Manchester Excursion

Last Saturday, Binod, Amy and I took the 10:30 train from Buxton to Manchester. This was the first time we had been to the train station since our arrival about a week and a half prior. It looked different than it had on August 28 and I’m sure it was because it was no longer new and unusual.

Arriving at the Manchester Piccadilly train station about an hour later we tried to find our bearings. The only map we had was from my Lonely Planet Great Britain travel. It proved to be helpful, but a more detailed, larger version would have been much easier. Our first desired destination was the Manchester Art Gallery.

As I almost always do enjoy art galleries, this one was no different. Although there were not many artists that I’m familiar with I enjoyed it none-the-less. I also really enjoyed the fact that on several paintings throughout the museum they had modern takes on the paintings in cartoon form for children that are “dragged” there, by their parents. As a child that was often “dragged” to museums as a child, this approach to entertaining the younger audiences would have been much appreciated. They also had a section of hands on activities for children. It was essentially a children’s museum and art museum combined for a great family experience. On the top floor was a craft section with a dollhouse exhibit, which I loved. I’ve always loved miniatures and dollhouses. But the highlight of the museum was free admission. Apparently most museums in England do have free admission.

After lunch we were walking around and came across a parade. It was the oddest parade I’ve ever seen and I could never figure out what the purpose of the parade was. We also heard a marching band. This all took place in front of a large Ferris wheel, which looked identical to the London Eye, so I’ve decided to call it the Manchester Eye. At this point we headed towards the Science museum. As we were walking we passed the Manchester Cathedral. We stopped inside and heard a children’s choir practicing for that night’s prayer service. They were amazing! I thought it was very interesting that the cathedral looked like every Catholic cathedral I’ve seen on “the continent” I going to make the assumption that it was Anglican rather than Catholic. We also passed the John Rylands Library, which was a memorial for him from his widow. Last summer I discovered my love for libraries and am looking forward to a visit when I can explore this one!

By the time we made it to the science museum Amy and I were pretty tired and uninterested in the museum. Binod had already been there, so he left us and were going to meet up an hour and a half later. So while Binod was off exploring, Amy and I sat in the museum café. Around 5pm we headed back towards the train station for the 5:30pm train back to Buxton.

My overall opinion on my trip to Manchester was “meh”. My Lonely Planet guide hyped-up the city to be the “cultural center of the North”, but my opinion was it was great for shopping—which I sadly didn’t get to experience—but the museums were sparse and not easily accessible for tourists. But I am planning on returning at least once again this year, this time hoping for some shopping!