Layton's Senior Trip
Thursday June 27, 2019
Travel Day
Travel Day
We left the house around 11:30 for the airport. Our flight left at 12:55 pm with a layover in Denver and arrived in Boston at 11:40 p.m.
(Typical PDX airport photo that Layton hates)
Checked into hotel and soon realized it was the same hotel where Aunt Heather and Daisy came for the wedding when we all came here last year on my girl’s trip!
I had a rough night sleeping with Scott snoring and Layton tossing and turning and trying to suppress laughter from listening to a comedy podcast. Who listens to comedians to fall asleep?!
Friday June 28, 2019 Boston Day 1
Today started earlier than any of us wanted it to. Three hours is a big time zone change, especially when you only slept for about three hours. But we had a bike tour of the city we needed to get to.
Our bike tour lasted for over two and half hours but was really enjoyable. Today was the first day they were supposed to get into the 90’s. They have had an unseasonably cold spring and early summer so far. We were grateful we weren’t doing the bike tour in the afternoon. We still had quite a few shady spots to stop in when listening to the guide and had a nice breeze all morning.
The highlight had to be the tourist that showed up in full on bike gear (biking pants, racing bike shirt, helmet equipped with a rear-view mirror, bike gloves etc). We spent the whole 30 minutes waiting for the tour to start trying to guess if he was the guide or a guest. The tour gave us some great views of the harbor and a good taste for the different neighborhoods in Boston.
The highlight had to be the tourist that showed up in full on bike gear (biking pants, racing bike shirt, helmet equipped with a rear-view mirror, bike gloves etc). We spent the whole 30 minutes waiting for the tour to start trying to guess if he was the guide or a guest. The tour gave us some great views of the harbor and a good taste for the different neighborhoods in Boston.
After the bike tour, we went to eat lunch. We were pretty hungry since we didn’t get breakfast and we had just gone on a two and a half hour bike tour. We gave in to Layton’s desire for a burger and went to eat at Tasty Burger right near Fenway Park since we had a tour all set up for that in the afternoon.
Between lunch and waiting for our tour of Fenway Park to start, we browsed through a cool Boston Red socks Souvenir shop and bought Will a Red Socks shirt. It’s funny how he has always been a Red Socks fan. The Red Socks have always been special to me because I remember my Aunt and Uncle Doucette watching them on TV all the time when they would visit our house. My first experience with MLB was watching the Red Socks games with them. And I just loved my Aunt and Uncle and so I have always loved the Red Socks. I thought that might be why Will started liking them too, but he sounded very surprised when I told him that I too liked the Red Socks!
Between lunch and waiting for our tour of Fenway Park to start, we browsed through a cool Boston Red socks Souvenir shop and bought Will a Red Socks shirt. It’s funny how he has always been a Red Socks fan. The Red Socks have always been special to me because I remember my Aunt and Uncle Doucette watching them on TV all the time when they would visit our house. My first experience with MLB was watching the Red Socks games with them. And I just loved my Aunt and Uncle and so I have always loved the Red Socks. I thought that might be why Will started liking them too, but he sounded very surprised when I told him that I too liked the Red Socks!
The tour of Fenway Park was really interesting. There is something really special about seeing an original field that old. Fenway Park and Wrigley Field are the only old original fields left anymore. We got to see the field from all viewpoints, including the view from on top the Green Monster (Big Green wall built up high in left field to block the view from those people watching the game for free from nearby rooftops), and the press box. We saw that they used some extra rooftop space for a fresh herbs and vegetable garden that they then use in their cooking in the Park restaurants.
At the end of the tour they had a large room with memorabilia. Scott made the rounds around the room to look and read while Layton and I were pretty much spent and waited on a couch for him to finish.
At the end of the tour they had a large room with memorabilia. Scott made the rounds around the room to look and read while Layton and I were pretty much spent and waited on a couch for him to finish.
After the tour, we made a 40-minute walk back towards a movie theater near our hotel. We stopped along the way to go look inside the Boston Library, which inside looks more like a palace in Europe than a library. It had marble staircases, painted murals on the walls, chandeliers, painted and wooden ceilings and an awesome study room. We also stopped in to look at the Old South Church, which is where Benjamin Franklin was baptized and went to church.
Finally we made it to the Public Gardens and Boston Commons where we saw the large statue of Washington, crossed over the bridge near the swan boats and then found a nice shaded spot on the grass to rest while we listened to a musician play the saxophone in the background. Then it was time to head to our movie.
We thought it would be fun to go see “Yesterday” which just opened today. It is a movie based on the premise that everyone forgets the Beatles and it is as if the band never existed, therefor the songs didn’t exist. A struggling musician is the only one (well, we find out there are two other people later) that remembers or has heard of the Beatles. So he begins singing their songs and taking credit for writing them. It was a cute movie but also fun to see just before heading over to London and Liverpool. In the movie the main character goes to Liverpool to see the Beatles sites there to get inspired to remember all the lyrics correctly so that was fun as we will be there soon!
It was a big but really good first day!
Saturday June 29, 2019
Boston Day 2
Slept better last night minus the several times I woke to what sounded like bombs going off. I guess we had a pretty crazy thunderstorm during the night with crazy loud thunder and lightning. In my half asleep daze, the only thing I could think of that would be that loud and shake the room so much would be a bomb and I just knew there were terrorist attacks going on around me but I was too tired to get up and flee or do anything about it! Weird.
We got to sleep in a little later this morning which made Layton happy (and me – that first night was not much sleep), then we were off to catch our hop-on-hop-off bus in front of the NBC hit comedy show from the 80’s “Cheers”. The show was not filmed inside the actual bar, but was inspired by the actual bar. Since the show ended, the bar owner has made two different TV replicas of the bar for tourists to see since he got so tired of everyone coming to his bar and telling him his bar looked nothing like the TV show.
We took the bus to the stop to go on a tour of a boat (a replica) from the Boston Tea Party. What a fabulous job they did with that tour and museum! No wonder it is the most-visited site in Boston.
They begin by giving you identities of someone from the era and then take you into what looks like a church building where the Sons of Liberty would have had their secret meetings. They had people dressed in character to act the part of all that happened that night in December when they decided to storm the ships and throw all the tea in the harbor. Then we got on a ship that was a close replica to one of the three ships that were there that night. We got to go below deck and see the crates the tea where in and then a few little kids in the group got to throw some overboard into the harbor.
Then we went back inside for additional character witnesses (including holographic people and people coming to life and talking through portraits just like Harry Potter!). The whole thing was just very informational and done very well. Layton picked out his Boston souvenir from their gift shop as well – he choose another wooden box to add to his wooden pen box we got him from Tahiti.
They begin by giving you identities of someone from the era and then take you into what looks like a church building where the Sons of Liberty would have had their secret meetings. They had people dressed in character to act the part of all that happened that night in December when they decided to storm the ships and throw all the tea in the harbor. Then we got on a ship that was a close replica to one of the three ships that were there that night. We got to go below deck and see the crates the tea where in and then a few little kids in the group got to throw some overboard into the harbor.
Then we went back inside for additional character witnesses (including holographic people and people coming to life and talking through portraits just like Harry Potter!). The whole thing was just very informational and done very well. Layton picked out his Boston souvenir from their gift shop as well – he choose another wooden box to add to his wooden pen box we got him from Tahiti.
Then since we were near the warf, we thought it was a good time to try a famous lobster roll for lunch. Scott had a warm lobster roll, Layton got two hot dogs, and I got a lobster salad. I thought it would be a lettuce salad with lobster on it but no, it was just a cup of lobster in a mayonnaise sauce – but it was soooo good.
Then we got back on our bus and headed to see the Old North Church and Paul Revere’s house. These are both on the Freedom Trail tour we are doing tomorrow but the tour doesn’t go by these and you have to pay extra to go inside and tour.
The Old North Church is where they put the lanterns for Paul Revere to know if the British were coming by land or by sea. We got to climb up the old spiral staircase to see where they ring the bells as well as climb down under the church to crypts. Then we toured Paul Revere’s house. He lived there with up to 6-9 of his children, as well as a mother and aunt, at one time. There were only two bedrooms but they were quite large and they said that there was a third floor that some of the children would sleep on.
By the time we finished that tour, that terrorist bombing, I mean the thunderstorm was back...with a vengeance! I can’t ever remember hearing such loud thunder. It was crazy scary. And the rain was just pouring down and instantly flooding the streets. Scott and I had rain jackets to put on and I gave Layton my travel umbrella and we braved the storm! We were about the only ones on the streets. After about 15 minute walk, we made it back to our bus pick up spot. By now we were wet and cold and the bus was going to stop running soon. We had hoped to take it out to see Harvard but decided it best to go back to the hotel, change into dry clothes and get something to eat.
We saw “Miss Saigon” was playing here this weekend and Scott found some really cheap seats (which turned out to be great seats!) online so we went to that tonight. Layton didn’t have any desire to join us and preferred to go out to Jimmy Johns by himself later and watch an old Japanese movie on his laptop. So everyone was happy.
Scott and I got some yummy Thai food and enjoyed the musical. It was definitely not one of our favorites. The music did not speak to Scott and it was too raunchy in some scenes and the worst part was they tried to capitalize on the success of the Book of Mormon musical and threw in a random missionary in a scene that made no sense. But the overall story line was interesting and sad because it dealt with the Vietnam war and how many US soldiers fathered babies while there, leaving the women behind thinking they would come back for them. Then when their half American, Half Vietnamese babies were born, they we not accepted.
Sunday June 30 Boston
Boston Day 3
Today was our day to walk the Freedom Trail! Our tour started out at the Old State House and site of the Boston Massacre.
We then walked to Park Street Church. This church dates back to 1804 when the "Religious Improvement Society" began weekly meetings with lectures and prayer. The church neighbors to the Granary Burying Grounds which is the city of Boston's 3rd oldest cemetery. It was founded in 1660 and where many notable Revolutionary War-era patriots, including Paul Revere, the five victims of the Boston Massacre, and the three signers of the Declaration of Independence: Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Robert Treat Paine are buried.
Next stop was Kings Church which was found in 1686 as Boston's first Anglican Church.
Our walk continued to the Boston Latin School Site and the Benjamin Franklin statue. This is the oldest public school in America! It offered free education to all boys (girls attended private schools at home).
Our tour then took us to the Old South Church where the Boston Tea Party began!
We stayed for the extended part of the tour where we got to walk around Beacon Hill. Such beautiful homes, gardens and cobble streets!
We passed the Massachusetts current State House which has been the seat of government since 1798. And then our tour officially ended at Boston Commons where we were saw the famous Swan Boats, the Ducklings and a Hari Krishna parade!
We thought is would be fun to take a tour of Harvard while we were there in Boston. Scott scheduled us a tour time and then we took the public transportation to meet up for the tour. By the time our train arrived, we found ourselves in a complete downpour again! Everyone was wearing their second and only dry pair of shoes since our other shoes were still soaking wet from yesterday's downpour. After exiting the underground train station, Scott took off running across the street to the Harvard Book store to wait out the rain so our tour could start. Layton and I took one look at the street we had to cross to join him and said "no way"! The street was flooded and nowhere was there a spot we could cross without wading through water up past our ankles. So we hung out at the souvenir shop right outside the train station until the rain subsided enough that we could walk down the street until we could find a spot shallow enough to cross. Once at the bookstore we still had to wait for a good hour or so until our tour could start. Scott and Layton were in heaven and found plenty to keep them busy. I didn't have any glasses so reading was not an option!
The Harvard tour was one of our very favorite stops while in Boston. The tour was given by a student and there were so many great and funny stories about things that have happened on that campus and the people that have gone there. You have to stop and get your picture next to the statue of John Harvard! It is suppose to be good luck to rub his foot. We were taught that there are three lies centered around this statue: 1)John Harvard did not found Harvard, 2) It was not founded in 1639 but 1636 and 3) the statue isn’t even john Harvard.
After a full last day in Boston, we headed to the airport to catch our 10:20 PM flight to London. We flew all night, arriving in London at 10:00 AM and one of us was able to sleep on the flight. Can you guess who?
Monday July 1, 2019
London Day 1
The first thing we did in London was buy our oyster cards and take the tube to our hotel, the Holiday inn London Mayfield. In Boston Layton had to sleep on a roll away bed but he got a real bed this time! Our hotel was in a great location, it close to Hyde Park and Buckingham palace and close to transportation to get to anywhere.
We were able to check right in at the hotel (arrived just before noon) and left our bags in the room then forced ourselves to get out quick before anyone was too tempted to lay down in bed and never get up again until the next day.
We purchased the London pass through the mobile app which included many of the sites on our list to visit. We only got a three day pass so didn’t want to activate it until the next day so we looked for things to see and do that were free and would also keep us awake until bedtime.
First on our list was to go eat. We were able to check two things off our list by eating lunch at the very first Hard Rock café which just happened to be about a 10 minute walk from our hotel.
They have a vault museum under their store that is free to view and they had several Beatles memorabilia among other cool items from other musicians. We saw some Beatles outfits (including John’s jacket and glasses he wore in a TV interview, and John’s written lyrics to Instant Karma and the harpsichord used in recording Lucy in the sky with diamonds.
Then we went and found the house where Beatle’s manager and good friend, Brian Epstein lived and also died of an overdose.
Then of course, we had to stop and take a red telephone booth picture on the route to 3 Savile Row which use to be the Apple Record Headquarters were the second half of “Let It Be” was recorded in the basement.
This building is perhaps more famously known for the impromptu concert in January 1969 where the Beatles gave their last ever live performance on the rooftop.
The concert lasted 45 minutes before the police cleared them away. The final member of the band to speak before the police cleared them away was John who said, “I hope we passed the audition”.
The concert lasted 45 minutes before the police cleared them away. The final member of the band to speak before the police cleared them away was John who said, “I hope we passed the audition”.
Next we wandered our way over to Picadilly Circus where we bought tickets for a show. We wanted to see a musical but they did not really have any decent tickets to anything we wanted to see so bought tickets to see “Thriller”.
Then we found our way to Trafalgar Square were we watched a very bizarre street entertainer. Him begging for money donations was more entertaining than his bike-riding while juggling fire skills!
There! We did it! We managed to keep ourselves busy and awake until bedtime. Here are a few other sites we walked by today.
The Household Calvary Museum
Guards Memorial
Tuesday July 2, 2019
London - Day 2
This was our day to activate our London Pass and we thought the best way to do that would be to cash in on our included Hop-on-Hop-off bus. We didn’t get a very early start. The 8-hour time change was still messing us up, but sleeping in felt so good. I felt a lot better but Layton was still feeling the jet lag and had a really hard time staying awake for the bus tour. We road the bus around for about 2 ½ hours. and had so much fun watching and listening to our bus tour guide, Lionel. We quite enjoyed his British sense of humor, his black Velcro sneakers and his attentiveness to all the customers. The poor guy spent the majority of his time babysitting everyone telling them to sit down, swing their legs in from the aisles and to please wait before coming up to the top level of the double decker bus until he could count the open seats. He was juggling a lot and did it so well. We really got a laugh out of watching him.
We rode the bus as far as the Tower of London where we got off to spend a couple of hours there. We saw the barracks and then went to wait in line to see the Crown Jewels. That was quite impressive to see all the pomp and circumstance and display of wealth that goes on with royalty.
We also toured the bloody tower (named that because two young princes disappeared from there while playing and are thought to have been murdered by the uncle to take their place on the thrown), the white hall (where hundreds of years later during a restoration of the building two skeletons were found and after a CAT scan were determined to be two young boys).
And last but not least, we toured the torture tower where we saw three torture devices; one was like a vice they put on people after there were folded up into three pieces, one for stretching and one for hanging. Then it was time to go because they were closing.
(Layton looking like staying awake all day after an overseas flight is torture)
We then headed towards the Tower Bridge to walk across it on our way to the Shard. We got some incredible views of the bridge from just outside the Tower of London. Tower Bridge was closed so we did not climb up into it but enjoyed the view of walking across this beautiful bridge.
Next stop was The Shard. This is a newer building that was built after the time that Kennedy was in London for her study abroad. The top deck is open for viewing and gives you an incredible 380 degree panoramic view of London and it’s surrounding areas.
We saw the London Bridge from up there. Most people think the beautiful Tower Bridge is the London bridge but the London Bridge is the next bridge over from it but not quite as impressive. It has been changed several times and that also includes moving it to different locations but it is the oldest bridge there.
We had high hopes of walking around Burough market and eating dinner there but by the time we arrived there from The Shard, it was all closed. But we did find a nice little restaurant in a nearby alleyway between an old church and the market to have dinner.
After dinner our feet were so tired that no one really wanted to walk the 2.7 miles back to our hotel but Layton had forgotten his Oyster transportation card and Scott and I agreed that walking the town is the best way to see it and get a feel for it verses traveling faster underground. So we decided to walk home and so glad we did!
We saw so many wonderful little sites, festivals, bridges etc that we would have never seen if we had been on the tube ride home. Oh, we also took the time to go find the building where David Bowie shot the photograph for his album cover of “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars”. We have Lionel from the bus tour to thank for that tip!
After dinner our feet were so tired that no one really wanted to walk the 2.7 miles back to our hotel but Layton had forgotten his Oyster transportation card and Scott and I agreed that walking the town is the best way to see it and get a feel for it verses traveling faster underground. So we decided to walk home and so glad we did!
We saw so many wonderful little sites, festivals, bridges etc that we would have never seen if we had been on the tube ride home. Oh, we also took the time to go find the building where David Bowie shot the photograph for his album cover of “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars”. We have Lionel from the bus tour to thank for that tip!
Wednesday July 3, 2019
London Day 3
First stop of the day…Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards! We arrived about 45 minutes early to try and get a decent spot for viewing but the crowds were already crazy. We were able to secure spots in the second row of people right behind the palace gates on the right hand side.
We thought it was a good spot because the people in the first row right in front of us where children so it would be easier to see over their heads. As soon as it seemed something was starting though the kids all climbed up on the base of the gates so they were taller than us. The lady in charge of keeping things orderly in front of the palace was a hoot. She did not hold back. If she show something she didn’t like she would yell directly at you to stop it or to get down or you would be shot! She yelled a couple of times at the people in front of us climbing up on the gate but as soon as she would move to another position to go yell at someone else, they would climb right back up. Layton and I were not going to have any of that. We told the kids they needed to get down every time they climbed up and also let them know that there was no need to climb when they had front row for looking through the gate.
It was hard to see everything but they say it is impossible to see everything from any vantage point. There is a band and they parade around and into the palace and then there is a ton of marching. I mean a ton. The band was playing all these movie theme songs, which Layton found particularly funny. He felt like they should have had something more traditional and royal to play. After about 40 minutes of stiff awkward marching, we called it quits and worked our way out of the crowds from the palace.
Our next stop was the British Museum. This reminded me of the Louvre in Paris – a huge museum that you spend a whole week in and still not see everything. Well, we only had about an hour to dedicate to this museum so we looked up online what the top 10 things were to see. There were several lists that all included a few different items on exhibit to see but we randomly picked a list and set off on our museum treasure hunt to see how many we could find.
First treasure was the famous Easter Island statue known as Hoa Hakananai’s. Layton and I mostly knew about this statue from the movie “Night at the Museum”. Scott hadn’t every heard of it so we will have to make sure he re-watches that movie.
Scott’s favorite treasure was seeing the Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta stone carries an inscription in different languages which helped decipoher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script. What we saw was the only surviving fragment of a larger stone slab that recorded a decree given on March 27, 196 B.C.
Another favorite for Scott and I were seeing the frieze sculptures from the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens. The Parthenon was constructed between 447 and 438 B.C. and dedicated to Athena. The sculptures remained almost all intact until about 500 A.D. when half of the East pediment was removed and most of the metopes were defaced to be converted into a church. Then in 1687 the building was reduced to ruins by an explosion by the Turkish garrison. Then at the beginning of the 19thcentury, Lord Elgin’s agents removed a number of sculptures to England. In 1816 the parliament put them on display in the British museum.
We were not able to find everything on our list, but in addition to the three mentioned above, we found “King of Life” from the African section, (unearthed when digging to build something and shows signs of belonging to royalty).
The Mummy of Katebet (from the late 18thDynasty, about 1300 B.C.) which was a mummy found in the 1820’s in Thebes together with another mummy presumed to be her husband. It shows her wearing an elaborate wig with calcite ear-studs, a broad collar, bracelets and real finger-rings. Her rapping’s were almost pure gold.
We found The Royal Game or Ur. This looked like a game that would be fun to learn! At least 6 graves in the Royal cemetery contained one of these wooden game boards inlaid with shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli. This game was played all over ancient Near East for about 3000 years. Sounds like it’s time for Hasbro to bring it back!
We found the Oxus Treasure which is one of the largest collections of Achamenid gold and silver objects. It was found in the 19thcentury at the site of Takht-I Kuwad on the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. It is mentioned as a source of gold in a building inscription of Darius the Great from Susa.
We were able to find the Lewis Chessmen. This was discovered in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles, Scotland; It consisted of 93 pieces all carved out of walrus ivory. When they were found some of the chessmen were stained red. We learned that the earliest medieval chess sets appear to have combined red with the plain ivory rather than the black and white pieces we use for the game today. We also learned that first chessboards were red checkered, not black.
Last but not least, we climbed to the top floor to find Samurai Armor that was made for a member of the powerful Mori family, samural lords based in Ako and Mikazuki in western Japan. The helmet and the light summer coat bear the Mori’s family’s circular crane’s crest.
Even though it pained Scott to leave after only an hour and half in a museum that large, we finished up and then headed to the very first original Beatle’s Fan shop! I got my souvenir key chain and Layton found a lot more than that! He came away from the store with a Beatle’s poster for his college dorm, a new Beatle’s mouse pad and a Beatle’s mug. His dorm room is almost complete now!
We then headed for the British Library. We were not allowed to take any pictures in side the library but they had a pretty amazing collection of old books and music memorabilia.
They had several hand written scripts from many classical composers (Mozart's Musical Diary and works by Beethoven and Chopin), and the manuscript of Alice in Wonderland!
There are also hand-written Beatles' song lyrics - written on backs of envelopes, torn out notebook pages and even the back of a birthday card meant for Julian.
They also had the oldest copies of the bibles including the Gutenberg Bible and is also home to the Magna Carta!
Then the moment I had been waiting for (and was most nervous about!)…Abbey Road. Abbey Road Studios is right by the famous Beatle’s zebra crossing but all we could do was peak in and snap photos from outside the gate. It is impossible to go inside and tour because even today it is a working, functioning recording studio. But Layton was able to add his mark to famous wall of Beatle tributes. I thought bringing the orange sharpie was a nice touch!
I have been so excited to get a picture of us crossing Abbey Road but was also so nervous about it because I knew there would be many obstacles in our way!
1) finding someone to take our picture, 2) finding a time when we could get a few seconds in the middle of the road without traffic and 3) being able to cross the road by ourselves so no one else would be in our picture.
Well all three concerns turned out to be a real issue. First of all, among the huge crowds standing around the crossing and for the 30 minutes we were there, we could not find anyone else that spoke English! Finally we found some Italians that could understand Spanish well enough to understand that if we took their pictures crossing, they would then take ours. Problem was, they didn’t understand what we really wanted. When we took off crossing, several others joined us! Totally ruined the effect!
So we told them to record it once again. We then set off to cross back to the correct side of the road to copy the Beatle’s photo and once we got there, realized they recorded us then. Layton was like, “Who would think we would want a video of crossing the wrong way!”.
So then it was awkward cause we had to wait for them to leave so they didn’t see we were going to do it again because they had totally failed us. Then after waiting again, no English speakers were to be found anywhere. So Scott said he would record just Layton and I. We waited for no cars and then after several attempts, we found a time to cross with out cars and without extra pedestrians.
And just because we were in the neighborhood, we walked a couple blocks to go see a house Paul McCartney still owns near Abbey Road Studios. He does not stay here when he visits but still owns it. When he comes to Liverpool, which he does at least once a year every July, he stays across the Mersey River in the house he bought for his dad.
We made it back to Picadilly Circus area just in time to grab some dinner before our evening performance of “Thriller” began.
Dinner was nothing to write about but they show was really good. The only problem was that none of slept well the night before – I actually never even got close to falling asleep ever that night! So we were all struggling to keep our eyes open. We did better the second half because we kept thinking it was the finale. And then there would be another finale, and another finale and another finale. So they had our full attention the last 30 minutes!
Thursday July 4, 2019
London Day 4
This was our last day in London! We had train tickets to Liverpool at 8:00 that night so prioritized all that was left that we really wanted to see. On mine and Scott’s list was to see St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and the Churchill War Rooms. Layton’s list was to go see where Trident recording studios was and find the Art Studio where John and Yoko Ono first met.
We took the tube to St. Paul’s and it was fun seeing Layton’s amazement at how grand everything was. We were glad for our London pass today because we were able to skip a very long line getting into the chapel. We decided not to climb the dome due to lack of time and the very top level, the whispering level, was temporarily closed.
Then we went to see Westminster Abbey. We had a little bit of a wait here but the line moved fast. Once again, another amazingly grand cathedral but Layton was getting less and less impressed. I think he had met his max on cathedrals already.
It was pretty neat to see where all the royal coronations have taken place, where one will take place most likely in the next decade when Queen Elizabeth II dies and see where Prince Charles and Diana were married. But the highlight was seeing the coronation chair. This chair has been used in the every coronation ceremony since 1308 and will be used again for the next coronation.
We found a red telephone booth that actually opened up and had a great view of the Abbey behind it so we took advantage of getting a few more telephone booth picture before leaving London.
Last historical stop of our time in London was the war rooms. We knew we were in trouble when we saw the queue winding around the corner. But how often are you in London? We figured it would be worth the wait and it was. After about an hour and half of waiting, it was finally our turn inside. The best part of this site is that after the war ended, they basically all left the underground war rooms, locked the doors, and that is how it has been ever since. They have gone and added glass walls and recreated many of the rooms with dummies now to give you an idea of exactly how it looked when they were working rooms but other than that, they notebooks, the folders, the maps, everything was just left as it was for us to see.
Next we found our way to the building where Yoko Ono had an art exhibition. This is where she met John for the first time. One of her pieces was wood with nails. She was charging people 5 shillings to hammer in a nail. She asked John if he would like to hammer in a nail but he didn’t have any money on him so he said that he would give her 5 imaginary shillings to hammer in an imaginary nail. They knew from that moment that they were kindred spirits.
We were also lucky enough to find our way to building that use to be Trident Recording Studios. This is where The Beatles recorded "Hey Jude", part of their "White Album", Elton John's "Candle in the Wind", David Bowie's "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust" and three of Queen's albums!
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For dinner we tried to find a pub close to the hotel because we needed to head out soon to catch our train to Liverpool. We all decided to try some traditional English food. Scott and I both had meat pies (his was beef and mine was fish) and Layton got fish and chips. It was pretty fun sitting up in a pub, eating our English food while watching Wimbleton live on the tele!
We made it to our train fine but once on the train were dying of heat. Today was supposedly the hottest day of the year and come to find out our train car had no AC. It was like sitting in a hot sauna.
As soon as we realized it was just our car that didn’t have any AC, we moved up a few cars to find some empty seats. There was no way we could have sat in that heat for 2 ½ hours. Once we arrived in Liverpool we took our first cab. We weren’t sure about Liverpool, if it had any bad areas or not and it was almost 11:00 p.m. and I thought it would be cool to take a famous black cab to our hotel before leaving England. Well, wouldn’t you know it, the cab that queues up in line for us to take isn’t even an England black cab! It was a Mercedes van! Oh well, our feet were completely spent after 4 days in London so any ride was welcome.
We stayed at the Hard Days Night Beatle’s themed hotel. Layton was in awe the minute we walked in and he saw all the Beatle’s pictures and the yellow submarine juke box. We called our room the “George Room” because well, there was a huge picture of George Harrison looking at us over our bed.
Friday July 5, 2019
Liverpool - Day 1
We hit the ground running on our first day in Liverpool! Well, we hit the ground driving in a cab I guess is more accurate. We booked the Fab Four Taxi Tour to go see all The Beatles sites in town and it was the best decision ever. This had to be the highlight of our trip and it was so much more enjoyable being on a tour with just us and our cab driver/tour guide, spending as much or as little time at each stop as we wanted, rather than being bussed around in a large group through the magical mystery tour bus.
The first thing our tour guide Lionel showed us was The Beatles statues on the pier head. He pointed out something uniquely personal to us added to each statue.
Ringo Starr has the number 8 printed on the sole of his shoe. This references his childhood postal code L8 in Liverpool.
John Lennon has two acorns in his hand. In 1968, Yoko Ono and John planted two acorns representing their wish for world peace. Then they sent a pair of acorns to leaders across the world asking that they be planted as a symbol of world peace.
George Harrison has Sanskrit writing on the belt of his coat.
And Paul McCartney carries a camera in a camera bag, possibly a nod to his relationship with Linda Eastman.
Next stop was to cross Abbey Road, but this time without any of the hassle of finding a photographer, dodging traffic or fighting crowds. That is because this Abbey Road was just a mural painted on a wall to honor The Beatles highest selling album.
First Beatles childhood home visit of the day was to go see where Ringo Starr was born.
We couldn't get very close because they are in the middle of remodeling these old homes. Ringo's mom and dad split up when he was only four years old. His dad moved in a house just down the street with his girlfriend. His mom didn't enjoy seeing her ex with his new girlfriend all the time so she moved with Ringo when Ringo was five years old.
Not too far from Ringo's childhood home was this cafe that Ringo immortalized on the cover of his first solo album "Sentimental Journey".
"Sentimental Journey" Album
No visit to Liverpool is complete without stopping at all the sites mentioned in The Beatles 1967 Double A side song "Penny Lane" written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. The song references site and characters often visited or seen near where both Paul and John lived.
Ok the barbershop was definitely the best stop of the day! There were no customers waiting when we entered and our tour guide suggested the boys get some haircuts. And Layton desperately needed one! Talk about an opportunity of a lifetime! So both Scott and Layton got haircuts at the same place John and Paul did growing up in Liverpool! And they sat in the same seat the Paul McCartney did while filming "Carpool Karaoke".
If you look closely at this close up of the Penny Lane sign, you can see where Paul McCartney signed it while filming "Carpool Karaoke" with James Corden in June 2018. For the rest of us, it is impossible to sign because it is covered with plexiglass to preserve it and keep it from being stolen.
In Penny Lane, there is a barber showing photographs
Of every head he's had the pleasure to know
And all the people that come and go
Stop and say, "Hello"
Ok the barbershop was definitely the best stop of the day! There were no customers waiting when we entered and our tour guide suggested the boys get some haircuts. And Layton desperately needed one! Talk about an opportunity of a lifetime! So both Scott and Layton got haircuts at the same place John and Paul did growing up in Liverpool! And they sat in the same seat the Paul McCartney did while filming "Carpool Karaoke".
On the corner is a banker with a motorcar
And little children laugh at him behind his back
And the banker never wears a Mac (slang for raincoat)
In the pouring rain, very strange
And little children laugh at him behind his back
And the banker never wears a Mac (slang for raincoat)
In the pouring rain, very strange
Currently this is a doctor's office but back in 1967 it was a bank and next door to the barbershop.
Behind the shelter in the middle of the roundabout
The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray
And though she feels as if she's in a play
She is anyway
The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray
And though she feels as if she's in a play
She is anyway
Here we are standing in the same place Paul McCartney did in "Carpool Karaoke" in the shelter in the middle of the roundabout. And the church you can see across the street from the shelter in the roundabout is where Paul was choir boy as a youth.
Another highlight was going to the site that inspired the song on the other side of this double A single..."Strawberry Fields"! To understand the lyrics of this song you need to understand a little about John's childhood. John didn't have a very happy childhood. His father was rarely home, and his mother Julia, who grew tired of all his travels, fell in love with another man and got pregnant with John's half sister.This caused a big rift in the family which led to Julia's sister, Mimi, calling social services twice to report that Julia was raising her kids in an unfit home. Eventually John was given to the care of his Aunt Mimi. After going to live with his aunt, John didn't see his father for another two decades and John's mother, Julia, was hit by a car and killed while crossing the road after trying to visit John. John was 17 at the time of his mother's death.
Childhood home of John Lennon with Aunt Mimi at "Mendips"
Layton recreating this picture of John in front of Mendips home.
A fun surprise was that as we were leaving John's childhood home, we ran into Jim O'Donnell. Jim was there the day that John met Paul at St. Peter's Church and wrote the book "The Day John Met Paul" which has also been made into a movie!
Mimi did care for John but was never one for cuddles and praise - she tended to rule more with an iron fist. It's no wonder why John showed a little rebellious streak and would secretly sneak over and play in the gardens of his next door neighbor, the children from the Salvation Army home at Strawberry Field. This is what the home and property looked like when John would secretly climb over the fence to have some friends to play with.
John Lennon attended high school from September 1952 at Quarry Bank high school. While he was there, he and few friends formed a band called The Quarrymen.
This is a plaque at the church hall that commemorates when John and Paul first met. It sits right across from St. Peter's Church and it's cemetery, where you can see the inspiration for the song "Eleanor Rigby". John and Paul met on July 6th and here we were visiting it almost on the exact anniversary!
John was a choir boy at this church (until he was eventually kicked out) and he spent a lot of time hanging out in this cemetery, where you can find Eleanor Rigby and McKenzie on the tombstones.
"Eleanor Rigby, Died in the church and was buried along with her name" meaning that she was listed on the tombstone with her maiden name.
And to complete our house tours of the Fab Four, we also got to see the outside of George Harrison's childhood home.
We had fun recreating this family photo taken outside the home with George and his parents. George and Layton almost have the same hair!
A must see is where the Fab Four really got their start...the Casbah! The Casbah was started by Mona Best, the mother of Pete Best. Mona transformed her cellar into a club for her sons and friends to listen to the popular music of the day. It ran from 1959 to 1962. The Quarrymen (Paul, John, George and Ken Brown) went to Mona to arrange their first booking.
Mona notified them that the Casbah still needed some painting done before anyone could perform there So all four members took up some paint brushes and helped add their own touches to this cellar club.
They painted spiders, dragons, rainbows and stars.
The Beatles needed a drummer before going to play in Hamburg and hired Pete Best the night before the left to Hamburg in August 1960. Pete Best was replaced by Ringo Starr in August 1962 under the direction of the group's manager Brian Epstein.
We got to see the hospital where John was born. Currently it is used for student housing for the University of Liverpool.
They painted spiders, dragons, rainbows and stars.
Cynthia Lennon painted this silouette of John on the wall
We got to see the hospital where John was born. Currently it is used for student housing for the University of Liverpool.
Paul comes to Liverpool every spring to speak at the graduation ceremonies of the school and stays at his father's home there in Liverpool.
After our big day we headed back to the hotel to rest for a little bit before heading out to our dinner reservation at the Philharmonic Dining Rooms.
But our day wasn't over yet! I had a Ghost Walking Tour booked for us right after dinner.
(Yummy Sticking Toffee Pudding Dessert)
This was an hour and a half of laughs and entertainment. Layton was chosen from the beginning of the night to carry somebodies "remains" in a bucket all night. The tour took us through all the haunted spots of Hope Street to Rodney Street. Our favorite of the night was when our guides stopped the entire group in front of large window of a restaurant right in front of a couple. We were told to point and laugh at them until they noticed us. It was the funniest thing! This was a fun way to get some folklore history of Liverpool and see some other parts of the city.
Saturday July 6, 2019
Liverpool - Day 2
Today we got to finally go inside Paul and John’s childhood homes. Both homes were purchased and given to the National Trust to maintain and you can only tour the homes through them. No matter who you are (Except for maybe Paul, who got to go through it personally last June when we came here to do the TV show Carpool Karaoke with James Cordon), but our guide at Paul’s house was telling us of all the music stars that she has seen come through her tours. Layton found it particularly interesting that Bob Dylan came through a tour a few years ago. To try and be unrecognized he came looking very scruffy with a hood over his head. Several of the other guests on the tour were concerned he was a homeless man and mentioned to the bus driver that he might want to call the police.
Our tour went from about 11:00-1:30 and we were on a bus with about 20 people. First we went to Mendips, the home where John Lennon lived with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George. When John was just a few years old, his father left him and his mom. He was gone for years with out being heard from and no one knew if he was even still alive. John’s mother had a relationship with another man, which resulted in the birth of John’s half sister, who was given up for adoption to a family in Norway. John learned about her later in life but did not have any information to find her. It turns out the family moved to England and she was raised with a different name just a few miles away from where John grew up. John’s family, mainly his Aunt Mimi, thought it in John’s best interest to raised with his Aunt and Uncle. They could afford it more easily than his mother and it was the most stable home situation for him. Our taxi tour guide from yesterday also told us that Aunt Mimi declared John’s mother as an unfit mother to get John. She and Uncle George were never able to have their own children and they wanted to raise John as their own. John continued to have as much of a relationship as he could with his mother. She would occasionally visit him at Mendips and he would occasionally visit her at her home, which was not very far from Mendips. It was one of these visit that would result in his mother’s death when he was 15 years old. She had come to visit her sister and her son John, however John was not at the house. He had gone to her home to see her there. After a cup of tea with Mimi, she left to cross the double street. She got across the first street just fine but due to the tall hedges lining the median of the road, she could not see the oncoming car and the oncoming driver could not see her. As she stepped out on to the second street, she was struck by a car and killed. John learned of her death when a policeman came to her home and John opened the door to him.
Layton recreating this picture of John in front of Mendips home.
John was always a mischievous child and a little hard to control. Aunt Mimi and Uncle George where not much interested in encouraging his musical career. They were however very diligent in encouraging his studying, reading and art. His When he asked for a guitar, his Aunt told him something to the likes of, “a guitar is all fine and well John, but you’ll never make a living at it”.
We entered the house the same way John and his friends all had to – through the back door to the kitchen. This was to save Mimi from having to mop up any additional floors after they all came inside. The home was considered quite a nice home for it’s time but it still felt extremely small. All the rooms were tiny. The house had three bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, a sitting room and a dining room. Yoko Ono was the one that purchased the house and donated it to the keep of the National Trust. Through her and the stories John had told her as well as through some students that rented out the extra room, they were able to recreate the home and John’s bedroom. His bedroom had posters of Elvis, who he idolized as well as a blonde actress he loved. Inside the home they had a lot of john’s art work on display. Aunt Mimi and Uncle George were not highly encouraging of john’s music but agreed to let them practice in the house.
Next we toured the childhood home of Paul McCartney. His home was a council home, or social low-income housing These types of home were not allowed to be purchased but were all rentals. Even in this situation, Paul’s humble family was ecstatic about this new council home and to be living in Liverpool rather than Speke anymore. Paul’s mom was assigned this home because she was midwife and she was to work in this area delivering the babies born near them. Paul lived there with his mom and dad and his little brother who was about 18 months younger than Paul. Paul’s younger brother was very much into photography growing up and it is mostly thanks to his photographs that the National Trust was able to recreate the home as it was during Paul’s youth. Paul lived there for 8 years, from the time he was 13 years old until they all moved out when Paul was 21 years old. When the National Trust was able to purchase the home, they wanted to put up a plaque that read the home of Paul McCartney. Paul did not want the plaque to read that way but asked that it say “The proud family home of the McCartney family; Jim, Mary, Paul and Mike”.
It appeared that Paul had a close and loving relationship with all his family members. Unfortunately, Paul too loses his mother to breast cancer about a year after moving to Liverpool. This devastated Paul but was also something that would bond him to John when they would meet; both boys having lost their mothers. This would also be the inspiration for two of his songs (Lady Madonna and Let it Be).
It was here in Paul’s home that over 100 songs were written. John and Paul would often skip school to go write and practice but Aunt Mimi was home during the days, so they would go to Paul’s house, climb up the backyard pipe drain and crawl into the bathroom to get inside the house. Paul’s dad had been an musician when he was younger and was a little more encouraging of the band’s practicing in the house. He would save all of his egg crates, as well as collect used crates from neighbors, to put on the walls of his dining room where they boys were able to practice. This insulated the room enough that there were never any complaints from neighbors.
The picture with the piano was from James Corden's Carpool Karaoke episode and guess who got to tickle those ivories? Yep, these guys!
Paul’s home really didn’t feel any smaller than John’s but it was not furnished as nice and not considered a nice home. Inside had several styles of wallpapers in one room because they could not afford to wallpaper the whole room. The carpets were also a bunch of miscellaneous runners sewn together to be their carpet.
After our tours of the homes, we stayed down at Albert Dock to get some lunch. After lunch we went to “A Beatle’s Story” museum. We spent over 3 hours here! The museum came with headsets and took us through the entire Beatle’s journey. They had wonderful pictures everywhere, memorabilia and they had recreated sets of all the important scenes in their career. We saw a mock up of where they played in Hamburg, Germany, the Mersey Beat newspaper office, the Cavern, NEMS record store that Brian Epstein owned and who came to hear them play in the Cavern and knew immediately he wanted to be their manager, Abbey Road Studios where they release their first single, “Love me Do” in 1962. We saw a mock up of when they were on the Ed Sullivan show on CBS, and of course a yellow submarine (the ladies room was also decorated as a yellow submarine – I had my own little portal in my stall). The museum even took us through the lives of each of the Beatle’s after the band broke up. It was very thorough and such a great way to spend our last afternoon after touring so many Beatle’s sites all week.
After "A Beatles Story" we walked back to the hotel via the boardwalk along the Mersy and found some fun tribute statues.
Our show was to be in the live lounge though, not on the smaller stage with the colorful backdrop where the Beatle’s played but we were able to see the original stage area on our way in and out of the Live Lounge.
After an opening act, the tribute band came out. And our arriving early and fighting the disorderly queue was worth it cause we had great seats. I wouldn’t say that they looked much like John, Paul, George or Ringo but they sounded pretty good and it was the perfect way to end our Beatle’s tour.
Just outside the Cavern is the Wall of Fame and another John Lennon statue.
The highlight of the night was when they started to sing “Yellow Submarine” and a big group of young guys, who had been drinking freely until this point, jumped up excitedly and all started singing as loud as they could with the band. Then in between any vocals, the group of guys would not stop chanting “Ringo”, “Ringo”, “Ringo”! “John” then said to us all “you really are the strangest crowd”. We then fought our way out of the Cavern to spend our last night sleeping under George’s watchful eye in our Beatle’s themed Hard Days Night hotel.
Sunday July 7, 2019
Liverpool and flight home
Left our hotel about 7:30 in the morning to walk to the Lime Street Train station to catch our train to Manchester airport. That was about an hour and 20 minute commute. We made it there in plenty of time, which was good because going through security took forever.
They had a very strict security screening and the majority of the passengers failed the bag x-rays and the back up to have your back looked through was quite long. Well, Layton soon found himself in that line. He had packed all of his toiletries in his carryon, not pulled any of them out before the bag check and was carrying cologne that was oversized. Once through security we had to wait in the lounge area for our gate to be posted and we all got so comfortable on our phones with free wifi that we almost missed checking for our gate assignment. The were calling for final boarding when arrived at the gate. This was our longest flight yet, flying directly from Manchester to Seattle but the nice thing was, that we were flying 9 ½ hours during the day. In fact, we were flying against time, gaining back 8 hours during our journey so no one felt the pressure to sleep like we did on the flight out.
We had such a great and exhausting trip! We loved having this time with Layton and sharing his love of history and The Beatles!
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