How to hike from Valbona to Theth
May 8, 2024
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Albania | Our guide to hiking from Valbona to Theth; two beautiful traditional villages lying deep in the Albanian Alps
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Listen, do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell? Shh, whisper it quietly, but Liverpool is home to The Beatles Story; an amazing Beatles museum dedicated solely to the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band of all time. Okay, you’ve got me, it’s not quite a secret – after all, the legacy of The Beatles on tourism to Liverpool is estimated at a staggering £100m to the local economy, attracting 600,000 visitors per annum.
The museum is one of just a number of Beatles-related activities you can do across Liverpool, whether that’s jumping on the bus for the Magical Mystery Tour, visiting the Lennon-McCartney households or getting your boogie on at The Cavern.
Whether you’re a hardcore fan of the Fab Four, a casual listener of their biggest hits or simply exploring the city for the weekend and want something for your Liverpool travel itinerary, there’s no better way of spending a couple of hours learning how this band is a crucial part of the fabric of this wonderful city.
The Beatles Story is a multi-award winning tourist attraction, which has received accolades such as the Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence and Viator Top Rated Award to name but a few, the museum opened on May 1st 1990 and in 2019/2020, attracted a record 317,156 visitors. For Beatles fanatics like me, it’s the ultimate day out!
Located in Liverpool’s beautiful Albert Docks, a once-derelict Victorian waterfront regenerated into a thriving leisure district, The Beatles Story can be found underground in the Britannia Vaults.
Address: Britannia Vaults, Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4AD.
09:00am to 16:00pm (Last Admission) Monday-Friday & Saturday.
Last admission 17:00pm on Saturday.
There is accessibility for wheelchairs but the main lift has size restrictions. The venue can be contacted on 0151 705 6622 for more information.
At the end of the exhibition, there’s a great cafe to relax in, providing a range of food and beverages – including latte’s with the Fab Four’s faces on! There’s also a huge Beatles shop selling t-shirts, vinyl, bags, books and other memorabilia.
Depending on how much of a Beatles fan you are, it can take anywhere between 1-3 hours to go around the entire Beatles Story exhibition. I know I was towards the latter end of that timeframe!
You can purchase a superb audio guide to accompany you throughout the tour – available in up to 12 languages.
Upon entry, this immersive experience instantly transports you back in time to the 6th July 1957, where a village fete was taking place on a sunny day at St.Peters Church in Woolton.
The significance you ask? A young John Lennon was playing live with his new band, The Quarrymen, and in the crowd was Paul McCartney, who met him later that day and impressed him with his own guitar-playing skills.
As the world went on around them, with kids eating ice cream and people playing games, everyone was oblivious that a seismic moment in history had happened. The beginning of The Beatles.
The exhibition does a fantastic job of telling how each Beatle came from ordinary backgrounds like the rest of us. None of them were preordained rockstars from day one and each had their fair share of trouble and tragedy early in their lives.
As well as being a travel enthusiast, I love my guitars, so it was special to see George Harrison’s first ever instrument on display; a basic-looking starter guitar responsible for helping to nurture one of music’s brightest minds.
Next we were in Hamburg looking at the doors of The Star Club, which The Beatles played as well as several other venues in the city over 270 times in the space of 18 months – often at up to an incredible five hours at a time!
This work ethic was quickly reinforced with a trip down a reconstructed Mathew Street and into the legendary Cavern Club – a location where the band famously made their name and performed 292 times in just two years.
The superb audio guide which accompanies you throughout the tour – available in up to 12 languages – provided some fantastic anecdotes about the band you probably wouldn’t find online; not least about their choice of seating in The Grapes pub on Mathew Street, where they opted for a small corner over by the toilets.
Four lads always with an eye for the ladies, the audio guide told how the cheeky Beatles used to strategically locate in that corner so that whenever the door to the female toilets opened, they’d get a good look at the girls coming in and out. Cheeky!
Don’t think this is some quiet, sombre museum. It’s nothing of the sort. The interactivity of The Beatles Story is fantastic, with every room featuring music from the bands extensive back catalogue relevant to the era of that particular part of the tour.
From the screams of thousands of young girls dizzy at the site of the band during the Beatlemania section to the trippy opening sounds of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band in the psychedelic section, visitors are well entertained throughout.
For me, my favourite section was the Sgt. Peppers/Magical Mystery Tour exhibition, which showcased replicas of the costumes the Fab Four wore on that famous front cover.
It even details every member of the 66-person ensemble featured on the front cover, including a few I hadn’t realised were on there such as Bob Dylan and Aleister Crowley (subject of Ozzy Osbourne’s 1980 hit “Mr. Crowley” – as a Brummie I was always going to notice that). I particularly liked the circus poster that famously provided the inspiration (and lyrics) for John Lennon’s For the benefit of Mr Kite.
Of course, throughout the tour there’s various artefacts that are fascinating, including the only blue vinyl edition of the legendary double-LP – the White Album. Again, another really interesting story behind this one that involves some ingenious foresight (and has potentially made the owner very rich if he ever chooses to sell it).
During the late 1970’s, he was working for a record pressing plant that was pressing the album, as well as a run of Linda Rostandt’s “Blue Bayou” on blue vinyl. During a moment of creative inspiration, he moved the White Album master copy onto the Blue Bayou press and voila, he had the world’s only copy of the White Album on blue vinyl. Bravo sir.
Nothing lasts forever including, unfortunately, The Beatles. After the band split in 1970, all four members of the band went on to have highly successful solo careers.
This is reflected in a fantastic exhibition with the room split into four quadrants, each dedicated to what each member went on to achieve. It was particularly sad to see how John Lennon’s life was so tragically cut short when he was shot dead by Mark Chapman in 1980.
Who knows, with the trend for bands reuniting nowadays (not to mention the longevity of The Rolling Stones), we may have seen the Beatles back together again. Sadly, we’ll never know.
It’s hard not to come away from The Beatles Story inspired and full of admiration for the genius of four ordinary lads from Liverpool who changed the world of music.
As a writer myself, lover of poetry and avid fan of music, it’s impossible not to be creatively inspired. Whether it’s stroking paper with a pen or strumming the guitar, it certainly stirs the desire to create.
For me, it also echoes an element of sadness. If you think about it, 60 years isn’t a very long time. Images of the band as young men, full of hopes and dreams, feel like they could have been taken yesterday.
Tragically, we’ve lost George and John while Ringo and Paul are now in their late 70’s. It resonates with me, making me think how quickly life goes by and that every opportunity must be taken; every moment relished and every relationship cherished.
The Beatles Story is a fantastic experience and one I highly recommend. The exhibition is constantly updated with new memorabilia curated from collectors around the world, so you can visit multiple times and never have the same experience twice.
If you’re visiting Liverpool for the first time and want to dive deep into the fabric of the city, it’s a good place to start.
You can see why this band means so much to the local people. Personally for me, it took me back to another world; one where musically my soul resides. An exciting time I wish I had been around to see for myself.
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