We spent the night in Liverpool with the plan to see the Beatles Story today....beginning with seeing a ferry across the Mersey (river). And many thanks to Ron in Coventry for pushing Bill to buy a SAT/NAV (GPS) unit....we'd have never negotiated our way to and through Liverpool without it. To Liverpool's credit, however, their streets are relatively nicely marked.

Liverpool was sorely damaged in the Blitz of WWII....some scarring still remains. This seems to be responsible to some extent the music scene there in the late 50s....these 'war babies' were tired of the deprivation following the war and wanted something new and different. At one point in the 50s there were more than 400 bands playing around Liverpool, including the Quarrymen..who were led by John Lennon. Paul turned up one night to listen and auditioned; within a week he was in the band. Not long after they needed a guitar player....Paul suggested an old schoolmate, George Harrison, who at 3 years younger than the 18 year old John, nearly wasn't auditioned at all because John was put off by his age. Must have been simple good manners on John's part, but it sure paid off. George played "Raunchy", the first rock'n'roll instrumental that had only been out a few years. He nailed it. And the rest, they say, is history....

The exhibit is wonderful. It covers their whole career, good and bad; and theirs was all played out in the media. There is a replica of the Cavern Club, what a small, dingly little place it was...the exhibition is also in a basement, very fitting, I think. We took a little side trip to the Cavern Club location, now in a trendy shopping area. But the entrance is still there and there is a Cavern Pub.

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We're in Glasgow now. What a pretty city. Our hotel is an old brownstone, sort of like the ones you see in TV or movies set in New York City....this is veiw from our hotel room:

These are the gates to the massive park across the street.

There is the small town in Scotland, Gretna Green, just over the border, where English couples wishing to marry (without parental approval) would go to elope; Scottish tradition considers marriage to be between a man and woman, excluding their family wishes (rather than the English rules of needing parental consent before the age of 21). The ceremonies took place most frequently at the blacksmith's shop....

Bill and I "tied the knot" (again) today in an ancient Celtic ceremony called "handfasting". When a Scottish couple had the "handfasting"; in front of their families and fellow villagers, they joined their right hands, which were loosely bound with a strip of the family tartan; promises were made (and kept) for a year and a day...afterwhich the couple could choose either to make the committment permanent or go their separate ways (the partner choosing to leave was to be responsible for any children born during that year). If they chose to make it permanent they uderwent a second "handfasting" ceremony where the same piece of tartan was again wrapped around their joined right hands and.....tied in a knot, signifying the permanent committment.