Itinerary:
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Depart Halifax, March 27, Arrive Manchester March 28
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Manchester March 28 - April 2
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Depart Manchester, Arrive Dublin, travel to Cork April
2
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Cork/Cobh April 2 - 5
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Dublin April 5 - 7
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Tour: Introduction to Ireland April 7 - 13
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Fly to Manchester April 14, Depart Manchester for Halifax
April 15
March 28 Manchester
The flight was fine although the plane seemed to taxi so long at
Heathrow that it put me in mind of trying to find a parking spot at the
mall at Christmas! I managed to find my way through Heathrow to change
terminals to Terminal 1 and my British Midland flight to Manchester. We
went to the plane by a bus and it was a horrible flight. The arm rests
in the seats didn't fold up flush with the seat so it was digging in my
back the whole way. Mercifully, the plane was only 25% full and the flight
was only a half hour. The luggage Gods smiled once again and everything
arrived with me. Phil and Katrina and her two kids met me at the
airport, always nice to arrive and see a friendly face! We had a cup of
tea there because Phil had to get the train back to Liverpool and had just
popped over to meet me at the airport, bless him! Katrina took me back
to her house for the afternoon where I kept the caffeine level up so I
wouldn't pass out from lack of sleep.
We picked Alan up after work as his current job isn't all that far
from Katrina's neighbourhood in Salford and we arrived back at his flat
in Fallowfield by about 5:30 or 6. I haven't been to this flat and it is
lovely and cozy and his newly fitted kitchen is really nice and bright!
Worth the wait and aggravation he had trying to get the council off their
backsides! We had a bite to eat later on and watched a bit of television.
I managed to stay up until 10 p.m. which made about 32 hours straight for
me. A record!
March 29 Manchester
Mind you, I woke up at 6:30 the next morning. Did the necessary
and went back to bed and drifted a bit until about 10. It's Good Friday
so Alan didn't have to work either. We had a quiet morning. Our afternoon
plans were to go to Stockport. It's only a half hour by bus and I had wanted
to see their Hatworks Museum.
This area, Stockport - Denby was one of the most important hat making areas
over the last couple of centuries up until about the 1940's. Felt was the
main material hats were made of around here, from wool or fur, mainly rabbit
fur. The big London hat retailers may have stamped the hats with
their mark but the hats were manufactured here.
Mad as a Hatter
It was an appropriate day to visit seeing as the
signs there proclaimed this as National Hat Week! There is a conducted
tour that starts with a film, some of which is rare footage from the 1930's
of Battersby's Hat works. We were told how they were made, first by hand
and later by machine. Hats made out of felt had shellac  added
for stiffness and were shaped over wooden forms to give the hat it's shape.
There were only the 2 of us plus a woman and her granddaughter on the tour.
Also there is a museum with all sorts of exhibits of hats of every kind,
ceremonial, sporting, military, religious, dress, etc. There was a big
felt tent called a Yurt that is seen around Central Asia. Very colourful
too. Felt is believed to be an older craft even than weaving and the craft
of hatting has been a British guild since the 16th century.
We also discovered the origins of the phrase "Mad as a Hatter" -
felt used to be treated with mercury during the processing and the
handlers of course absorbed the deadly chemical and it adversely affected
their nervous systems!
The cafe in the museum was very nice and we had a light late lunch
there and had a walk around the city center of Stockport. Alan knows it
well because he lived there for years. There is a nice mix of some very
old buildings including a few lovely 16th century half timbered houses.
One is the Underbank Hall and is used now as a NatWest bank. We saw the
market which was just about done for the day a nice pedestrian shopping
area, remodeled from it's 1970's origins. It was a beautiful spring day,
sunny and warm and a far cry from cold Halifax. It's the nicest day I've
ever seen in the Manchester area over the past three visits!
You really can pub crawl around
Chorlton
We got back to Fallowfield and carried on over
to Chorlton for the reconvening of the Chorlton branch of the Canadian
Repatriation Society at the Sedge Linn pub on Barlow Moor Road. AKA meeting
up with John, Nikki and Annie and later, Annie's friend Lise for a meal
and a few bevvies! It's a pub of the J.D. Wetherspoon chain. This building
used to be the Temperance Snooker Hall, and it has high curved ceilings,
art deco touches and was built in the 1910's.
We moved on to the Horse and Jockey because the pub we wanted to
go to, the Beeches, was packed but we only stayed there for one drink because
it was really busy and noisy too. Off to the Bowling Green where the gang
participates in the pub quiz on Tuesday. There was a bloke singing and
doing something with a keyboard but there was a back room with a pool table
and darts and that was blissfully empty and quiet and we stayed there until
chucking out time. Alan and I went back to Annie's for a few hours and
got a cab back finally about 1. *yawn* This isn't doing my jet lag any
good but it's so great to be back!
March 30 Manchester
Today John, Nikki, Alan and I are going to Matlock Bath
and it's another sunny if a bit hazy day! John and Nikki picked us up about
11 and we drove through the Peak National Park, so beautiful with hit's
rolling hills sectioned off with low stone fences and sheep dotting the
hillsides. There were several flocks today that had lots of newborn lambs
skipping about or nestled on the ground in clusters near their mothers.
Matlock Bath was a spa town and is in an area that used to be concerned
with lead mining along the River Derwent that winds it's way through Matlock.
You can rent rowing punts or short kayaks to travel the river. The high
street, or promenade, is lined with gift shops, a few amusement arcades,
a Mining Museum in a large pavilion and lots of little restaurants, pubs
and takeaways. Matlock also seems to attract hundreds of touring motorcyclists
and today was no exception. There were several hundred bikes parked in
sections along the street and the sidewalks were filled with men and women
dressed in brightly coloured full body leathers and helmets out to enjoy
the early spring day.
We parked in a car park about a kilometer outside of the town center
and walked in along the road that follows the river. One of the local attractions
is the Heights of Abraham
which
is on top of a cliff overlooking the town. You can get there via a cable
car and we can see the cars drifting back and forth from their cables
high above us. John and I plan to have a ride on it later though Alan and
Nikki have already decided Heights, both the attraction *and* the physical
sensation are not for them!
We wandered along the main street looking for a place to have our
lunch, someplace that appealed to us all and that wasn't too crowded. We
ended up at a small pub called the Princess Victoria and the food and beer
both were pretty good! We had a stop at an ice cream stand and a look-see
in a couple of the shops before seeing if we could get to the Cable Car
depot via a path on the other side of the river. We can't. Back across
the old footbridge and up to the train station which is near the cable
car thingo. We paid £7.30 for the ride but that includes all the
attractions at the top of the cliff, including a couple of old mining caverns
you can go into.
But we had a time restraint because we all had to be back into Manchester
to get ready to meet the others for dinner tonight so in the end, we paid
all that just to ride up, get off, take a few pictures and queue up to
go back down again! The cars are small, fitting 6 people max in each of
a group of three that goes up at a time. Still the views *were* pretty
great and we could see off in the distance on the top of a hill Riber Castle
which glowed in the late afternoon sun.
Traffic was pretty slow coming out of Matlock. Later we crossed over
the Chatsworth estate and took a quick drive in and out of the village
of Eyam. It's a gorgeous
stone village that is famous for self-isolating itself in 1665 from the
plague which reached them via some infected cloth from London. In doing
so they managed to prevent the disease from spreading around the area outside
the village and saved hundreds of lives or more.
Where NOT to eat in Manchester
We headed into Manchester to Chinatown and the Woo
Sang restaurant, heretofore a restaurant with a great reputation. Until
now. But first, we unsuspecting group gathered for a drink and to meet
with hugs old friends and new. Michelle came and so did Phil. Annie's friends
Lise and Jenny were there as well. Michelle gave me a carrier bag with
some things in it wrapped in more bags. And then the bag started quacking.
Loudly! She had given me a set of plaster ducks like the Corrie Character
Hilda Ogden had and one of them had batteries in it! Brilliant!!!
What went wrong... the list is long! The drinks orders were slow
in coming and sometimes the wait staff forgot to ask everyone for reorders.
We were 10 around a round table that seemed far too small for us. The rest
of the evening was one service disaster after another. They didn't provide
us with a circular movable platform for the center of the table to make
passing around the dishes easier and when Annie finally complained loudly,
we did get one. Which was broken and we had to gingerly turn the glass
ourselves and hope it moved.
They brought two courses out at once instead of one at a time, further
confusing and crowding the table as everyone tried to reach and pass. The
one waitress kept elbowing John and Nikki leaning around them and at one
point John received a beer right down his back! Alan spilled another one
trying to move something else out of the way. The music on the sound system
was horrible, pan pipes playing every kind of music except Chinese. The
piece de resistance was a lovely dish of prawns which suddenly acquired
an extra bit.... a big blue bottle fly that was hovering landed in it,
got stuck in the sauce and wiggled it's little legs helplessly while the
10 of us collectively moaned loudly... ewwwwwwwww! The waitress seemed
to find this amusing but took the dish back to replace it. Hopefully with
something new but it took us 15 minutes of warily contemplating the fresh
replacement before anyone had the nerve to try some!
To top it all off, yes it's possible to further wreck this, they
buggered up the bill! John and Alan were incensed and sought out the manager
who had conveniently NOT managed his restaurant very well tonight, having
found plenty to keep him busy behind the bar instead of being aware of
the problems going on under his nose. John and Alan explained the events
of the night which they *think* were confirmed by the staff but not speaking
any Chinese, they had to take that on faith. The manager offered them 30
pounds off the bar bill (which was about 50 pounds between the 10 of us).
He wouldn't extend that to the 50 so we took it and counted out the money
to pay the 235 pound total bill to the penny! No tip so that's quite a
lot of money they ended up losing over all. We took the thirty pounds and
, discovering that our favourite Copperface Jack's was closed, spent it
on a round or two of drinks at Lass O'Gowrie on Charles Street.
After closing time, Alan and I were fading fast. Jenny and Lise went
clubbing and we left the rest at the Hotel Brittania where Michelle was
staying where they hoped to take advantage of a resident's bar for
a nightcap. (she walked into a 39 pound room for the night, this is a 4
star hotel in Manchester City center but Saturday night on a long bank
holiday weekend so she really got lucky there!) We took a late bus back,
sat up and chatted awhile.
March 31 Manchester
We really slept in this morning. It's a dark overcast day
so I suppose that contributed. Won't matter about the weather today
though, as it's just a visiting day. I got up about 11 although that's
with the time going ahead for Daylight Savings last night. I knocked on
the living room door and got Alan up around noon. We were meeting up at
Annie's later in the afternoon and we got there about 2:30. Our mate
Dewey got there a bit later, with John, Nikki and Phil to entertain us
while we waited his arrival. Chris liked the hockey jersey I delivered
for him and it was not too big as I thought it might be. Dewey was nicely
tanned from a holiday in Majorca, lucky lad. We decided we were hungry
about 5:30 but because it was Easter Sunday, hardly any of the pubs were
serving food or had stopped at 3. I think we walked 3 miles trying
to find some place and ended up back at the Sedge Linn where we were the
other night. It was noisy but at least they were serving all day. Dewey
didn't come with us as he had other errands to run.
Had to say good bye to Phil and Chris which would be the last time
I would see them this trip. Someone mentioned it was like peeling the layers
away from the inner circle! I suppose it is and I was a little sad tonight.
It never seems like enough time spent with my friends. Will see everyone
else in Dublin next weekend. Annie and I are going to have some time tomorrow
to go shopping just us girls and then we're meeting her roomie Louise and
Louise's boyfriend for the theatre tomorrow night. I did some laundry and
caught up on e-mail as well this evening and we caught up on the weekend's
Coronation Street tapes.
April 1 Manchester
It's dark and damp skies today. Annie came over for lunch,
a Tinky (Alan) Goulash extrordinaire with mash and gravy. Annie had
already been out in the shops this morning with Chris before he headed
back to Redditch and had bought some dvd's. We took the bus into
the center and browsed around a few shops. Annie bought a few more dvd's
and I investigated a coat that I had seen the fall before. Yes it was still
there, marked down as last season's goods but it wasn't leather as I thought
I had remembered so I didn't buy it in the end.
We had a tea break but had the worst time trying to find a toilet!
As it was nearly closing time for the shopping center (early because of
Bank Holiday Monday) all the ladies' were shut and the only one available
was a disabled one with a long queue. We tried a few other places in St.
Anne's Square and even the McDonald's ladies' was closed for cleaning so
we queued for the disabled one there! Geez! It's a good job we didn't leave
it too late! A quick browse in Waterstone's on Deansgate and we headed
to Bella Pasta to meet Louise and Bon.
The Royal Exchange Theatre did an outstanding production of Midsummers
Night's Dream! We sat on the banquette benches on the stage floor (this
is a theatre in the round) with all the action at our feet! It was an absolutely
amazing and very imaginative production and very physically demanding for
some of the actors. There was a little pothole/puddle that most of
them ended up in at some point and they were leaping around, on and off
the stage, down from the rafters on ropes and a light standard. At the
end, the play within the play was hysterical and at one point they had
a few audience members on stage with everyone else clapping, line dancing
to Achy Breaky Heart! Yes, this really is Shakespeare but it really worked!
We went for a drink after so we could sit and rave about it. Got
home about 11:30 and stayed up talking to Alan. I called Rose in preparation
for meeting her tomorrow in Cork City, Ireland and chatted online for a
bit. I made sure I'm all packed as much as I can be for tomorrow. I can
get a city bus directly from Fallowfield to the airport so I don't think
I'll bother with a taxi or the train after all. I'll be traveling
most of tomorrow so I don't think we're doing much tomorrow evening, just
hanging out and visiting with Rose and Malachy.
Off to Ireland...
Photo albums
Manchester
and Dublin pings
Views
of Dublin and Howth
Ireland(including
Manchester area photos)
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