LIVERPOOL VIRTUAL TOUR

[Thomas Randall]

Very cool John! Thanks for the tour! I don’t think I’ll ever get to go there although I’d love to. When were the photos taken? Wonder if they cleaned up Mathew street yet?

[John Hollister]

Hi Thomas,

I’m glad you got a taste of the Liverpool experience nonetheless. The dates are in the links I posted 2015, 2017, 2018. A lot can happen in three years, so I’m hoping they’ve sorted out Matthew Street. At any rate, I’ll probably stop by Liverpool in 2022. When I do I’ll have a fresh update for you all as well as any adventures that may present themselves. I’m always getting new Beatle stories from around town. The older scousers usually have a good Cavern Club story or two. Hopefully, I’ll finally be able to catch an MLT performance!!!

[Tom Fones]

I thoroughly enjoyed that. Thanks!

Let me point out that every city has many people “sleeping rough” as the Brits say.

I don’t know how this ends

[John Hollister]

Hi Thomas,

Let’s hope it’s a happy ending. Beatle Week attracted a very unsavory lot, but I have hope for the future. There’s no point in anyone suffering. Not the homeless, not Matthew Street, not Liverpool, and not the Beatles legacy.

[Jung Roe]

Great virtual tour of Liverpool there John, thanks for sharing. Liked the photos of John, Paul, George and Ringo’s old homes where they grew up. Just regular people like all of us. Looks like some great museums and places of interest and a lot of character and history in the buildings and infrastructure around Liverpool.

From you blog it looks like Matthew St is not unlike the famous and touristy Gastown in my hometown of Vancouver BC, and I am sure of many cities. I use to work in that area, and there is such a stark contrast within 1 or 2 blocks between the cruise ship tourism, high end boutiques and restaurants and poverty and homelessness. You have tourists from all over the world flocking to these touristy shops, restaurants and pubs along Water St while they await boarding the cruise ships and the pan handlers and the homeless a block or two away on a parallel street, East Hastings. Vancouver is touted as one of the most beautiful cities in Canada, but it also has some of the worst homeless problems too. It’s really something the politicians and city planners need to address and provide low income housing, shelter for the homeless, and assistance in our cities.

[John Hollister]

Hey Jung,

I’m hoping my latest encounter with the city during Beatle Week was an aberration or that at least they’ve addressed the homeless problem in their streets. There’s no reason for this sort of thing to go on in the US, Canada, or the UK. Whether in San Francisco, Vancouver, or Liverpool surely these three wealthy countries can assuage the suffering of veterans, the mentally ill, the down on their luck, and the myriad people just looking for a leg up in life. As it is, the forgotten people continue to deteriorate, places like Matthew Street are ruined for visitors who’ve come from all over the world, and tourism, the lifeblood of Liverpool, is irreparably damaged. Everybody loses. I visited Vancouver once and had a bit of a Liverpool “Beatle Week” experience there. Walking down the street was like one of those bizarre Fellini films from the seventies.

I ended up spending most of my time vaping BC Bud in a smoking cafe just to cope. That post in my blog got a lot of responses from Vancouver residents agreeing with my assessment.

Here’s that post. It is a beautiful city, though.

All the Best

https://thetravelzealot.com/2016/08/28/canada-vancouver-overrated-city-visited-date/

[Jung Roe]

Hi John. I think I know the places you mentioned in the post on Vancouver and agree with you, they are places best to be avoided. There are some pretty bad and filthy places in the city for sure which is unfortunate, and some shady people in them. Having lived here pretty much all my life, I can vouch that there are some places that are heavenly and incomparable to any place I’ve seen too, and feel safer walking around in at night than most places I’ve been. I believe there is much more good here though than the bad. Thanks for sharing the post, informative and some beautiful photos there.

[John Hollister]

Hi Jung,

Your points are well taken. I’ve found that many times travel experiences can be affected by timing, circumstances, poor locations, or just a bad mood so I never write off a city on a quick visit. With a highly lauded city like Vancouver, I’ll always give a second chance. Also, I’m always happy to encounter Canadians since they remind me of polite Americans who haven’t lost their minds. Things have gone off the deep end in post-truth, anti-science America.

I met a couple from Vancouver Island in Costa Rica, and want to go check it out so I’ll make a pit stop in Vancouver to give it another shot. I’m sure it won’t be the insane asylum I encountered on my first visit.

If I do there will be an open invitation to you for coffee or drinks.

Best,

John

[Jung Roe]

Hi John, absolutely. Would love to share some gems to discover around town. No better way to get to discover all the wonderful and interesting places (maybe starting with a certain crazy roller coaster) than with the assistance of the locals. May we all be able to travel freely again soon! 🙂

Best wishes

Jung

[Tom Fones]

I thought Vancouver was a beautiful city … in 2009

[Jung Roe]

Thomas, there are a lot of beautiful places in Vancouver I would highly recommend to anyone, but just like anything there is the other side of the coin and the darker sides too like in Liverpool, LA etc. My brother who lives in LA drove me along some areas in downtown late at night and there are some pretty bad places you want to avoid with shops all boarded up and garbage cans on fire at night as the addicts lurk around, but then there are places like Laguna Beach. Mulholland Drive etc that are beautiful. You just have to pick and choose where you go.

[Tom Fones]

I could not agree more about Canadiens and Americans.

Cheers