Liverpool

Liverpool, June 2006

	The Royal Liver Building (pronounced L-eye-ver) From Wikipedia: It is crowned with twin clock towers, each topped with a cormorant-like liver bird designed by Carl Bernard Bartels and constructed by the Bromsgrove Guild. This prominent display of two liver birds rekindled the idea that the liver was a mythical bird that once haunted the local shoreline. According to popular legend, they are a male and female pair, the female looking out to sea, (watching for the seamen to return safely home) whilst the male looks towards the city (making sure the pubs are open). Local legend also holds that the birds face away from each other as, if were they to mate and fly away, the city would cease to exist. In fact, they were indeed designed to watch the City (Our People) and the Sea (Our Prosperity).
The Albert Dock We had been supposed to go to Liverpool on Wednesday, to visit with the head of the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts. LIPA was founded by Paul McCartney, when the Liverpool Institute High School, which he and George Harrison both attended, was about to be closed. Our plan didn't work out, mainly because, rather than drive in a city like Liverpool, we were going to take the train -- but it was going to take too long and the person we were supposed to meet had to leave early....etc. Our new friend, Lawrence Boyd, grew up in Liverpool (and also attended the Liverpool Institute) and he called us Wednesday night. He said if we could be up early (very early) he would take us to Liverpool and show us his favorite sites. We started at the Albert Dock, ------->
	had breakfast, and when it opened at 10 a.m., we walked into the Beatles Museum! It's right there, at the Albert Dock.
A display of the skiffle - band (rockabilly) band instruments that Paul and John were playing when they met.
	After they had begun to be popular, the received attention from the local music paper, The Mersey Beat. This is a replica of the Mersey Beat office.
and this is a replica of the statue of John Lennon next to the Wall of Fame. The Liverpool international airport is, by the way, the John Lennon Airport. Someday they'll name an airport after you too, right?
	a replica of the Cavern Club was in one section of the museum, complete with
the Beatles stage set ..... but without the smell it was reputed to have: a combination of sweat, mildew from the seeping walls, and the alcoholic haze of the patrons. Not a whole lot of oxygen to be had. From there we went to the Maritime Museum, also at the Albert Dock
	This is a replica, hand-built in minute detail, of the Lusitania, which was torpedoed by the Germans. Rumor has it that there may actually have been armaments aboard as the Germans claimed, but there were also hundreds of passengers and crew who lost their lives when the ship sank. Some of them were Americans, and despite previous resistance to it, the result was the U.S. entry into World War I.
The Empress of Ireland departed Quebec City for Liverpool at 16:30 local time on May 28, 1914 with 1,477 passengers and crew. Henry George Kendall had just been promoted to captain of the Empress of Ireland at the beginning of the month and it was his first trip down the Saint Lawrence River in command of the vessel. Early the next morning on May 29, 1914, the ship was proceeding down the channel near Pointe-au-Père, Quebec (eastern district of the town of Rimouski) in heavy fog. At 02:00 local time, Empress of Ireland collided with the Norwegian collier Storstad. Storstad did not sink, but Empress of Ireland, with severe damage to her starboard side, rapidly shipping water, rolled over and sank within 14 minutes, claiming 1,012 passengers and crewmen. (from Wikipedia)
	The "Unsinkable" Titanic All three of these ships sank within 3 years of each other and are commemorated in one gallery of the Maritime Museum.
A maid's uniform, saved from the wreck. * * * We also visited the basement where they had a display built around Liverpool's participation in slavery. Very disturbing and poignant, but also uplifting as it described the end of slave ships and slavery in the British Isles. Also in the basement was a replica of the streets around the ports where many thousands of emigrants left Europe for America.
	Goodnight, Liverpool To go back to Wales http://www.janseides.com/Wales.html and to go to Ireland http://www.janseides.com/Ireland.html (home)