving, complete with fish and chips in newspaper, of course.

So it was off to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, quite possibly London's most famous pub.

What's that you say?  You've never heard of Ye Old Cheshire Cheese?  Then sit back and absorb.

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, tucked down a side alley on Fleet Street, was rebuilt after the great fire of 1666, and is known for its rich resume of prominent literary patrons over the centuries, among which numbered Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, G.K. Chesterton, Alfred Tennyson, Oscar Wilde, and Mark Twain.

So of course, two bloggers from a Mill City in Massachusetts, needed to hoist a pint in the same rooms were once those literary greats quenched their thirst

Exploring this pub is an adventure unto itself, as secret rooms stack upon secret rooms as you descend into different levels of the pub.  Most are constructed of dark wooden beams with low ceilings, coupled with wooden benches, open fireplaces and flowing taps aplenty.  Not for the claustrophobic.

Just a couple of blocks from Cheshire Cheese, and you're at one of London's most famous and recognizable sites, Saint Paul's Cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of London and the mother church of the Diocese of London.  It's located on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in London.

The original church was founded on the site in 604 AD, but the current cathedral was built in the late 17th century.

For two members of this expedition, it gave us yet another opportunity to visit the site of one of the most famous Doctor Who scenes in the show's 55 year history - the invasion of the Cybermen on November 2, 1968.

You will become like us.  You will be upgraded.  You will be deleted.

A quick hop, skip and jump across the nearby Millennium Footbridge, and Andrew was able to chalk another literary moment off his bucket list, stopping to pay homage to the Bard himself at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in Southwark, on the southern side of the River Thames.

The Bard's original theater was built in 1599, but destroyed by a fire 1613.  It was rebuilt, but demolished about 30 years later.  The newest version was built circa 1997.

Andrew reenacted Julius Caesar just days earlier, and now it was time for him to stake his claim to Hamlet.  Alas, poor Yorick.

The next morning, Andrew was ready to dig into an official English Breakfast.  (Blog readers have expressed concern that Andrew hadn't been eating well while traveling abroad, since there haven't been many pictures of his culinary conquests.  This should allay those fears.) 

My colleagues in Bedford know that when this picture comes their way, they're getting a visit from the Muffin Man courtesy of Java's Brewing in Billerica

Time for a quick pitstop and comic geek-out moment at Forbidden Planet, one of the largest comic stores IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!

Thanks to Lu and her hospitality, I was able to snag a healthy amount of Doctor Who swag on this visit 

My idea of dream shopping.  (My nightmare idea of shopping follows further down in this blog post.) 

From there, Heather took us to the nearby Coventry Gardens, a fabulous indoor/outdoor marketplace, akin to Boston's Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall.

Restaurants, shops and eateries abound.  (Not to mention one of the most bizarre water closets you'll find in any market setting.) 

And yes, mimes, who sneak up on you as you're taking pictures of the landscape 

From there, it was on to Harrod's in Knightsbridge, one of the world's most famous shopping experiences.  The store covers five acres, with 330 departments encompassing one million square feet of retails space.  I think we saw all of it.

It's also home to amazingly large chocolate eggs

Jack wasn't impressed by Harrod's Bob Dylan art collection.

Me, I think it could have been enhanced by having his songs playing in the background. 

Harrod's store motto is Omnia Omnibus Ubique, which translates into "all things for all people, everywhere"

Yes, the girls did leave the store with a couple of bagfuls of necessities, so don't cry for them, Argentina

Heather next wanted to take mom to Kensington Gardens, for another brush with royalty 

Somewhere behind us lies a grouping of flowers that Prince Harry himself would later pick to add to a special bouquet for his bride Megan on their wedding day.

Two buds, among the flowers 

Before we left Kensington Gardens, a quick stop by the Albert Memorial, commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her husband Prince Albert, who died of Typhoid in 1861.

Next up: heading north of London, to a certain hometown of four famous lads!