The subtle presence of The Beatles in Liverpool becomes evident the very moment you enter the city. You arrive by plane to John Lennon Airport, and just outside you see a 20-tonne monument of the Yellow Submarine. Tourist Liverpool attractions are full of the Beatles stories. It is the Liverpool Beatles city. If you travel by train, the bridge you cross shortly before arriving to Liverpool Lime Street railway station is the renowned Penny Lane. For a true Beatles-maniac experience, I decided to stay at the thematic A Hard Day's Night Liverpool Hotel on North John Street. This would be the starting point of my pilgrimage to sites made famous by the Fab Four, starting with The Beatles Story Museum. The Beatles Museum tells the complete history of the band. At the entrance of the Beatles story museum I get an audio guide narrated by John Lennon's sister, Julia, Which goes into rich detail about the band. Occasionally interspersed between her words were fragments of The Beatles' concerts and recollections from their friends.
The first exhibits look back at the 1950s when the band took its first steps to stardom: their first instruments, drafts of music and lyrics, as well as personal belongings that hang from the walls. Next comes a room showing the Star Club in Hamburg, where the group often went to play. The next exhibition hall, back in Liverpool, features the famous Cavern Club, where in the early 1960s The Beatles gave almost 300 concerts. Following this, the museum details the now world-famous Abbey Road studio and even a psychedelic yellow submarine. The tragic end to John Lennon's life is captured by a copy of the white room shown in his video for the touching piano ballad Imagine . The song plays in the room where, under a glass case, the yellow glasses of the dreamer who longed to change this world for the better sit on display. A few souvenirs from the shop outside the museum are a must, and then I'm off to take a Magical Mystery Tour, which allows me to explore key Liverpool landmarks made famous by the band.
Most of the sites made famous by Th e Beatles are concentrated in a rather small area: the house where Ringo Starr lived; the neighbourhood where Lennon's difficult childhood took shape. The bus also passes the house of producer Brian Epstein, the man who introduced them to the world, and the homes of George Harrison and Paul McCartney. Streets and landmarks from the lives and songs of The Batels come to life here in ways I never quite imagined. Stepping off the garishly coloured sightseeing bus, I amble about on the pedestrians-only Mathew Street, which boasts the greatest density of pubs and clubs in Liverpool. Among them was once the renowned Cavern Club, where Th Beatles often played; today a shopping mall stands in its place. Not far off, however, is a copy of the club that credibly reproduces the atmosphere of the band's early days.
Fans' love for the Beetles has found expression in numerous unconventional works of sculpture in the city: one monument to John Lennon is by the Cavern Club looking at passersby; another is a bronze statue to "Four lads who shook the world", and still another is the statue of Eleanor Rigby, the inscription beneath which is dedicated to "all the lonely people".
