American Girl Meets British Boy Part 3: Arriving In Liverpool

After our rather hectic week gadding about London we booked ourselves two tickets on the Virgin Pendolino departing Euston station in London and arriving at Lime Street station in the exalted land of Liverpool. The only true Birthplace of The Beatles. Don't believe all that Oshkosh, Wisconsin nonsense!

We were late getting to Euston. The train was pulling out of the station as we got there and we ran alongside the train doing this....

If 'A Hard Day's Night' was playing it would have been exactly like the film except we were in colour and the train was a Virgin Pendolino.

We finally scrambled on board and made our way to our seat as the train gathered speed. Two people were in our seats. Erica went all Malcolm Tucker on them as she was very tired from all that running. They still wouldn't budge. They sat there stunned into a sort of coma as I pulled her off them. We sat down in a couple of unoccupied seats and watched the English countryside turn from south to north.

After 5 hours of countryside and stopping, we finally arrived in the late afternoon.....

"And she never walked down Lime street anymore..."

We hurried outside and got into a taxi and then got out and into another one and ordered the driver to head to the docks, the location of our hotel for our stay. En route, the driver correctly guessed we were Beatles fans and I whispered to Erica

"I bet he went to school with Paul McCartney and/or is related to him somehow"

After a moment the driver spoke "I went to school with Paul McCartney, I'm his fourth cousin twice removed" Erica gave me a shocked look.

"It's all in the mind" I replied to her and she narrowed her eyes at me.


When we got there we hurriedly checked in and discovered that it was a nice, charming little hotel. Erica was beaming when the receptionist spoke to us in her very thick Liverpool accent but the smile soon faded when she realised she couldn't understand a word the receptionist was saying so it was down to me to translate.

"Are ya here for Ken Dodd?" the receptionist asked us with a smile "No, we're here for the Beatles!" Erica proudly announced.

The receptionist looked confused "Don't get many of their fans up here!" she said with a wink.

"I had sex with John Lennon y'know" the receptionist casually continued.

 "Oh for gods sake, no you didn't! you're about the same age as me!" I said exasperated.

She smiled and continued to chew her bubblegum and then blew bubble right into my face.

We left the receptionist picking little pink bits of gum out of her hair and went to our room. It was just what we needed. We crashed on the little double bed for a while and I took some pictures out the window....

Queen's Dock in Liverpool

We decided that since it was getting dark we wouldn't go out anywhere that night. The fact that it gets dark at 4pm in the winter in Britain alarmed Erica. It was also bitterly cold and rather damp out and since she is a Texan who is used to long, scorchio summers this was also something of a shock.

We spotted a McDonalds across the road and, feeling hungry, headed over there for dinner. We got in there and the whole place was decked out with massive photos of the Beatles in India in 1968.

I was honoured that the staff of McDonalds had thought to do that for us. Such kind people. I smiled at Erica who took her place at a table next to this photo of John Lennon.....

...Which had been blown up a fair few sizes.

There were also various quotes from them at the time scrawled over the walls.

As we were eating another young couple sat down and the girl looked around and said to her boyfriend "What is all this about?" and the boyfriend just shrugged and said "The Beatles," before tucking into his Big Mac.

The Liverpool Docks with the Liver building in the background.

After our fast food supper, at which we were stared at incessantly by the Beatles, which I wouldn't have minded had they actually been there staring at us eating, we headed back to the hotel and sat up watching QI and going over our little leaflets that we'd picked up at reception.

The next day was going to be hectic and we didn't want to be tired so we turned off the lights and fell fast asleep.

Part 4: Liverpool is in our Ears and our Eyes.