Liverpool: A Magical Mystery Tour

I’ve been to Liverpool once before – back in the early 1990s to watch a football match. I don’t think I saw much of the city, and I have very little memory of it other than the match itself. My daughter hasn’t been at all. Yet, we’re both fans of the Beatles.

With the Easter school holidays in swing, it was time to change that and visit the home of the Fab 4 with a 2 day jaunt to the city.

Day One – Homes, Flats & Caves

We set off at 10am. It was a 2 hour drive to Liverpool and we heard to… Speke Hall. Now, Speke Hall itself isn’t related to the Beatles but we there for a good reason. Having said that, the area of Speke is where Paul McCartney grew up and the Hall is right next to John Lennon airport.

Anyway, no, we were there because it was the pick-up point for a tour that we’d booked. But that wasn’t until 2pm.

We got there early because it added a buffer for bad traffic. And, importantly, lunch. There wasn’t a traffic problem so we got there around noon. Speke Hall is a rather grand Tudor house, run by The National Trust. As a member we got free access, so took advantage of it to look around. They also had a restaurant, so we got something to eat as well.

At around 2pm a minibus came and picked us for a tour that we’d pre-booked. The National Trust, as well as owning a large number of ancient properties around the UK, also own other building of significance – and this includes the childhood homes of Paul and John.

These houses aren’t accessible otherwise – you have to go on a tour, via the National Trust. Just 2 tours happen a day, with a just a small group of people each time. Needless to say, you have to book well in advance.

There are no photos from inside because of restrictions. However, if you’d like to see inside Paul’s house, you can in this episode of Carpool Karaoke…

If you have access to iPlayer, there’s also this episode from the TV series “Hidden Treasures of the National Trust”.

Once we returned to Speke, we drove to the Airbnb that we had in the centre of the city. It was in a gated apartment area and had its own parking (which is not easy in Liverpool, otherwise) and is just a 15 minute walk away from the centre of the city. The flat was fantastic.

We got there around 4:30pm, quickly unpacked and then headed a few streets away to… The Cavern Club.

It’s very reasonably priced to get in, there’s always live music and they even have a gift shop. As the birthplace of the Beatles, it’s got to be done.

After this we headed towards the shops and stopped for something to eat before retiring to the apartment for the night.

Day Two – History and Roads

There are two main Beatles museums in Liverpool – Beatles Liverpool Museum and Beatles Liverpool Museum. We only wanted to visit one and, from reviews, the latter seemed the best. Again, tickets had been bought in advance and we had a time of 10:30am, as numbers were limited.

We left the Airbnb at around 9:10am and headed towards Albert Docks, which is where the museum was. We intentionally left early so that we could grab some breakfast on the way. We also had time to visit the gift shop too.

The museum was great – it’s an audio tour, for which you’ve given headphones and a portable player that you have around your neck on a lanyard. You choose the playback yourself, so everything is at your own pace.

Afterwards we re-visited the gift shop and bought the items that we’d spotted earlier.

A long walk around the dock area (next to the Mersey, with views of Wales in the distance) brought us to the Beatles statues and The Liver Building.

Whilst in Liverpool, and near to the shops, it would be almost impossible for a teenage girl to not want to do some shopping, so we’d reserved some time for that. And lunch, of course.

We got back to the Airbnb around 1:20pm, as the owner had kindly let us leave our car there, despite having checked-out that morning. We drove off heading for…

We parked outside the nearby Dovedale Road Primary school, which is where John and George had gone to school. We then walked a couple of roads to Penny Lane, walking the length of it.

After that we drove off again, now for…

Now, Strawberry Field is owned by The Salvation Army and doesn’t really have much going for it other than the link to the song. For what there was there and the cost, it didn’t seem worth it. We drove past, though, so we could say we’d been there.

And that was it. A drive home which, thanks to the M6, wasn’t particularly pleasant.

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As a bonus, here’s the playlist of her favourite Beatles songs that my daughter put together for the car journey…