Friday, September 25, 2015

England Trip Part IV

Liverpool!! Oh my! We arrived by train and were taken by shuttle to the "Hard Days Night" hotel. I can't possibly describe the awesomeness of it in a blog post. I'm serious!! As we walked by the hotel, the stone statues of the Fabulous 4 on the second level caught my eye first...


And then, a DOORMAN!!! Can you believe it? I could not..at first LOL.

He was a nice chap. I should've gotten Paul to take my picture with him. Damn!
Then we entered the hotel and I was blown away as I tried so hard not to let my jaw hit the floor! In front of the reception desk and providing light, were some Beatles sheet music draping from the ceiling in front of some lights. I tried to take a picture but it didn't turn out too well.


To be honest, most of my pictures didn't do justice to the things I was trying to capture. But, oh well. Onward...
The elevator was a delight. A wrought iron spiral encased the glass lift. (They call them lifts in England). The the walls of the staircase outside the lift were covered with Beatles photos..

That's Paul walking down the stairs.


Me & Paul, oh yeah! LOL
Here's a couple of pictures of our room. Everything was musical, right down to the shampoo!
Notice on each side of the leather headboard, the digital boxes? Those controlled everything from the lights to the tv!!!!!
Cool designs everywhere!
Yes, this is our tv!
I told you, everything musical right down to the shampoo!
Needless to say, I was in heaven in my Beatles atmosphere. I wish we had stayed a bit longer than 2 days.
We walked around and found an outdoor mall. I was looking for a sporting goods store to get Jennifer her Manchester United Soccer jersey she asked for. You don't want to say that too loud in Liverpool hehe. Everything here was LFC. I did find it though in this mall.



We tend to find shops with our names on them..

We walked down to Albert Docks. I remember my dad mentioned it on quite a few occasions.


While there on the docks, we saw several restaurants and cafes. We ate lunch at the only place that had Welsh Rarebit!

My mom used to make this for me when I was a little girl. It's essentially cheese on toast.
Sorry I didn't take time to edit the photos. Really didn't need that orange poll right there! 

Notice on the chain railing, those are padlocks hanging from the chain.

I was fascinated by the little padlocks and wishing I had one to put on there.
I also took time looking at them, wondering how far some of the owners traveled from.
Then,
The Magical Mystery Tour, is coming to take you away, coming to take you away....


John and Paul were told to write songs about their childhood. John wrote Strawberry Fields Forever. A tidbit of information I never knew regarding this song is when John Lennon was a little boy, he was raised by his aunt and uncle. From the bus driver: After school he would go out the back of his house, climb the fence and run down the alley where the fence to Strawberry Field was. There was an orphanage there and John would peek through the fence at the girls. His aunt would yell him to stop and say, they're going to hang you ya know? Online version:  John's aunt Mimi did not like John going to Strawberry Fields, as it was basically an orphanage and she thought they would lead John astray. John liked going there because having lost his father and later his mother he felt a kinship to the lads. When John and his aunt would argue about his going he would often reply, "What are they going to do, hang me?" Thus the line "Nothing to get hung about."





Paul wrote Penny Lane.


On the corner is a banker with a motorcar...
In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs.
Please understand I'm taking photos of the bank and barber shop while in a moving bus.
In the window of a gift shop, made of jelly beans.
Display inside The Beatles Museum
Not sure why, but I also get emotional when I hear Beatles music. You can just imagine how I was in the Museum. It was SO fun though!! I think Paul enjoyed it too although Liverpool was on my bucket list...not "our" list :)

The rest are pictures of architecture etc.








A pub we stopped at before heading back to the hotel.
Another thing we noticed, whenever you ordered a drink, it came in the manufacturers glass. 


I love the different colored doors. Makes it easy not to forget which one is yours when you come home from a pub.
Ok ya'll. That's all for now. As always...

Sunday, September 20, 2015

England Scrapbook

While Paul and I were in the train station in London, we had a little while to wait before catching the train to Liverpool. There was a shop called Paperchase. Well, if there's a store with the word paper or books, I'm all over that! And knitting, scrapbooking, writing etc. Anyway. I went in and couldn't believe my eyes. There was a scrapbook with the outside being the tube (subway) routes on the front and back! I immediately fell in love!



High Street Kensington was where our hotel was and Hyde Park was right across the street! 

We got off at Victoria stop! How cool is that to have these stops on the scrapbook? 

I bought a white pen to journal with to go with my black pages.
I can't wait to get started!! As always...

Friday, September 18, 2015

England Trip Part III



Tuesday Sept. 1st is our last day in London. We've had an amazing time so far. I'm going to post some random pics for you to enjoy.  All kinds of architecture that just blew me away. The Tower of London, the tubes, the food and pubs! Such an adventure!! 

Yes it's chilly and drizzling. 
Tower of London
Now the Tower of London is where the Crown Jewels are kept. Of course we weren't allowed to take any pictures of the jewels but they have it set up very conveniently for tourists. They have 2 treadmills or moving walks, one on each side of the glass enclosure that holds all the crowns.
Stock photo from the internet
 We rode on the treadmills at least 4 times. Why not right? We're not sure if we'll ever get a chance to see it again. They were breathtaking!
The size of the diamond on the scepter was mind boggling!





I took a lot of pictures of doors. They fascinate me and there were plenty of all different shapes and sizes to choose from. One common feature on a lot of the doors is the doorknobs are in the middle.






We rode a double decker bus..of course :)


You aren't getting inside the walls of Buckingham Palace...no way.
We toured Buckingham Palace and of course weren't allowed to take pics. BUT, I could once I got outside and had tea and a pastry. That's whipped cream on top..oh my! 
Leaving the Palace
Some flowers while on the path to the exit of the Palace...




We rode every mode of transportation we could think of, tubes (subways), buses, trains, and cabs. I can't tell you how impressed we were with the cleanliness of the tubes! At first I thought maybe we rode in a new car. They're color coded and we rode in a yellow, but then we rode on a green - because yes, we got lost once, and both were like new! At least we weren't in a hurry so it didn't matter. I love to get lost when it doesn't matter!




Check it out! Upholstered seats! The Brits want to be comfortable!

Some randomness...

We noticed they don't have skyscrapers. Found out the ground underneath couldn't hold the weight. Their buildings look pretty hefty though..and gorgeous! 




They call these Black Cabs...hmmm.
O! Paul found a Buckeye tree!! O-H-I-O! 
HELP!

Door look familiar?




I was asked what I'd like to drink. I said "water please". I was then asked "still?". I said "I'm sorry?" as I didn't understand what she was asking. She kept trying to say it over and over, still? still water? Finally she said, still or sparkling? LOL. So from then on, I always asked for still water.
     
Having fun with my Pro HDR app on my phone.
 Time for some pub food. We ate at pubs whenever we could because the food was oh sooooo good! 


My steak & ale pie was to die for! The crust was amazing and yes, those swirly things above the pie are mashed potatoes! With my own little jug of gravy! Paul had the chicken pie.

So many memories. When I was a little girl, this HP Sauce was our A1 Sauce we use today. My mom went to this little British store around the corner from where we lived in California, and bought all kinds of things that reminded her of home. Crumpets too!

We're now heading to Liverpool by train...





Never in a million years did I think I'd ever be knitting on a train in England!! I was going to purchase some yarn in England sometime during our trip but realized my project I was working on was being  knit with Rowan yarn, which is from England! So, my yarn originated from England, went to America, back to England with me and then back to America! LOL.

As always...