The trip went seamless. Travel by rail was dependable and comfortable. Lots of walking from station to hotel to town. We both lost weight! Each hotel was unique from the stable room to corporate hotel to B&B. Day tours were enriching with informative guides. Admittedly there were near misses but never lost anything. My aunt was a trouper, never complained and a good sleeper. Valley Girl had a 2 week backyard holiday & even got groomed. Lucy, my housekeeper raked up leaves in the side yard the day before home. Who could ask for more!

In Liverpool. reference to the Beatles is everywhere: statues atop buildings, bronze statues on the wharf, murals, plaques, & posters. Since the Beatles, Liverpool is all about 60s music but before the Beatles, it was and remains a thriving working harbor. 

Ferry on the River Mersey Tour

From the river Mersey one can imagine the industrial Liverpool. Even today, the River Mersey is a commercial river. At the mouth of the Irish Sea, 700,000 containers of cargo unload. In 1990, longest running dock strike until USA took action against ships using Liverpool and a settlement was accepted. A retired American naval catamaran ferry motors to the Isle of Man and a ferry goes to Dublin. A tunnel under the river from the 1930s accommodates a train and a highway. A crew member who grew up & worked in Liverpool, commutes 45 minutes from north Wales reports the river Mersey has a strong current with two 30′ tides with a strong current and unfortunately, a suicide destination. Liverpool is the port of call on the Titanic, because The White Star Line funded the project….but the ill fated ship was built in Belfast, their last port of call Ireland.

Beatles Bus Tour

As a child, Ringo Starr and his family used to sing along to Les Brown’s Sentimental Journey and later released his album titled Sentimental Journey 1970. 

As a child John Lennon lived with his middle class auntie, with his Mummy visiting regularly until she was run over by a drunk driver. John was 18 years old.

Paul McCartney wrote Let it Be (arranged by Phil Spector) to his Mother Mary who died from a complication from breast cancer when Paul was 14 years old.

The Cavern Club

The original cavern was torn down in 1973. It was a smelly, sweaty swamp; they renovated using the original bricks, & the same footprint. The decor is all posters of bands, signed guitars of musicians that have all played at the cavern since it’s opening till today. Beatles played 274 times in the Cavern between 1961-1963, as well as The Rolling Stones. Oasis, the Kinks, Sir Paul Mc Cartney & more recently, Bruce Springsteen.

This nightclub at the Cavern at 10 Mathew St. holds 700 people & sold out every weekend for the Beatles tribute band!

They were introduced with a film of Churchill declaring war against Germany, moving into American icons: Bridgett Bardo, Les Brown, James Dean and news clippings: Cuban Missile crisis, QE coronation. Music spanned from Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, the blues. Finally to the Beatles in America: LA Hollywood Bowl, (1964), NYC Shea stadium (1965), SF Candlestick (1966) where all venues sold out in hours

The tribute band started 3 sets with I Saw Her Standing There. After the American themed introduction, the backdrop was The Cavern Wall of Fame & Shea stadium.

Liverpool Museum

Besides the Beatles, Rex Harrison, Brian Epstein, Gerry Marsden & the Pacemakers were all from Liverpool. Movies made in Liverpool includes yesterday, filmed at the Lime Street rail station, and Batman on the top of the iconic Royal Liver building.

Central Library

The Central Library is the largest of 22 libraries in Liverpool. When you enter, 100 computers serve the community: people surfing the web, playing solitaire, placing a bet on horse racing, writing emails.

Central Library has the grandest ground floor entrance and the most quiet reading room ever.

World Museum

Not known for its food, but the painted mural relief of goddess Liverpool that adorns the wall above the new cafe is worth the visit.

As contrasted by the Liverpool museum near the harbor this is the original world museum, covering prehistoric, ancient Egypt, planetarium, including an aquarium and updated to include the endangered planet.

Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ

Took only 5 years to build, nicknamed Paddys Wigwam.

Liverpool Cathedral

Cardiff doesn’t define Wales but it’s a city of proud people & a cosmopolitan city hosting Stevie Wonder and Alice Cooper Summer 2025. Arrived at the Parador boutique hotel, exquisitely located close to train station, the Cathedral, the Castle and the river where I get the water taxi to the harbor.

The Castle exhibition and tour brilliant! In 1865 Lord John Butte was the richest person in Britain and third richest in the world. Lord John inherited land, but made his money from exporting coal or black gold using the Cardiff docks. Lord John was a fanatic of all things medieval, he purchased the castle. He situated his bedroom (en suite bathroom) 75 steps high up the spiral staircase.

Lord Bute was not only the richest person in the world but spoke 21 languages, world traveler, a self proclaimed interior decorator and a collector transforming his castle into Welsh Victorian Camelot. He visited Italy adorning his roof garden with mosaics, statues, gardens and aqueducts reminiscent of Pompeii. Despite all the wealth, family members died early: renal disease, victims of war, more recently, cancer.

Before descendants stopped living in the Castle, they provided bomb shelters in the strong outer wall during the Blitz of WWll.

Water taxi to Tiger Bay, man made harbor in Cardiff, Wales. Walked a section of the Wales Coast Path covers entire Wales coastline. Amidst the quay marketplace, the harbor boasts several modern buildings: the Opera house, the Harbormaster and the Welsh Parliament building.

Everts Sjobod in Grebbestade, along the coast of Sweden is an old boathouse from the late 1800s located in a marine protected national park. The family owned business offers a vintage electric wooden boat that takes passengers, offers newly built beach houses, a wood fired hot tub, and a delicious fish soup. There is crab, mackerel and lobster fishing, 90% of Sweden’s oysters grow in this archipelago. It is the most, beautiful, serene setting all of Scandinavia and the highlight of my trip.

Live music at Hostel Gastis bar and restaurant

Bus across the five mile Oresund bridge and tunnel connecting Sweden and Denmark.

Hans Christen Andersen was a poor Dane, who experienced many failures before becoming Danish most loved author of 175 children’s fairy tales, the most famous being: Ugly Duckling, the Princess & the Pea and The Little Mermaid. He also wrote travel logs and Andersen made famous the adage “to travel is to live”, my kinda historical figure!

Like Sweden, Danes supported the German war machine and farmers put food on German tables to keep economy afloat and avoid unemployment. Unlike the Swedes, there is overt and passive resistance to cooperate and accommodate with Nazi Germany. Like Norway, Denmark was occupied but kept their Constitution. In September 1941, Danes agree that any German demand be rejected on the basis of the Constitution and best countered by all Danes wearing the Star of David. In the darkness of night, the Danish resistance moved families of Jews by canals to Sweden. Others spied by listening to telephone conversations and sabotaged railroad tracks. A more discreet way to boost democracy against dictatorship was posters that advertise patriotism.

Copenhagen was full of activity on this sunny summer day. Danes paddle boarding, boating, canoeing, swimming, sun bathing topless!

Danish government made concerted effort to increase female statues in Copenhagen. Karen Christenze Dinesen, the Danish author, storyteller and colonizer, known pseudonym, Isak Dinesen wrote numerous famous books. Out of Africa, my favorite was an account of her life in a coffee farm in the Ngong hills of Kenya, complete with hardships and rewards. Blixen could have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature but the judges didn’t want to overrepresent the Scandinavians, regretfully. Infamously, many African leaders believe she was one of the most dangerous foreigners who stepped foot on Africa. Specifically she writes of vast erotic African wasteland and black servants as useful butchers and cooks. To be sure, Blixen was a complex independent woman living in a complex time.

In the spring 2015, we at COM took a tour of San Quentin, the most famous prison due to its location with views of Mt Tam and the SF bay but also famous for housing the most infamous criminals, such as Richard Ramirez, Scott Peterson, Richard Allen Davis and the Trailside killer. Our college is interested in pursuing a partnership. My first impression is the medieval buildings, the barbwire, the guard towers, the flag at half mast in honor of the fallen officers, and the constant stream of well armed guards walking across the courtyard, during shift change. After our introduction by the wonderful Lieutenant Sam Robinson, San Quentin’s Public Information Officer, we met with 8 “lifers’ who spoke about being incarcerated. A small Caucasian man was incarcerated under the 3 strikes law, all strikes as a result of burglary; he got $40 out of the cash register. What you don’t hear is the long rap sheet these guys had prior to the 3 strikes. Another African American man came up for parole, but had never been in a room facing so many white folks, couldn’t verbalize himself and was denied parole. One inmate has never held a cell phone. Interestingly, all those who were approved or earned parole on life sentences, the recidivism rate is less than 1%. All of them said they were eager to learn. As we continued our tour and the inmates left, one inmate sauntered back to his cell playing a mean bluesy harmonica.

Next, we toured through the million dollar medical facility. The triage, ED was well equipped and spacious but not much activity. Everything seemed orderly and to be going on behind closed, locked doors. The psychiatric facility was daunting, group therapy for the hardened criminals was conducted with inmates in locked cages. Every inmate has access to health care they just have to wait longer to be seen by a RN and MD. There is 1:1 volunteers to the 4000 inmates, proving San Quentin the preferred prison, than say, Folsom. The recreation yard is massive with views looking west on Mount Tam, 101 and barbwire.  There’s a tennis court, basketball courts and a number of punching bags, and built in chairs and tables. Each area of the yard is ethnically designated, at times 2000 inmates with only three guards on the ground. Striking, is the daunting plastered smooth brick wall, 30 feet high. Still the last escape was in 1990 an inmate had only 3 more months before being released and scaled the wall to freedom, while the guard in the watchtower was waxing his floors. The escapee was never heard from again, both the guard and warden were promptly fired.

The tour seemed a little dilute visiting their million dollar medical facility and the outside yard with its beautiful views until we toured inside the 5 story cell block where we were surrounded by inmates in their usual day-to-day activities. There was a row of old fashion phone booths but without doors where many were sitting and talking. I was reminded “there is no privacy in prison.” A couple men were ironing their shirts, others were reading the San Quentin News, while others were simply lounging, walking slowly if walking at all. There were 5 floors, with 13 stairs between floors, the top floor was the death row inmates, including Scott Peterson’s cell. Notably, every window had 13 bars.

Inside the cramped 4×9 cell includes a bunk bed, a camping mattress, sink, toilet and shelves, organized with books and toiletries. From 845 to 745 they are locked inside, but there is a light they can control. The inmates get two hot meals and a box lunch they can eat anywhere. And they have that 7-Eleven type of store they can buy things to eat and heat up on a hot plate, no microwave. I didn’t see anybody overweight. In the 70s, the minimum wage to work there is $.13 an hour but now it’s $.75 to a dollar an hour. They can earn $120 a month working full-time. A portion of that money goes to the San Quentin prison for room and board and a portion goes to the state of California, whatever’s left the inmate earns. Scott Peterson is housed on the top floor designated death row, alone in a 4 x 9 prison cell. Lieutenant Sam Robinson confirms that he continues to be a model prisoner and is the representative of the death row inmates. When the Lieutenant candidly said, he printed a picture of his new baby boy in the San Quentin News, every inmate congratulated him and was quite animated except for Scott Peterson’s reaction who didn’t respond and was rather morose.

Lastly, while Administration had their meeting, we visited the Execution chamber with just a small group. The entrance was a hole in the wall, in the back of the prison, behind a steel door resembling a medieval dungeon. Back in 1985 when DNA was used to convict, San Quentin tested all their inmates on death row expecting some to be exonerated and instead everybody was found guilty. Not only guilty but found responsible for additional murders across the nation.  The oldest death row prisoner is 85 years old, the trailside killer who killed a number of people in Cowell park Santa Cruz and Mount Tamalpais in the 70s-80s. Legally, death row inmates are allowed a choice of lethal injection or gas chamber. No inmate has ever been able to choose so the legal default position, is lethal injection.  We visited the gas chamber where they use cyanide-the chamber’s door looked like a submarine hatch. There were three phones because one execution was stayed because they dialed Pizza Hut by mistake and the guy was dead before the stay of execution came through so now they have three numbers or three phones available.  Otherwise, the condemned is strapped and literally locked in. Indeed, the curtains open and there still remains a circle of chairs facing the inmate, for the families to witness the execution seeking a degree of closure, or not. Currently, there is a moratorium on executions in the state.

At 4pm, as we were leaving San Quentin, we heard ringing of the prison bell 13 times, that symbolized all inmates were accounted for. 13 bars, 13 stairs, 13 ringing bells constantly remind the inmates of their bad luck and the 12 members of the jury and judge, that condemned them.