LISA

First of all, you'll notice this blog entry is about a month late…yes, sorry about that, (tripping around the world and all :p), haven't had a chance to write it before now.

So, long ago, on Saturday 15th March we set off on another adventure, this time to the city of Manchester, previously only seen from a plane window at 5am.

We arrived at the same place as hundreds of visitors to the city since 1844 - Victoria Station. This experience of history was enhanced by the first bus we saw, an ancient cream and red vehicle still trundling around complete with passengers (possibly not the original ones) and the unexpected destination "Ramsbottom" shown on its side. Feeling rather proud of ourselves for successfully getting a photographic record of this, we proceeded to wander through the park, past the water fountains spraying icy mist into the air, towards a building that, in stark contrast to the rest of the architecture, couldn't be more modern. This stainless steel and glass construction was Urbis - the exhibition centre for city life.

It was here that we were treated to a display of the history of Manga cartoons ("How Manga took over the world") and I found a lifelong friend - an enormous bean-bag creature who was way too big to fit into my suitcase. There was also a display of winning advertising campaigns including the Sony Bravia 'Paint' ad (remember the paint fireworks in front of high-rise apartments) and some clever billboard ads (see pictures). For some unknown reason there was giant stationary too. All of this was good fun, but we were a bit disappointed that we didn't get to go in the diagonal glass elevator…ah well.

Close by was the Cathedral Church of St. Mary, St. Denys and St. George (they're friendly and were happy to share apparently). This marvellous gothic building looked great from the outside, and showed promise of some beautiful stained glass but unfortunately there was a service on both times we went passed so we didn't get a chance to go in. Instead we headed over to a big public square, past Old Wellington Inn (constructed out of an oak frame in 16thC style) and the Manchester Wheel - an observation wheel like the London Eye, but ironically for an observation point, it was surrounded by building on all four sides and was only taller than them at the very top.

The huge building we saw looming up in front of us as we walked down one of the main streets was the Town Hall. It looked impressive enough from the front, but when we went inside the local tourist information centre we realised that the building was actually triangular in design and extended back from the front for quite a way. In this tourist info centre Paul bought a bumblebee badge, which was apparently related to the city as it was the only style of badge they had. This led to a hunt for bees through the streets of Manchester to prove to himself that it was relevant and not a total waste of money :D.

Near the Town Hall sat the City Library, an equally impressive building constructed as an oval with a reading room at the centre complete with imposing marble columns, and more bookshelves arranged around this focal point. It was huge, apparently housing more than 2.5million articles! There was also a display of historic political cartoons, which provided an entertaining insight into the past few decades, and a stained glass window featuring Shakespeare surrounded by all of the main characters of his plays.

On our way to the Museum Of Science and Industry (MOSI - say 'mozzie') we came across something that looked like it was straight out of the cartoon exhibition at Urbis. A group of about 4 people had springy metal stilts attached to their legs and were jumping round the pavement on them!

MOSI itself provided much entertainment with a 'museum of transport and aviation' where Paul joined the RAF and we found Dougal the plane; a textiles museum complete with a coat made of thistledown seeds and some old but complicated weaving machines; lots of steam engines of different shapes and sizes; and several steam trains. It was also hosting that BodyWorks exhibition of 'plastinated' bodies which we didn't go to (we watched a British documentary on 'The Anatomists' and decided the guy was a bit of a freak and the show was definitely not for us).

Other interesting sights in Manchester were the highly utilised tram system; some very public urinals stationed in a public square that had a foot-wide door at waist height for privacy; and a nifty, still-functioning, Harry Potter-esque, steam train at Victoria station.

All great fun!