Manchester Day 1

This is a late posting again - we’ve been very busy being tourists and also travelling.

I am way, way behind responding to lovely comments and dipping into blippers’ journals.  I’ll catch up as and when I can.

We woke to a beautiful sunny morning.  Coming to Manchester is a nostalgia trip for MrMacD, who grew up in Bolton.  After breakfast he took himself off to Didsbury to revisit where his late wife lived with her parents, where they got married and where they spent a lot of time over the years when visiting from London with their children.  When he returned to the hotel we hopped on a tram and went out to Salford Quays to visit the Lowry Centre.  MrMacD was astounded at the improvements that have been made and the changes that have happened since he was last in Manchester, especially in Salford.  We walked around a little, then had a light lunch in the café at the Lowry Centre before going to look at the Lowry Collection.  We spent an absorbing hour admiring the collection before exiting through the gift shop.  Just as well we’re travelling light, because MrMacD was tempted by one or two items.  We walked back along the canal to the tram station and were soon back in central Manchester.  We freshened up in the hotel then caught a tram to Didsbury to find somewhere for supper.  It’s a lovely, leafy, green area.  Our first stop was The Didsbury, where MrMacD enjoyed his first pint of real ale for seven years.  He was a very happy man and the look on his face was priceless.  They were only doing food for people who had booked, so we walked along to the village, where there was a huge choice of restaurants.  We decided to try something different and had supper at a Palestinian restaurant called Baity.  We were lucky to get a table as it was already busy and only got busier as we had our meal, which was delicious.  After eating we walked along to the tram station and caught a tram back to Manchester.

We hadn’t long been back in our room when there was a piercing noise that turned out to be a fire alarm.  So, down ten flights of stairs to the street we went.  Two fire engines screeched to a halt in front of the hotel and the firemen ran inside.  We waited and waited and waited.  Eventually the firemen reappeared, but nothing happened until one fireman went back inside and the OK was given.  There was, inevitably, a rush for the lifts so we walked back up ten flights of stairs - unexpected but probably necessary exercise.  Not the end to the day that we had expected.

The blips show views of the day.