Manchester - Day 2!

Manchester - Day 2!

Sunday 11th November (and remembrance day!), we awoke to another chilly, windy and rainy Manchester morning. Before I get into what we got up to for the day I thought that I should provide a bit of background about Manchester (for those who are interested of course!) .

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. The city part of Manchester has a population of approximately 450,000 while the entire borough has a population roughly at 2,240,000. Manchester is also home to two Universities - The University of Manchester & Manchester Metropolitan University. It was created in 2004 by the merger of Victoria University of Manchester & University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. The Manchester Business School is also part of the University complex. Manchester is also home to two football clubs - Manchester United & Manchester City. Manchester also hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2002.

Anyway, on Sunday Steve and I got our lazy butts out of bed (because the weather wasn't very inviting!) and headed out for an English breakfast to Piccadilly Manchester train station. I am not sure why, but Steve and I ordered a breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausages, toast and baked beans.... We both hate baked beans and left them till last on our plates... YUK! After breakfast and a good cup of tea... Steve and I headed to have a look around town a bit more. We found our way to Arndale Shopping Centre... lucky for us - well for me. If we had not gone in there to have a sticky nose we would have never discovered CHOCOLATE HEAVEN! We came across a store called Hotel Chocolate. It had such a selection of chocolate that you could not imagine! Everything your heart and your stomach could/would desire. The hardest part was choosing what to buy! I so much wanted to sample a little bit of everything. Steve and I walked out with a number of favourites and some new flavours to try. I think Steve's favourite was the Tiramisu Truffle because that disappeared very quickly when we returned to London. I came home with a Red Currant Truffle which didn't last long either, as a peculiar flavour it was the sourness of the currants combined with the sweetness of the white chocolate truly a new taste sensation! For all chocolate enthusiasts :

http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk

From the Arndale Shopping Centre, Steve and I made our way across town to the URBIS. The Urbis building itself opened in June 2002 after the redevelopment around Exchange Square.Actually, oddly the only thing that drew me into that weird architectural marvel was the fact that it had a gift shop and I was still after some half decent postcards (which I found there!) In the Urbis, they were running an exhibition of sorts (that was free viewing) with art and advertising material. Curious, Steve and I wandered in to have a geezer. What I did find interesting, was the exhibition on the lower level dedicated and celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the old Manchester Clubs Opening called the Hacienda.

The Hacienda, was one of the best known nightclubs from the late 1980's to the early 1990's. It opened in 1982 and suffered from persistent and considerable financial troubles until its closure in 1997. It was largely financed by the record label Factory Records and New Order who's label boss was Tony Wilson. By the time the club closed it had played host to many Ibiza nights in the summer of 1988 and the launch of Acid House and rave.

When we had finished looking at the exhibition in the Urbis building our stomach were growling, so we went in search of lunch. Our search led us back to the Arndale Shopping Centre and it's HUGE food court. A delicious express Pizza Hut Pepperoni Pizza later, Steve and I went in search of something else interesting to do. Our walk took us in the direction of the Museum of Science and Industry. At the museum (and the sun was going down quickly and fiercely!), we had as much of a look around as we possibly good before it was time to head back to the train station for a quick bite to eat and head back to London. We visited the Textile part of the museum and managed to get into the Transport part as well for a short look before we got booted out. On our way to the museum we passed Granada Television where they film the British Soap - Coronation Street.

After we got booted out of the museum, Steve and I headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags (which they had been thoughtfully minding for us) and took ourselves back to Manchester Piccadilly train station to catch our Virgin Train (like Richard Branson isn't rich enough) back to London! At least this time we had no delays or cancelled trains. Phew!

Like I mentioned in my previous Manchester blog entry, Steve and I forgot the camera on this trip, so unfortunately there is no link to our picasa web picture gallery from this blog! As usual - stay tuned for more news on our riveting adventures! *waves*

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