July 2, 2024
Manchester
game over
We had a really nice time on Saturday, spending the day in sunny York with my son Roy then coming back to Lincoln for a farewell drink and another Indian dinner with a bunch of friends.
Sunday was more stressful, as we needed to decide what to pack or put in storage at my brother's house, and try to keep our four suitcases to a combined total 50kg. The thing is I've bought so much pottery that it was impossible, so I went online and paid for an extra 5kg of excess baggage.
What with our heavy backpacks, we're lugging around 70kg when Dave drops us off at Lincoln station for our train across to Manchester.
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Our hotel is close to Picadilly Station and it's just a short taxi ride. The room is big, but the TV doesn't work and as we really want to watch England play Slovakia in a must-win game in Euro 2024, I pop down to reception and ask what the issue is. The staff member who comes up to check out the TV gives up on it soon enough and we get moved to a different room.
We have a beer and dinner in a Wetherspoons not far away, thhen return to our room for the game, which is another torpid affair. Somehow England scrape through.
One place I really want to see is Manchester Town Hall. It's a huge Victorian building decorated in the Arts and Crafts style. It's a short walk there in the morning and we find a cubic shape clad in protective sheeting. We soon learn the place has been closed for over a year and won't be open for a couple more. There are informative hoardings around part of the perimeter, but it seems strange this information never materialised when I was doing research online.
The city's art gallery is close by, so we head there.
We spend a while walking around and find lots to enjoy. However, a large painting by Ford Maddox Brown called Work eludes us - one that I want to see as I had a print of it when I was a teeneager. We eventually ask one of the staff, then sit down in front of it for a while and I try to explain its meaning to Debbie, but I don't think she grasps it.
We look around shops and end up in huge SportsDirect outlet and Debbie get a couple of England football T-shirts for family member that are on sale. We happen upon a Rapha shop, but know the prices are not what we want to pay and eventually head back to the hotel to take a break. My legs ache.
Our last dinner is in another nearby Wetherspoons - one called The Waterhouse. I order a sticky toffee pudding for desert, but they don't have any custard and it's a bit of a letdown. It gets washed down with Guinness.
I ask one of the busy staff why it's called The Waterhouse, but he has no idea. It turns out the Town Hall that we didn't get to see was designed by the architect Alfred Waterhouse. It's just across the road and a mosaic inside includes bees, a symbol of Manchester's industrial buzz. There's one printed on the front of the menu.
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3 months ago