Manchester

After a busy week we were up early on Saturday to finish packing up our room. We had train tickets to Manchester in the early afternoon. The train ride was only 2 hours so not too long. We dropped our bags at the hostel Christine had booked online and then spent the evening wondering aimlessly around the city. We looked for a map at first but weren’t very successful, we did manage to sneak into a fancy hotel and get a basic map from the reception staff. We had a few beers in a pub and were joined by a group of guys on a bucks night, playing pub-golf. They were quite friendly as you can imagine. We ate some thai food near the china town and then explored the Printworks, which is an indoor complex full of bars and restaurants. Was busy on Saturday night and had a few Hens and Bucks night parties. Good Fun.
Our room was full tonight, 6 bed dorm, as there was a soccer match on apparently. That’s not normally an issue, except that the room was in the basement and did not have ventilation, got a bit hot and stuffy and was a bit difficult to sleep. It was good in a way, we checked if we could change rooms the next morning but they said we could either move, or stay in the same room, but just the two of us, as the hostel wasn’t going to be as busy. The hostel (Ashton House) was good, not too big, good location, nice common room, free breakfast, basic kitchen and clean hot showers.

We had two full days to explore Manchester which was nice as it isn’t a huge place. After finding the tourist info and getting a decent map we headed to the Manchester Art Gallery. It had a lot of old British paintings and also a ‘newer’ section. There was also a temporary exhibition on Anish Kapoor who Christine really likes, a lot of the works were the same as what we saw in Bilbao Spain.
Our timing in Manchester was not great a number of places were closed for renovations. Getting ready of the Olympics no doubt. The city library which is built in a Pantheon like building was closed. We wandered around, it was a nice day and Manchester has some very nice buildings, an Eye, Cathedral, Urbis which is a triangle shaped glass building (although closed for renovations). We walked along the canals, rested in a small park where we had a picnic lunch. We made a brief visit to the Space and Air Museum and then headed to the John Rylands Library. We didn’t have long as it was closing but was well worth the visit. Less like a library it is more a temple of books. It almost looks like an old gothic church, with high-vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows.

Being Sunday afternoon we thought we would find a quiet pub for a beer. Well we found what looked like a quiet pub. Once inside we were rather surprised, it was full of locals, we were probably the youngest in the place by an easy 10 years, and it was karaoke night! We found some couch space, had a chat to a couple of old fellas, a few beers and meet another group of locals. Everyone was very friendly Christine got contact details of a couple who were hoping to visit Melbourne next year. They then took us down a few side streets, past the smallest staircase in England, to another pub. This seemed even busier, with half the people from the first pub. The US Masters golf was on tv and we watched as an aussie lead before finishing second! It was such a nice night, and again we were left wondering why we have stayed in London for so long, when the people are English and friendly everywhere else in the country! Easy to say after a nice day in the sun I suppose…
Monday morning was quite a slow morning, for Damien especially. After a long breakfast, a nap and a shower we were ready to hit the city for a spot of shopping. The main priority was a couple of air beds for the next few nights camping. This turned out quite easy, finding some on special in a sports shop. Christine also did some shoe shopping, allowing Damien some quiet time in the corner of the department store. After coffee and lunch in quick succession, we headed to the Quays on a tram. Again not great timing, it was late afternoon, getting a bit cooler. The Imperial War Museum which is supposed to be good was closing up in half hour, but wouldn’t let us in. We had a brief look at the Lowry Gallery and building which is an entertainment centre and big modern building. We crossed the shipping channel and headed to the Manchester United Soccer ground (or our new favourite expression for soccer, "Grass Ballet"). As expected there were bus loads of Asian tourists taking photos, so we did the same, including a faked leg injury pose, ohh how soccer! We continued on to Old Trafford, the cricket ground. Some more photos. We had been told at the pub last night that there are plans to pull it down and rebuild as its no longer big enough for the test matches. It was then back on the tram, a simple dinner at the hostel and lazy night on the couch.