Finally, a much-needed day off, and a great day it was, too! I took the train to Liverpool where I met the special Kay (not the breakfast cereal), a friend I made skiing with in the French Alps on my European Tour last year, and then she joined my EPT in Spain in October. But beginning there and over the next six months she had a series of physical problems culminating in a fractured shoulder while skiing. She was recovering in Liverpool, undergoing physical therapy treatment and staying with her boyfriend, and I had always wanted to see Liverpool because that’s where the Beatles came from. Synchronicity!

Liverpool surprised me by being such a great city; I had pictured it being the way it was when the Beatles we roaming about, just dingy tenements and docks. But it had been renewed and developed very tastefully.

The first thing I noticed about Liverpool was that everyone talked like the Beatles. Funny! So after hanging around the waterfront for a while we decided to take the Magical Mystery Tour bus that took people to most all the original Beatles’ homes and old stomping grounds, such as Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields and the back of the church where Lennon and McCartney first met. They gave the history and played Beatles music. We played tourists and loved it. We had a ball! It amazed us picturing the Beatles walking these streets as little kids and teenagers with no clue about what would end up happening with them.

The best part was ending up at The Cavern, the club where the Beatles pretty much got their start, and where Brian Epstein stood at the back of the room and watched them for the first time. Naturally, there was a musician on stage playing Beatles songs, and he was good. I even had a beer at the Cavern, which is very rare for me. Except for a brief moment where I wanted to buy a Cavern T-shirt for Amy and then remembered we were no longer together, it was a fabulous day.