Kiwi Roaming

We left for our big trip north after returning from our Bath mini break. The M1 has signs for “The North” so we finally got to head there. You can read our trip itinerary here. Paul kindly dropped us to the car rental place were we picked up our wee Scoda Fabia which is a manual. It costs almost double to add a second driver so Steve designated himself my chauffeur for this trip. A tiny glitch before we could leave – it was the anniversary of our being away 3 months and our eSims had run out so we found ourselves at Europcar with no data so switched on roaming for Steve so that we could navigate back to Paul and Karen’s to buy new Sim’s. Job done and back on the road.

Manchester – wasn’t on our initial itinerary to be honest but when I saw Mumford & Sons were playing there we decided a couple of nights would work well. Our hotel choices this trip are mostly on the outskirts of cities to avoid driving in and out of traffic. Steve found us a Holiday Inn Express about 25 minutes by bus from the centre of Manchester with a McDonalds right next door and small shopping precinct about 10 minutes walk. A commuter hotel with ok breakfast but perfectly located for the Co-op Arena.

Turns out it wasn’t the best part of town and we were told by the owners of the Italian cafe where we ate dinner that first night we were staying right near a very large housing estate so the surroundings were rows and rows of terraced one-up-one-down brick with tiny back yards. Fascinating all the same.

Manchester City is actually quite small but Greater Manchester – which is all joined up into one huge city of over 3 million people- is massive. It’s very industrial, lots of factories, power generation, trucking evident. In the central city the buildings are quite close together so it seems quite dark and gloomy with the intense brick. The housing we saw was also very intensified, terraces right smack next to each other, row after row, or high-rise buildings that look like vertical slums.

We took the bus into the centre after our included breakfast at the hotel using a 24 hour ticket for all buses and trains which we purchased via their Bee Transport app and was excellent value. They do like their memorials in The North, and Manchester as a city has had many significantly violent events to memorialise. A hub for reformist change in England we were fascinated to learn how worker action impacted modern practices in the last few centuries.

In keeping with this Manchester’s symbol is the Worker Bee and they have Bee things deployed everywhere! The trams and buses have bee stuff painted on them, it’s quite extreme but awesome at the same time from a unifying the city perspective. There are many Christmas markets either running or being set up in the city now. Lots of bee decorations too. I would categorise their Christmas market efforts as quantity over quality – almost too many but for such a large population makes sense. To be honest we didn’t love the centre of Manchester so decided to head on the bus for 20 mins over to a newer area called MediaCity where the BBC, ITV, Granada etc are all located.

MediaCity – located in the Manchester docks area in the city of Salford (still really Central Manchester), sits on the Quays. This modern area is so very different to the centre of Manchester, there are huge studio complexes like the one that houses Coronation Street, media schools and apartment buildings. It’s very like Canary Wharf with slightly lower buildings. It’s also the home of the Old Trafford.

I learned later in the day (from a retiree volunteer at the War Museum) that this used to be a large manufacturing hub with the man made canals connecting Manchester up with Liverpool. Masses of ships containing raw cotton would come in for processing and go out as linen and goods made from fabric. In world war II these factories were converted into making tanks and munitions so became a target for bombing. It was all basically destroyed clearing the way for the new building.

Here we found another great food hall and enjoyed lunch (gyro’s) before walking around the sites, across a few fascinating bridges including one that raises up for ships to go under, the Blue Peter Garden (which is gorgeous), and along a tow path.

Imperial War Museum – one of the interesting buildings here is the Imperial War Museum North, a satellite of the London museum which is free to enter and staffed by volunteers. We had no coins for the lockers so purchased a keyring they have produced with a handy £1 shape, a tote bag and a guide book – so free but not free.

Steve likes planes and there is one on show. I spent ages talking to the retirees and reading history stuff where I learned heaps about what happened between WWI and WWII geopolitics wise on many fronts.

The best thing at this museum is a movie by Sir Peter Jackson that runs on the hour every hour and is projected onto every wall surface, there are benches everywhere so you can sit down for the 15 minute film. Beautifully restored footage strung together with voice overlays of veterans stories – very poignant.

Mumford and Sons – the highlight of Manchester for us was this gig. Held at the brand new Co-op Arena we took a 10 minute very cheap Uber there. The Arena holds 23,000 people. Entry is on 2 levels with a huge concourse wrapped around each full of bars and food places, lots of toilets and water stations. We were lower upstairs with excellent seats. The place was chocker with big bars around the outside of the floor area. It’s a really lovely venue and Mumford and Sons loved it too raving about the opportunity to play here when it’s brand new. They told a great story about how they knew they were going to make it when they held their first Manchester gig (so Manchester is really special for them) and how they knew they had made it when a Gallagher slagged them off – which was received with a roar of approval.

The setlist of their tour and what they played where were totally different. We only got 4 new songs, it was just one big sing along. They closed with their newest single – Conversation With My Son (Gangsters & Angels) – which is awesome. Honestly such a good gig, so much energy and enthusiasm from the band and the crowd was awesome.

The Arena is right next to the Etihad Stadium, home of Manchester City FC. So it was cool to walk around that concourse on our way out. There are giant statues of the Man City players which are very cool. The whole precinct is designed for mass people movement with the tram right there along with huge carparks. We got a slightly more expensive Uber back to our hotel. Great night out.