We got an early start and made our way toward Liverpool, which was only about 35 miles from us, but was estimated to take around an hour to get to. After three wrong turns (one my fault, two a gps glitch), we arrived at the car park only to find out it was already full! And this was at 9:15 am. Fortunately for us, there was an overflow lot not too far away and we found a spot. And the best part was that a convention was going on and they weren't charging for parking! Helped take the sting out of walking an extra bit.

We met our tour bus driver right on time, and he took us as well as 15 others to see John Lennon's boyhood home. John lived with his aunt and uncle from the time he was 5 years old to adulthood. It was so cool to be in the house and it's been decorated almost exactly as it would have been during his years there. Our docent had lots of stories to tell and it was all new to me, I didn't know any of the history of the Beatles at all.
We were not allowed to take any pictures inside, only outside. The house was a small semi detached house with a very small kitchen, morning room, drawing room downstairs and two bedrooms and bathroom upstairs. The family took in student boarders, so there was always some activity going on.
Our bus came back and whisked us away to see Paul McCartney's house. He was quite a bit older when he moved in, about 14. He was already writing songs even at this early age. His house wasn't as nice as Lennon's, it was a terrace house, which is a two story that shares walls on both sides with other houses. To be honest, it was about the same size as John's house inside. We learned lots of fun stories about Paul as a teen, and many stories that inspired his song writing.

When Lennon met McCarney, he learned what an accomplished guitar player Paul was and immediately wanted him to be in his band. The rest is history, so to speak.

After our tour was finished, we rushed back to the car, drove through McDonald's drive through, and found our next tour meeting point. We wolfed our lunch down and began our electric bike tour of Liverpool, with an emphasis on the Beatles.
We got to see all kinds of places that were important to them, such as a bar where they hung out, the grave of Elenor Rigby, the Strawberry Fields Orphanage (abandoned now), the place where Paul and John first met, Ringo Starr's childhood home (now condemned and probably will be demolished), former schools and their homes, of course. Several other places--it was a 16 mile bike ride! It was a lot of fun, but it began to drizzle in the last hour of the tour and by the time we were headed back to the bike shop, it was raining pretty hard. I was really cold and worried I would get sick, but feel good so far.

Once we got back to the car and were headed home, we realized the convention had let out and traffic was AWFUL! It took us at least 30 minutes to get out of the downtown Liverpool area, and then another hour to get home. Cold, wet and hungry--not the best way to end an otherwise fun outing!