Strawberry Fields Forever

On Tuesday morning Kirsty and I took Ruby, Jess, and Callie out for a walk before I had to get to the bus station to head to Liverpool. Kirsty was kind enough to drive me there and sit and wait for the bus with me. It was really nice to meet and get to connect with Damo’s sister. Especially as he spoke highly of her when he was in Australia. It’s nice to have made another friend and I look forward to catching up again.

Getting to Liverpool has been one of the only destinations that has been a definite on my list for places to go since high school. I have been thinking about and planning visiting Europe since I can remember. Visiting the place where the Beatles grew up has always been on it. I booked myself 3 nights in a cute little space. It was a good location being a 35 minute walk from the city centre and an hours walk from Penny Lane.

I arrived in Liverpool during the afternoon and was a bit peckish. Amazingly there was a vegan food joint right next to the bus station. You’ll be able to read more about it in the next food post. After checking into my accomodation, I did the standard go for a walk, find a supermarket thing. I even walked in the drizzle with just my raincoat like I had seen people do. I’m saying drizzle because it was compared to the rain I walked in the following day.

On Wednesday I went to Albert Dock to check out museums and galleries. I kicked things off with the Beatles Story Museum. This one was cool with how it was set up and provided a decent overview of Beatles history. You’re provided with headphones and a phone tablet to listen to the audio guide as you walk around through replicas which include the Casbah, the Cavern, and Abbey Road studios.

Around the corner is the Liverpool Tate so I headed there to check out some art. The JMW Turner exhibition which featured a soundtrack from Lamin Fofana was really well put together. The accompanying soundtrack was bang on and added allowed for submersion into the depths of the pieces. There seems to be a lot of effort going into gallery exhibitions at the moment, especially with finding new ways to not only display art but use them to communicate with audiences beyond just admiring art strokes. I have been thoroughly enjoying seeing the creative ways the museums and galleries are piecing things together, especially by working with collaborating with other artists and community. The 2022 Turner Prize nominees were also on display and I popped in a token at the end casting my vote for my favourite piece. I think the winner is announced in December.

I then headed into the city and over to the Liverpool Beatles Museum. Yep, one Beatles museum was certainly not enough. To be honest, I preferred this one as it houses a lot more memorabilia. If you are going to only go to one, I suggest it be this one. Walking through the different floors and eras with Beatles tunes playing in the background was nice. I think the fact that the items on display here are from Roag Best’s collection it really provides that personal touch. Roag’s brother was Pete Best the original Beatles drummer, his dad Neil Aspinal was the Beatles tour manager, and their Mother Mona Best was the founder of the Casbah! Besides being a Beatle I’m not sure there is any other way of being more well placed to collect Beatles memorabilia than Roag’s.

Rain had started so when leaving I went to find somewhere to grab a bite to eat to see if it was going to have a break in it. There was a bit of of one so I thought I would just walk out of the city into a more accessible spot to get a taxi. I then kept walking, then it started raining, and I kept looking for a good spot while walking. Then decided I was wet already so I might as well just keep walking. So I did, I was heading back to my accomodation so would dry off there.

The next day I headed out for a self guided tour of walking where John Lennon would of walked. I headed towards Penny Lane, stopping in at a cemetery on my path. Turns out this cemetery is the cut through path for school kids too. I do enjoy a good reading of head stones and seeing graves. I have no interest what so ever in being buried myself. I don’t want to bother with any of that, however I do enjoy checking out those that did.

When I got to Penny Lane I wandered about taking in all the Beatles references in the area, including a statue of John. Next I headed in the direction of John’s childhood house. I didn’t book a tour of the property or anything I was happy enough to just wander the roads to get there and around. After seeing where he grew up I made my way to Strawberry Fields and checked out their exhibition. It was interesting to find out a bit more about the history of the property and to hear stories from one of the girls that lived there.

The house and Strawberry Fields was about an hour and half walk from where I was staying, so by the time I got there and looked around it was time to turn around. I ended up stopping for a bite on the way back when I walked past a vegan/vegetarian joint and ended up just making it back as it had got dark. I really enjoyed the day though, walking around with my thoughts through crunchy autumn fallen leaves.