manchester... and beyond

manchester and beyond...

the next day, we ventured into the great city of machester, to see what there is to see.

we started at the lancashire county cricket club, which is still a very confusing sport to us americans.. but we enjoyed the views regardless. i still don't understand how a game could last 5 days.. it's a mystery. anyway, they just let us walk right in and take pics... made us miss all the dbacks happenings back at home.

next was town hall, in albert square... a building completed in 1887, rising as a monument to the civic pride of the city fathers. we didn't feel like paying the fee... so we just walked in behind one of the groups and made our own tour- thanks to the wisdom of our three native english friends. we were truly just blown away by the architecture.. the detail... the mosaics.. and we even got the see the mayor's fancy lil red chair!

the hidden gem (st. mary's church) is truly an incredible place. here's a little history for you buffs: it was founded in 1794 in the centre of what was then, the poorest quarter of manchester. during the reconstruction of the city, it was meant to be demolished with everything else around it... but the local catholics protested... and it still stands today. that's why if you look to the left (and imagine to the right) it is now surrounded by modern buildings... coffee shops... businesses... it really is a hidden gem. a place of serenity... peace.. nestled into the heart of a busy city.

and onto the john rylands library. library? yes. it may look like a cathedral, or a castle... but it's not.

beyond the amazing smell of books... the library had these really amazing exhibitions, each dedicated to a different aspect of poetry or classical writing. after learning about the old texts... there was a little corner with paper and chairs... if you felt inspired to write your own masterpiece. super cute.


above is a picture of the oldest existing fragment of st. john's gospel... known as the chester beatty papyrus. this piece is dated to 125 at the latest. yes my friends... year 125. amazing. this is one of the documents that helps scholars to accurately date the gospel of john.

not the london eye... but the manchester eye. just as awesome.

manchester cathedral founded in the 700's... which is "new-ish" for england. funny eh?

one word... tea.
the english love it. the english drink it.
every chance possible... where one might think to drink water... we instead sit and drink tea. it's lovely.

after a long day of walking in the city, we treated ourselves to some good italian food at danilo's... in the village of hale. the handsome chap you see above is one of the waiters, who found out we were 'foreigners'... and struck with inspiration, went to the back and crafted a sign that read "we love arizona" (followed by a postscript reading 'girls only'... sorry paul). the food was good (no oreganos...) but the whole atmosphere made it even better. it's just fun to sit and eat a meal for a good 3 hours... enjoying the company of new friends.

the long walk to dunham massey

along the way, we found this view (the picture mainly taken for leah and megan), because it reminded me of a scene from x-files. like a big field, with black cars parked in it... only they weren't cars, they were just black bags of hay.

old stumpy = giving tree



so, we enter dunham massey, this beautiful park, owned by the national trust- which is a charity that looks after national monuments. it's basically a huge huge park that people visit to experience the deer park, gardens, lakes, moat (because they think it used to be a castle...cool!), water mill, and home that used to be someone's personal estate.

as established before, we of course had to stop for tea. but this wasn't ordinary tea... this was a
'proper' afternoon snack with tea and scones. oh my gosh. best scones of your life.

the long walk that day, of course, was rewarded with a huge homemade feast. keep in mind this was for four people...
everyone brought something unique to the table... paul made his famous cole slaw... gran made a salad and delicious potatoes... and the americans brought some good ol guacatony. it was complimented with meats, pork pies, cous cous, chips, soda bread, onion patties, and of course irn bru (remember those silly commercials boys?). dinner was followed by notting hill- great movie- but even better since we felt as though we understood what was actually going on. all the english lingo is finally starting to make sense to us americanos.

love the moss. everywhere.

our trip to visit gran in her adorable little home, came to a close, and they sent us with gifts... the best of which included this HUGE bag (full of smaller bags) of our new obsession- walkers. they're basically just lay's, but with exotic {and sometimes rather odd} flavours like steak & onion, prawn cocktail, worcestire, and our personal favorite- basic cheese and onion. thanks paul for this amazing gift... and thanks to gran for opening up your home to us.

so, onto another train... you'd think we'd have it down by now. one train to manchester picadilly and one train to liverpool lime street. easy. so we get to one of the stops along the way...the stockport station... and everyone gets off...we sit. wait. "hey do you think we're supposed to get off?"... no. we come to the conclusion that it must just be a popular stop. a few minutes later, a man gets on (good...we think... the train should start again)... no. "uhm ladies, you need to get off the train. this train ends here." gosh. dumb americans...laughing to ourselves. oh well. needless to say, we managed our way across the station and onto two more trains and finally arrived in liverpool... united with sleezy g and marie. yaah. more adventures to come...