Liverpool...

Well, I made my second trip through the International Office on Saturday to Liverpool, England...home of the Beatles! Overall it was a cool city, but we did not have nearly enough time to explore and/or see everything. We started the day by going to "The Beatles Story" which was a audio guided (like everything in Britain) tour of recreations of the life and legacy of the group. It took you through narrow crowed hallways lined with documents and pictures while playing every song you can think of by the group. It was quite cheesy and corny at times, but some things were interesting. I think much of my problem with it was that it did not have a lot of real artifacts and it was much to crowed for the space. I guess I was expecting something along the lines of Graceland, and found that it was nothing even close! However, it was the only Beatles experience we had time for, so at least I could say I was there.

After we left the cave (the Beatles Story), we made our way towards the city center for some lunch at a place I had read about. After a long and confusing walk, we arrived at the sandwich/coffee shop. The prices were very reasonable and the sandwiches were excellent, but that was all quickly over shadowed by the crappy service and extremely smoky room. After spending much more time than we would have liked at lunch we moved on to the Liverpool Cathedral, which turned out to be the best part of the day by far! The cathedral is very new (for European standards), started in 1902 and not finished until 1978, but it was breath taking never the less. It has the highest arches and the largest/heaviest bells in the world! It was with out a doubt the biggest open space I have ever been in! After wandering the vast open space, we made our way up to the top of the main tower. It was unreal! There was not a cloud in the sky and we could see for miles! It was really amazing to be able see Liverpool from such a great view point! Once we took our pictures from every angle of the top, we made our way down and to the park/graveyard the surrounded the cathedral. It was a very cool looking park, because the walls were lined with old headstones like it was once a graveyard, but the cathedral forced the headstones to be moved.

After the cathedral we made our way towards our last stop before heading back to the bus, the Tate Liverpool modern art museum. I was really looking forward to this stop, because I had read that it held several Warhol and Picasso works as well as being free admission. Well, that was a lie! Luckily, the admission was free, because I think I might have demanded my money back other wise! It is unreal what some people consider art! The first exhibit we went to was nothing more than a pile of rocks, wood and coal. Then another was a pile of small dead Christmas trees with a TV playing random clips of naked people and another just flash nothing! Ahh it was awful! So we quickly made our way up stairs to what we thought would be the artists we would recognize...nope! Just more wacky paintings are "art". I did finally find ONE Andy Warhol painting, but nothing like I thought and defiantly no Picasso. But at least it was free!

Overall it was a good trip and a very cool city, but I really would have liked to seen more of the Beatles sites, ie. Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields and the Cavern Club. However time just did not allow. Maybe at some point I will go back and explore some more. This weekend we are making our first trip to London! It should be a great weekend! Thank you for reading and I hope all is well!

Cheers,
Justin