A hard days night in Liverpool.

A Hard Day’s Night in Liverpool.

Having just spent a couple of days in this fab city, thanks to a recent competition win, I now know what The Beatles meant, when they sang about a hard day’s night!

My entry was picked out from over 1,200 entries, and I won an overnight stay at The Beatles themed hotel, with free tickets to Tate Liverpool’s latest exhibition.

My wife, Katy, and I hit the ground running, literally scampering across the road from busy Lime Street Station to St George’s hall opposite. We were keen to see the 30,000 Minton tiles which cover the floor, and are protected for most of the time and only unveiled every ten years or so. We were lucky that they had just been uncovered, at a cost of £18,000, just five days earlier! This was an amazing sight, which would easily match anything you could see anywhere in Europe. Jaw dropping, and then some! The tiles, every one hand crafted, feature incredible patterns, boys on dolphins, sea nymphs, Liver birds, and much more. A truly spectacular start to the holiday.

After getting our breath back in the café, we walked round the corner to The World Museum. This is one of my favourite museums anywhere in the country, and I was looking forward to seeing the “Age of the Dinosaur” exhibition. This incredible show features six animatronic dinosaurs, which are very lifelike, and a little scary! Fab fun though, and well worth the visit.

A short walk took us to our hotel, The Hard Day’s Night hotel, the only Beatles themed hotel in the world! We were escorted to our room, and shown how all the high tech gismos worked. The room was terrific, although having a larger than life size picture of Ringo staring down at us was rather disconcerting! I put on the TV, only to hear that famous suspended G7 chord twang out, the most famous chord in rock and roll history, followed by John Lennon singing “It’s been a hard day’s night, and I’ve been working like a dog”. Terrific. I listened to the song three times before I put it off. Interestingly if you look at the chord notation for this infamous chord, it looks like the Beatles on stage! Check it out on www.harddaysnighthotel.com if you don’t believe me!

Refreshed, we made our way to the Albert Docks and Tate Liverpool. Our prize included free tickets for the “Alice in Wonderland” exhibition. It was incredible to see Lewis Carroll’s original manuscript for this classic book, and all the prehistory was fascinating. The early pictures were astonishing, and we both thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the exhibition. The second half which was much more surreal, and not to our taste, but overall, we felt enriched by our visit. Running late we scooted round the rest of the Tate, as it was almost closing time.

We headed to Liverpool One, the largest city centre regeneration in Europe, which Katy was delighted to discover was open till 8pm. I was dropped off in the husband crèche, while Mrs Dove went shopping.

Ready for some food we made our way upstairs to a fabulous Thai restaurant, Yee Rah. We treated ourselves to a fine bottle of Chardonnay and some excellent food. A couple of local students at the next table ordered a mixed grill to share, and I’ve never seen anything like it. It was served vertically, and must have been eighteen inches high. The students were equally amazed, and took loads of photographs to show to their friends. I commented that it looked better than some of the installations at the Tate!

Slightly tipsy after the wine, we headed to Matthew Street for the highlight of day one, The Cavern Club. We were lucky to get seats right at the front, and stayed for nearly three hours. We knew every song that that the Lennon lookalike sang, and we sang our hearts out along with him throughout the night. There was a great atmosphere in the club, was full of Americans. One guy, from Chicago, requested a song, and ended up singing on stage. When the artiste asked for the gentleman’s name, he answered “Dick”. “Can I call you Richard?” our man enquired. “Well you can if you like, but I prefer Dick!” Katy and I found this hilarious, but maybe you had to be there to appreciate it. The highlight of my wife’s night was when the singer sang “When I’m 64” just for me. (My age this year).

Luckily our hotel was nearby, as we were tired out, and were in danger of losing our voices.

The following morning, we both felt worse for wear, and tucked into a proper English breakfast, with lots of cups of tea. We had a busy day planned, but decided to just concentrate on the one outing, which was somewhere we have always wanted to visit, Port Sunlight. This pretty village is situated on the other side of The River Mersey, so we took advantage of the speedy Merseyrail to get there.

The weather was fantastic for January, and we were able to explore the whole village with the aid of a tourist map, purchased from the local museum, which was fascinating. The highlight of the day was looking round the Lady Lever art gallery, one of the best galleries I’ve ever been in, and I’ve been in plenty. Many of my favourite artists have their work on display here, including Waterhouse, Millais and Holman Hunt. My favourite paintings were “Bubbles”, with its links to the soap industry and Lord Lever, and “The Scapegoat”, which is such a haunting image.

Having enjoyed afternoon tea at the gallery, we made our way back to the city centre exhausted, and with aching feet. We had planned all sorts for the afternoon, but ended up back at the hotel resting in the lobby.

And then it was time to go home. A hard day’s night was had by both of us, and we loved every single minute!

Paris diary

Saturday 2 Oct

After setting half a dozen different alarms, Katy and I managed to get out of bed at 5.30am. We caught the 7.04 train to York, where we had only 9 minutes to make our connection to London, Kings Cross. We treated ourselves to First Class all the way, and enjoyed the journey to London with great anticipation of our next leg of the trip, the Eurostar to Paris.

We allowed plenty of time to walk the short distance from Kings Cross to St. Pancras, and waited patiently to be called for our train. Before we could say zut alors, we were on our way, and quickly transported under the Channel Tunnel, and soon gazing at French fields on a glorious autumnal day. The trip to Paris only took a little over two hours, and we arrived without incident at Gare du Nord station in the heart of the French capital. We took an incredibly crowded metro to the Champs-Elysees, where our hotel was situated. We stayed at the Warwick Champs-Elysees, a few short steps from Paris’ most famous avenue. We were immediately upgraded to a Deluxe room, and we were soon relaxing on our balcony enjoying the sights and sounds of Paris.

Fully refreshed we were soon strolling down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, which the French call “the most beautiful avenue in the world”. We were headed for the River Seine as we had pre-booked a dinner cruise. We arrived nice and early, and were one of the first to board. The cruise included live music, a four course meal and wine. We sat between a honeymoon couple from America, and a mother and daughter from Scotland celebrating a birthday. The food was good, but the service rather random. There was plenty of wine though, and we all got very drunk. The cruise was great, and the live music seemed to match the sights, for example “Ave Maria” as we passed Notre Dame, and “New York, New York”, as we passed the replica Statue of Liberty. We staggered off the boat at around 11.30pm hugging and kissing everyone as we left. Katy and I had decided to visit the Musee d’Orsay, as we had heard that it was open all night. We headed off in the wrong direction, but serendipitously found ourselves right under the Eiffel Tower at the stroke of midnight just as it began to sparkle with glittering silver lights, a truly magical way to see the start of our Ruby wedding anniversary.

Once the Tower stopped shimmering, we tried again to find the metro that would take us to the museum. We found it, but ended up on the wrong platform. Luckily for us, a kindly Frenchman shouted to us asking us where we were going, and urged us to run over the bridge as the train was coming. He even held the doors open for us as we raced across as quickly as we could. We were amazed to find that the metro train was a double-decker, something I have never seen before.

We alighted at the correct stop, but to our disappointment the museum was firmly closed. I had read that this night was Nuit Blanche, a night when all galleries and museums stayed open till dawn. Unfortunately for us, this was not the case. We strolled back over one of The Seine’s many bridges, and paused to admire the Eiffel Tower, still brilliantly illuminated, and dominating the Paris skyline. We took an incredibly crowded metro back to the Champs-Elysees, which was just as busy as it had been earlier in the day. We got back to our hotel at 1.30am, some twenty hours after our adventure started, and fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.

Sunday 3 Oct

Our 40^th wedding anniversary!

After a leisurely breakfast at our hotel, Katy and I walked to the Paris Hilton to meet up with Rob.  The three of us then made our way via metro and bus to the Bois de Boulogne. It was a gloriously warm October day, and we had gone to see the most prestigious horse race in Europe “The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe”, at Longchamp racecourse. Unfortunately we didn’t back the winner of the big race, but we got to see some fine horses, and a few famous owners and trainers. The atmosphere was terrific, with music, marching bands, chic ladies in amazing hats, and colourfully dressed French men.

After the racing was over we got an incredibly crowded bus back to the metro station, and the three of us went back to our hotel, where we relaxed on our balcony with cold drinks.
In the evening we strolled up and down the Champs-Elysees looking for somewhere to eat. We settled on L’Alsace restaurant. This popular eatery, which never closes, features turn of the century décor, bevelled mirrors and wood panelling, and of course, great French cuisine. Rob generously paid the bill, and then we explored some of the elaborate car showrooms, which are numerous on Paris’ most famous avenue.
We ended the night at a British themed pub, just opposite our hotel.

Monday 4 Oct

After breakfast Katy and I took the metro to Les Tuileries, Paris’ most central park. The Tuileries are part of a grand central axis leading from the Louvre all the way to La Defense, the city’s business district. The gardens were wonderfully peaceful and quiet, and we had lunch here, a hot ham and cheese sandwich, which one of the locals had recommended to us.

In the afternoon we went on a coach trip around the Parisian landmarks. We sat upstairs and got great views of Les Invalides, the Eiffel Tower, The Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, and of course the River Seine, as we crossed over one bridge, and back over another. The tour, complete with commentary, took almost two hours, and was a great way to see all of Paris’ best attractions.

After the tour of Paris, we headed off to the George Pompidou centre, and on the way we stopped off at a modern shopping precinct, which was all below ground. We enjoyed a simple dinner in a café on the bottom floor, followed by a Haagen Daaz ice cream for dessert, at one of Paris’ many ice cream parlours. We didn’t stay long at the George Pompidou, as we had booked theatre tickets for the evening, and were running out of time.

We travelled back to our hotel on the metro, and spent a little time relaxing before making our way to the Lido. The Lido has been a venue for the finest shows with the most famous names since 1946. We saw the review “Bonheur”, which translates simply as happiness, and is about one woman’s search for happiness. This fantastic show features the famous Bluebell Girls, and the Lido Boy Dancers. There are 70 artistes, 23 sets, and 600 sumptuous costumes. Some of the breathtaking scenes included an ice rink, daredevil acrobats and a real live horse on stage. There was a magician who just blew me away, and the evening was truly magical in every way.

Later, back at our hotel, we were reflecting on a fabulous day, when the fire alarm went off! Katy and I, along with a dozen or so other guests, trooped down five flights of emergency stairs in our complimentary fluffy dressing gowns and slippers. Unfortunately this exit did not take us directly to street, but instead took us through a very seedy hookah lounge, where teenagers and students were happily getting stoned on marijuana! The smokers will probably never recover from the sight of a bunch of bleary-eyed adults bursting into their bar dressed in white robes and mules. We eventually made our way out to the street, and found the hotel doing business as usual. The alarm had been triggered by accident, so we returned to our rooms for a good nights sleep. However, I had some very strange dreams about our adventures in hokahland!

Tuesday 5 Oct

We checked out of our hotel after breakfast, and had one final stroll along the Champs-Elysees. We looked in car showrooms, and designer clothes shops, and stopped to admire the Grand Palais, where queues were forming to look at the Claude Monet exhibition. We didn’t have time to spare to join the lengthy queues, so instead we popped into Artcurial, an auction house covering all areas of the art market. After admiring the many works of art on show, we enjoyed lunch in their modern, trendy café. After lunch we walked all the way up to The Arc de Triomphe, the world’s largest triumphal arch.

We made our way back to the Warwick hotel, where the concierge hailed us a taxi to the railway station. Eurostar quickly transported us back to London, where another cab took us to Rob’s house in Highgate.

In the evening Rob and Kate took us to The Flask for dinner. This traditional pub is famous for it’s quirky rooms, nooks and crannies. After dinner we walked to the nearby Gatehouse, which famously has it’s own theatre upstairs. We ended our mini Highgate pub-crawl at The Red Lion and Sun with a whisky or two.

Later, back at Rob and Kate’s, we watched a replay of Sunday’s big race “The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe”, before retiring to bed.