Blogs from Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 2

Well, we have to admit - visiting Manchester (or England in general) for sightseeing is a bit of crazy idea in the months of january and february. Well, the flight from Geneva was sensationally cheap with 21 CHF oneway only. This was for sure one good argument. But, as in our previous travels, our reason to visit the UK was because of our spiritual master Paramahamsa Vishwananda giving Darshans in Manchester and London. So, the cheapies we are, we had booked our flight with handluggage only. So 6 nights in winter in England with handluggage. That's quite a challenge. We were lucky when we had boarded the plane with no checks about the weight of our luggage ;-). We wore all our warm clothes and the pockets of our jackets were filled with additional stuff - ... read more

Boarding the first of many planes. Took our last breadth on English soil for a while.... read more

Geo: 53.4807, -2.23451Bird song. The dawn chorus. I glimpse at the chink in the curtains to see any sign that morning had broken thinking it must be imminent given the full throttled chirping I was hearing. I check my watch. 3.15 am. Damned insomniac bird. Little avian upstart, I spend the next hour trying to return to sleep, not by counting sheep but thinking of as many bird related insults I can come up with. Peter's accompanying snore means I am unsuccessful.At 5.30 we are both awake and so we brew coffee for our first caffeine hit. Our flight to Atlanta is not till 10.20 and so we don't need to rush off. We enjoy a leisurely breakfast at the hotel before showering and loading the car with our bags. A short trip to meet and ... read more

The city of Manchester missed the memo that Brits are supposed to be prim and proper. So unapologetically brash is this town, that even its pretentious older sibling, London, denies any association with this armpit of England. From the painfully harsh northern accent to its arid industrial landscape, Manchester is a spitting image of Pittsburgh and all its bad stereotypes; only difference is that it replaced "boys" with "lads" and "man" with "mate." But despite every preconception working against it, this town has managed to crawl up the list to become the "U.K.'s Second City," an unofficial title that Birmingham gladly forfeited just to avoid a brouhaha with its obnoxious cousin. Manchester has since established itself as the country's 2nd biggest urban area, has the U.K.'s 2nd biggest economy, and is the nation's 3rd most visited ... read more

After a normal, slightly chaotic day at work, involving finding out that the car we were supposed to hire when we got to Alaska was no longer available, we jumped in the car and headed to Manchester for the night. Made it there by 9, will probably be asleep by 10 and then up early to get the airport shuttle at 6.40am. The trip took on a slightly surreal element as we left work, when the entire team gathered to wish us farewell. There were so many hugs and wishes of good luck that we began to wonder if perhaps we had accidentally signed up for permanent emmigration rather than a two week trip.... read more