Mid-week was already upon us, so I set aside Wednesday morning to work on my thesis corrections. It was a very productive morning, so I rewarded myself with the afternoon off. Maria and I went on a walking tour of Manchester. Our guide looked (and even acted) somewhat like Bilbo Baggins and quite often went off on tangents. However, that did not detract from his excellent tour guiding. We saw the beautiful gothic-style town hall, little laneways, the John Rylands Library, Lincoln Square (where we experienced our first Manchester rain), canals, the Midland Hotel, railways, warehouses and so much more. We heard about the industrial revolution, the progress of science and meteorology, the advent of passenger railways and standardised time, political movements and massacres, and technological and mechanical firsts. This was Manchester, but only such a
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