Caverns to Mountains

Into Liverpool.
Amazingly uncongested for the morning rush hour.
Found our usual free parking space, two hour limit. Not a problem.
Had a quick look around then found The Cavern.
Unbelievable, no fee to get in. Down and down the steps, it's a long way underground.
Imagine the Beatles in 1963 playing at the Cavern, we've all seen the old filmclips, that's where we are. There's a guy on stage playing Beatles songs and he's good. It's not too packed. Tammy say's 'how much time is on that parking space?'

 


The Tavern opened in 1957 as a Jazz Club later becoming the centre of music in Liverpool and the home of the Merseybeat. It was closed in 1973 and filled in during construction work on the railway.
It was excavated and reopened on 26th April 1984 at a cost of fourteen million dollars.
Paul McCartney returned to the Cavern in July last year to play a 45 minute gig that ended up going for 2 hours. Around 40 live bands perform every week.
Some bands test their new work out at the Cavern by playing blind gigs, those bands include The Arctic Monkeys and Oasis.
Our friend John L. would love this place.

 

 

We continued our tour around Liverpool which has a lot of statues dedicated to 1960's rock and roll including Billy Fury, Cilla Black and Elanor Rigby.
There are some lovely old buildings in Liverpool.

 





Tammy and The Beatles, Tammy has shrunk a little bit in the rain.




 




Down at the docks we had a look at the ferry across the Mersey, of course.
The dock itself was interesting with the old shipbuilding dry docks.
Then we thought we had better get back to the car 30 minutes late but no ticket.

 Ferry across the Mersey.










 





We left Liverpool and headed for Wales.
Tammy's map reading skills lead us to Lake Vyrnwy, a reservoir that supplies fresh water to Liverpool, it was constructed in the 1880's.The town of Llanwyydn was flooded. Prior to this the water board demolished the homes to prevent the residence from returning, as they had threatened to do so. The church, pub and other buildings still exist on the bottom of the lake.
We had a good walk around the whole thing and bought an ice cream.
A near by Douglas Fir tree at 60 metres is the tallest tree in Wales. 






 


After driving across the dam wall we continued up the side of the lake and then on to the Snowdonia National Park. It was a single lane road with very few passing bays, we drove along it for over an hour and didn't see another car. The views were spectacular.

We carried on to the town of Pennal and found a very nice farm camp site for the night.
There was a nice woodland and laneway walk to the town and the local pub for tea. The Pub, Glan Yr Afon was doing a roaring trade with the locals and their dogs. We had fish, it was one of the best pub meals we have ever had. 
After tea, and some ales, we had a wander around the town, both streets, and then headed back to our big lemon.



 


 
A great day.