23/09/2021
It was a mad morning with some fast-paced last-minute packing. Eloise was then whisked off to Gymboree, luckily her friend was there today to run around with.
Lachlan was busy rolling about as per usual. The latest Amazon Prime purchase were some baby munch mittens (/or infinity stone gauntlets) to stop him scratching himself and give him something to chew on.
Loaded up with car trip snacks, including some Iron Brew pastilles, we left sunny Scotland for the first time. Today we headed to Liverpool, England. The roof box was a great addition. There is not much room left once the four of us, the double pram, two travel cots and Eloise’s essential travel toys are crammed in.
After slowly winding through the streets of Glasgow we made it to the M6 where it was full speed ahead towards Liverpool. To get us in the mood we had The Beatles blasting.
Eloise was exhausted from her climbing and slept most of the way, as did Lachlan. It was oddly quiet. The type of quiet that usually means Eloise is up to shenanigans.
Our first stop was Williamson Park. Lachlan needed a feed and Eloise needed to stretch her legs, she walked up all the stairs of the Ashton Memorial. Eloise made sure to hold Super Mum’s hand after last week’s stairs saga. We were heading towards the Butterfly House until Eloise saw the playground and made the captains call to investigate. It was good for her to run around.
The Ashton Memorial is a folly in Williamson Park, Lancaster, Lancashire, England built between 1907 and 1909 by the millionaire industrialist Lord Ashton in memory of his second wife, Jessy, at a cost of £87,000 (equivalent to £8.4 million in 2019). The building is in the Edwardian Baroque style and was designed by John Belcher. It has been described as “England’s grandest folly” and the “Taj Mahal of the North”. The dome is externally of copper, the main stone used is Portland stone although the steps are of hard wearing granite from Cornwall.
We then all headed back to the car and onwards to Liverpool. Driving through the streets we saw lots of kids with footballs. I guess once upon a time that was a Stevie or a Trent, you could already sense how much the beautiful game means to this place. We arrived at our hotel, Travelodge. We dropped the bags and Eloise quickly claimed the queen-sized bed as her own. Liam put on his strawberry socks because he will never find a more appropriate time to wear them and we headed out to the famous Strawberry Fields and Red Gate. A great place for the wee ones to run around and an impressive visitors centre. It was just in and out for us though as it was closing shortly after we arrived.
“Strawberry Fields Forever” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was released on 13 February 1967 as a double A-side single with “Penny Lane”. It represented a departure from the group’s previous singles and a novel listening experience for the contemporary pop audience. While the song initially divided and confused music critics and the group’s fans, it proved highly influential on the emerging psychedelic genre. Its accompanying promotional film is similarly recognised as a pioneering work in the medium of music video. Strawberry Field was the name of a Salvation Army children’s home close to John Lennon’s childhood home in Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool. Lennon and his friends Pete Shotton, Nigel Walley and Ivan Vaughan used to play in the wooded garden behind the home.
It was getting late in the day but we swung past the Abbey Road Liverpool Mural by Paul Curtis, Lachlan was loving it and the scousers were having a chuckle too.
‘You were in Liverpool, why didn’t you just go to the real Abbey Road crossing?’
Good question everyone, we are glad you asked.
There is indeed an Abbey Road in Liverpool and not too far from where we are staying. However, the famous album cover is actually Abbey Road in London. We might need some help for this one Hazel and Tom. Time permitting we might check out the Liverpool Abbey Road on our big day tomorrow. For those familiar with the area no prizes for guessing where we are heading.
We then drove past our home, Sefton Park and back to our wee hotel room. The next challenge was trying to sleep in the same room with two under two. While Liam entertained Lachlan, Sophie opted for the age-old ‘pretend she is asleep and Eloise will copy her’ tactic which did the trick in the end.
Congratulations everyone we have hit 5k views. I cannot verify how many of those are Jeremy Moots like bots, but almost all the IP addresses are from Australia or the UK which is reassuring. We hope you are all enjoying following our wild ride. We will keep experimenting with this, we have some grand plans but the main goal is to get Eloise and Lachlan out and about as much as possible.
Love the Abbey Road crossing!