UK Roadtrip - Manchester

Day 8 Oct 17 – Manchester here we come!

Another long drive ahead of us, we headed out very early. The inn was nice enough to provide us with some bacon sandwiches, but they really weren’t that great. We headed out of the Cotswolds (sniff sniff) and up the M5 and M6 towards Manchester. Dad had gotten in contact with his cousin Graham who lives in the Lake District and arranged to meet him for lunch in Knutsford, just south-west of Manchester. We were a bit worried about getting through Birmingham in time to meet him, but after a few queues on the highway we were in Knutsford…early! We were able to walk around town and visited a great garden store before meeting up at the Magnolia Restaurant at the Cotton Hotel.

Graham had a surprise in store for my dad…he had also invited his sister Lynn and her husband John, so we had a fantastic lunch (food was excellent, company better) catching up and talking with family. 3 hours later, we headed out for Manchester…and entered at rush hour. This is where it all could have gone awry.

Tracy had thus far been extremely reliable leading us through the winding roads of Britain. As it turns out she didn’t like Manchester quite as much. She led us through a complicated route and I accidentally led dad astray. Several stressful minutes later we were back on track and pulled into our hotel, The Premier Inn, around 5. Thank goodness.

I had a heck of a time trying to find affordable places to stay in Manchester…I think there was a Man U football game on that weekend, and I really didn’t want to spend more than £70 a night per room as my parents would be paying in $CDN. So I booked the Premier Inn. It was ok. Typical budget hotel, although the rooms were very large, bathrooms modern and there was a decent restaurant inside. Big bonus was being walking distance to the Disney-like modern mall/plaza that has become downtown Manchester. Seriously, I couldn’t believe it…it was like a neon Disney mall for blocks and blocks…more on this later….

So we unloaded the car and headed out on the town to get our bearings and find somewhere for dinner. Manchester was not what I was expecting. I knew it had been heavily bombed…but I didn’t expect the whole ‘downtown’ to be a HUGE shopping mall complex! They have the biggest Next store I have ever seen, a full North American style mall, a high street, and a huge restaurant/cinema complex surrounding the Manchester cathedral. It was crazy…neon and people everywhere!

My dad wanted to figure out where Piccadilly was so we walked around until we found it. The statue of Queen Victoria has now been replaced by a smaller version and a huge building splits the square so it wasn’t exactly as he remembered. They also have a huge bus exchange and a tram service running through the area. I think he was quite startled by the changes!

After that we wandered around and ended up at a North American style restaurant next to the Hard Rock Café and enjoyed an evening of wine and fajitas.


Day 9 Oct 18 – A trip in history

My mom wasn’t feeling very well on Saturday so Dad, Scott and I headed out to find Bradford Manchester (not in York!). I had googled it a few times, and couldn’t find it, so I assumed it had been renamed or amalgamated into another area of the city. It is located on the east side of city centre.

We left the car at the hotel and took a bus from Piccadilly. Now Dad remembered it being quite far, in actuality it was about 1 mile, so we arrived in short order…to find that they had built the new Man City football club stadium over his old neighbourhood!!! Dad was not impressed. I though the area looked quite good, nice new boulevards etc.

Dad wanted to walk down Grey Mare Road to see what streets, if any were left. We found one…Bosworth Road. One side of this road has now become a correctional centre (nice) but the other side was just as Dad remembered it. What would have been his street is now a parking lot of a new housing complex, but at least a bit was still there. On the way back out of the street a little old lady came out of a house…and so my dad went to ask her if she had lived there in the 40’s and 50’s ….and SHE HAD! She actually remembered my dad’s mom and the fish and chip shop they used to run out of there house. Dad didn’t know her, but he was very excited to talk to her about all the changes. I think it was the highlight of his day. We got a picture of her and headed back to the city centre for a spot of lunch.

After lunch mom was feeling up to shopping so we split up, girls heading to the mall, boys to the museum. Mom was actually able to cross a lot of presents off her list for Scott, so that worked out well.

Scott and I went out for dinner alone that night and enjoyed steaks at Café Rouge. We had a blast people watching and laughing about the trip.

Day 10 Oct 19 – Home Sweet Home

Sunday we got an early start and drove back to London…no incidents to report…by this time we were all feeling much more comfortable with driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road hahahaha. Although we all sighed with relief when we finally got to Gatwick and dropped off the car. I even took a picture of my dad beside it to remember it!

All in all it was a fabulous trip!!!

Pictures of Manchester: