Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Magical Mysteries

The Albert Docks
Liverpool, England
We left Birmingham early and drove to Liverpool to kick off our second day of travel. There were many things to do in this city but we were there to take The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour and to see the docks where my grandfather landed during WWII. The docks have changed a lot in 70 years, but it was still fun knowing we were walking in his footsteps.

I want it.
Penny Lane, Liverpool, England
The Magical Mystery Tour was crazy but it was a lot of fun. We boarded a very loud colored bus and drove around the city checking out sites that were tied to the Beatles; we couldn’t look more like tourists, not even if we wore visors and fanny packs. We saw their childhood homes, Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane, and the Cavern Club; our tour guide was even in one of the documentary films about them. When we visited Penny Lane Neil told us the sign was stolen so much when the song was new, the city decided to paint the street name on the wall instead; then people stole chunks of the bricks. Recently, the city decided enough time had passed, and they could put a sign back up; the signs now last an average of 3 days. I definitely wanted to return after dark with a wrench.

The Cavern Club is an underground music club that opened in the 1950s and the Beatles began frequenting in the 1960s. Over the years the club hosted many famous bands, and these are commemorated outside on the wall of fame; it truly is a piece of music history. Across the street is the Cavern Pub, a similarly decorated, underground pub serving normal bar food. When our tour ended we walked to the Cavern Pub for some lunch. The walls were covered with memorabilia from and photographs of dozens of artists. After lunch we briefly returned to street level before descending again into the Cavern Club.
The Cavern Club
Liverpool, England

Interior of the Cavern Club, with a Beatles Cover Band Playing
Liverpool, England
Other artists play at the club, but more often than not, there is a Beatles cover band playing, even at 3pm on a Thursday. My Dad was super excited to be there and was singing along with the band, oblivious to everything else. The group was two guys with guitars, and we kept trying to convince my Dad to drum for them. He refused, even after we bought him official Cavern Club commemorative drumsticks. We stayed down there, taking it all in, until they finished their set.

Approaching Malham Cove on the Pennine Trail
Malham Village, England
Emerging from the club we were greeted with sunshine. The storm from earlier had cleared and the weather was perfect for our next adventure: hiking to Malham Cove in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Malham Cove is about 2 hours northeast of Liverpool and was the site of Harry Potter filming. The cover is a portion of land where a small creek has, over time, created a sheer cliff face; it’s like approaching a natural rock climbing wall. Peregrine falcons use the cliff face for their nests, and the whole cove is a haven for the birds.  The footpath through the area is called the Pennine Way; it’s part of a 267 miles trail through northern England. The trail ran through pasture land and was dotted with cattle and sheep; several times we changed fields and made sure to close the fence behind us lest the animals escape.

The sheer cliff face of Malham Cove; the colored spots are climbers
Malham Village, England
The real draw was at the top of the cove; water and wind have uniquely shaped the rocks into an eerie landscape. During The Deathly Hallows Pt. 1, Harry and Hermione camp on these rocks. It was a lonely spot in the movie, a perfect place to hide from Voldemort, but in real life there were lots of people climbing the face of the cove. Maybe the climbers come because of the movie and it was more desolate before, or maybe it’s always been popular.

I did not expect either of my parents to climb to the top; it’s a steep climb and it goes pretty high (260 feet), but they both did it. They didn’t stay up top very long, leaving us to explore a little more while they hiked back down. The entire hike we were serenaded by myriad wildlife including cows, sheep, and pheasant; Joe and I even found a flock of sheep on top of the cove. It was very pastoral and relaxing—I was reluctant to leave.

We regrouped at the bottom of the cove and decided to eat dinner in Malham Village; the Buck Inn was an easy decision as it was the only place open. The proprietors were very friendly and the food was delicious. While we were discussing the virtues of the onion rings the owner joked he could live on the onion rings, and I had to agree, though it would shorten both our life expectancies a bit. Before we came to Europe, everyone told us “Oh in [x] country they serve room temperature beer”. When in [x] country we would ask the locals and they would say, “oh no, not here, they serve it that way over in [y]”. We heard this about every beer drinking country, but until that night at the Buck Inn, all the beer was cold. At the Buck Inn we were drinking “Real Ale” or cask conditioned ale, which is unpasteurized, hand pumped beer served slightly below room temperature. So this would be considered warm compared to a cold, pasteurized, keg conditioned beer. The beer was more flavorful and less fizzy than keg beer, and I can appreciate the call for more “real” ales and ciders across Britain.
The steep Pennine Trail; perfect for sheep.
Malham Village, England

In addition to being a delicious pub, the Buck Inn is also an inn. My mom wanted to spend the night, but as tempting as it was, we’d already paid for accommodations in Newcastle, so we got back in the car after dinner. My dad was driving this leg, and to be honest, it was a little nerve-wracking—sorry Dad! We were following our Garmin, not the car’s built in GPS, and it was programmed to route us the fastest way. To calculate the route it uses posted speed limits, however if there is no posted speed limit it uses a default speed based on the road type. In the UK, the national speed limit on a single carriageway for cars in 60pmh unless otherwise posted. Using these default speeds the Garmin calculated that the quickest route to Newcastle was through the Yorkshire Dales Park. Unfortunately, we were not driving the default speed. The road was barely wider than our car and as it was through the national park, there were no street lights. To make our drive even more harrowing, there were also steep grade changes, 90⁰ hairpin turns, and no almost towns. Oh, also, we were running low on gas and the few tiny towns we drove through were all closed up for the night; yes the entire town was shuttered and dark. I could see the speedometer, so I know my Dad was only driving about 25 mph, but it felt like 70 in the dark and I spent most of the ride with every muscle in my body clenched in terror; I was very sore the next day.
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