Day 5, 6 and 7: Lake District

The 3rd destination of our road trip is…. Lake District! I'll admit that our stay in Lake District was not the most exciting but it is probably the most scenic. We left Liverpool at noon and reached Lake District around 4-ish in the afternoon which was quite a bad timing because most of the stores/shops here were already closing for the day. 

 After settling in our apartment, we drove a short distance to the nearest town to grab some food for our hungry tummies. This is how quiet it is when the shops have closed- with little people on the streets which is quite strange considering the sun is still out.

 Our apartment in Lake District was one of my favorite accommodations because of how homely our rooms feel and the pretty sheets.

 Because my bro and I felt quite bored having to stay home when the sun's still out, we decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood and chanced upon farms and more cows!

 We crashed into a farm and we weren't even sure if this is abandoned or occupied because there were no farm animals and the gate was left open. We stayed for a good 15 mins basking in its beauty magnified by the evening sun, before calling it a day.

 Started off our 2nd day here with a lake tour, afterall we are in LAKE district hahaha. A pity that the weather was looking gloomy if not it would have been a lovely picture.

Yummy Italian food for lunch cause we have had enough of burgers and chips x_x

 Lake District is known as a home to the famous English author- Beatrix Potter who wrote stories about Peter Rabbit and apparently this is a popular attraction for tourists.

 We decided to take a look around the souvenir shop only and forgo the attraction since we honestly had no clue who Beatrix Potter is, even though the rabbit looks familiar.

 The nice lady who hosted us at our apartment told us it was mandatory to take a picture with the Laurel and Hardy statues in Lake District. They were famous comedians from way back which goes without saying that my bro and I have no clue who they are.

We got some KFC takeaway and drove around to find the nearest beach or lake to have a mini picnic dinner but the closest we came to was this. You can actually tell this whole space was beneath a lake because the ground was still moist and soft.

And so…. the next day we embarked off to our next destination! Love the blues and greens in this picture :)

Stopped over at Keswick for a quick bite

Strawberries here are out of this world

My dad and I decided to get tix to this quirky little museum which was pretty interesting and hilarious.

This pretty much concludes our stay in Lake District and I was honestly slightly disappointed because I expected to do activities like kayaking or trekking with the beautiful views that I saw online but we didn't see much of such offerings around. However, the next destination is much more captivating especially with its architecture, I promise.

Day 3, 4 and 5: Liverpool

Our next stop for our road trip is probably the most modern and only city area- Liverpool! The main reason we came here is because my dad wants to visit the Anfield stadium, home to the Liverpool soccer players. Liverpool is also the notable hometown of the Beatles and the inspiration for majority of their songs so being able to experience a piece of that history got me really thrilled. 

We decided to stop by the Liverpool One area, a shopping heaven for tourists, for a break even though it was actually only about a 10 mins walk from our apartment. 

The whole shopping area is quite massive and with something more at every turn so the signs came in useful for us to navigate around.

After settling in our apartment, we went to explore our area which is conveniently located near the Albert Dock.

The Beatles souvenir shop!

Time for our early dinner cause I was getting hungry x_x

Fish and chips AGAIN but this time with mushy peas which tasted funny, not a fan

My bro suggested to watch 22 Jump Street and bought us tickets in the evening to end our day. It was pretty cool to see uk advertisements (idk why but I felt quite intrigued about them) and how their cinema looks like! They don't have seat allocation there so we can basically sit anywhere we want which I thought is so brilliant. Furthermore, their seats felt like roller coaster seats to me and had so much leg room, far better than Singapore where you have to squeeze pass other people to get to your seat. 

Walking along Albert Dock the next morning which was a really long stretch but it was a good exercise

Love how there are old and new elements of the life in Liverpool

Thought this was so cutely illustrated outside a pub, those 4 dudes are the Beatles guys if you haven't noticed!

Taking a break at Costa Coffee which is huge in the UK, probably like how Starbucks is in Singapore. There is Starbucks here though just that it's not as popular and has lesser outlets compared to Costa.

Back at Liverpool One for more shopping, mainly at Primark since it is the cheapest place for shopping and it is ginormous- 1 hour is barely enough to cover the whole store. On another note, the weather was lovely that day!

Finally getting ourselves some Chinese cause we were getting slightly tired of chips all the time and also because my bro seldom has asian food during his stay here for the past 10 months

So after lunch, we drove to Anfield stadium for our Liverpool tour! The tickets were selling at 2 tickets for the price of 1 which was why we decided to go for it with my dad hahahaha.

Surprisingly, it was quite interesting to know what happens behind the scenes and be able to walk around the various famed places- the changing room, media room etc. The guides were also pretty entertaining and there wasn't much bombarding of info so I managed to understand most of what they shared.

Because the Liverpool merchandise store at the Anfield stadium was a few minutes to closing, my dad decided to go back to the Liverpool One area as there is also another store for him to get some stuff. I don't have any more pictures for that day so I guess that's how we ended the day!

Embarking off to our Magical Mystery Tour of the Beatles that we had to wake up pretty early for.

Penny Lane was one of the songs that the Beatles sang about, if I remember correctly, Penny Lane was sort of the central place of all their homes.

12 Arnold Grove, the 3rd flag from the right, is George Harrison's birthplace and home as a kid. We were not allowed to go into that lane because this row of houses is still home to other citizens and I guess they found it annoying to have tourists come here everyday and snapping photos.

Please ignore my face but this is the Strawberry Field that they sang about in Strawberry Fields Forever (like duh hahahaha) and I love how there is graffiti on nearly every Beatles-related places possible.

John Lennon's home and there's a round blue plague there because it is given to famous people who have been dead for more than 20 years and are still famous. 

Paul McCartney's home as a kid

 Last stop of our tour was at Matthew Street where the famous Cavern Club is situated and it is famous as the Beatles played numerous gigs there, over 200 if I'm not wrong. Even today, the place also sees many other artistes/bands performances. We went to the Cavern Pub first to grab some lunch for our hungry tummies.

The names of all the people/bands that played at the Cavern Club, engraved on the wall outside the Cavern Pub.

 The cool thing about this club is that it is underground as we had to go down a couple of flights of stairs and the whole ambience is really cosy and perfect for a chill night out! We managed to listen to some guy perform classics from the Beatles and it was AMAZING, people here are really talented.

 Spotted: Jake Bugg!!!!!

It is truly amazing how they are so supportive of the Beatles with pictures and banners literally screaming its relation to them.

This marks the end of our stay in Liverpool, I think the main highlights were the tours which I felt impressed by because the guides were really entertaining and knowledgeable. In many ways, the tours also gave us insight on the history of Liverpool and what it is known for which is enlightening. The other half of this day was spent traveling to our next destination which I will continue in my next post!