Manchester

The last stop on our trip was the northern city of Manchester. Why Manchester? Flying back from Manchester instead of London gave us an extra 2 days away – the official excuse, anyway. The fact that Matt is a Man City fan, and we’ve been watching Coronation Street couldn’t have had anything to do with the decision ☺

I really liked Manchester. It’s big enough that there is a lot going on, but not so big to be completely crazy. We stayed right in the entertainment district, so the street outside was busy quite late at night, but it felt really friendly. There was an excellent selection of restaurants, and plenty of nice looking pubs and bars. We spent most of our time walking around, firstly in search of a Man City jersey, and then around the downtown area and Salford Quays, an upscale area built around a series of canals. Pretty, but I prefer the older, less planned neighbourhoods.

On Sunday morning we dragged ourselves, and our slightly heavier bags, to the station to catch the train to Manchester airport. A short 8 hour flight and we were back in Calgary, and back to regular life.

Highlights
• Spotting the Coronation Street set from the windows of the Science Museum.
• Reaching a geographical high – the most northern place I’ve been.
• Awesome Indian food on our last night in Europe.

Lowlights
• The most crowded shopping street ever!
• Watching the Wallabies lose to Jonny Wilkinson’s boot – again!