Mini-London

aka Manchester

See, this area extensively mobilized during WWII, meaning most of the areas large producers and manufacturers stopped what they were doing so that they could help build transportation, military tools, etc for the war. Anyway, Ze Germans picked up on it and bombed the heck out of it in 1940. So pretty much the whole city center (which is where we stayed) was destroyed. Which just breaks my heart. THEN, in 1996, someone from the Provisional Irish Republican Army set off a car bomb that heavily damaged most of those same buildings that had been rebuilt from the war. I kept reading articles that predicted that Manchester would just decline into ruin after that....

Thankfully for us, it didn't!! So this picture above is the hotel we stayed in. Yeah, pretty much the tallest building in Manchester. Talk about modern. It was really nice though. I highly recommend it for your next trip to Manchester.
And this is the Manchester Cathedral. It was pretty much all destroyed in the war. Lucky for us, it only took 20 years to rebuild! Thanks goodness for modern construction equipment. There are random stones and other shards that were saved for posterity and tourists like me. There is the "Angel Stone" which they think dates back to the 8th century. Not very exciting, but wicked old. Do we have anything that old in the States??
This gave me goosebumps. This is the Regimental Chapel. Bear with me for a bit of a history lesson. It is the chapel of the Manchester Regiment from 1936 and the King's Regiment. It was all destroyed in the war (are we sensing a theme here), but rebuilt to display the regimental colors from WWI. Those are the flags hanging up. See, goosebumps. The window in the back is the "Fire Window" which was damaged in that '96 bomb, but rebuilt as a tribute to that event. Maybe its just me and my new found obsession with military history...sorry.
The Choir. We missed Evensong, but I'm sure it would have been beautiful! Again, destroyed in the war, but I'm told it was rebuilt to look as it did in the 1500s.
More modern windows...
Any Chio's out there?? I smiled real big when I turned around and saw this over the door.
So sad...
Outside the cathedral, to the right....its London! No wait, just a big Ferris Wheel. See why I feel like its a mini-London? Maybe just a mini-Eye-of-London...
Town Hall. Saturday was the last day of the Manchester Jazz Festival. Part of it was held in front of town hall. We were able to grab some Paella and a Brat and sit outside the tent and listen to the music. Great ambience, let me tell ya. Except for the drizzly rain...could've done without that...
Sunday morning, we venture out and see that all the streets are blocked off to cars. This is because of the SkyRide taking place on 12km of city streets. What was it for? Nothing. Just to give cyclists a chance to ride around the city without worrying about cars.
This guy was booming Jimi Hendrix if I remember correctly. But it was kids of all ages, a unicyclist, a couple of Olympic medalists, an actress or two, and anyone else with a bike and nothing else to do that morning. And it was free.
Snapshot of our venture to the Salford Quays (pronounced keys). Anyone have any idea what this is????? Give you three guesses, but if you've never done it before, you won't have a clue. It's Dragon Boat races!!!!
The highlight of Salford, the Manchester United Football Stadium. ManUtd is the big football club in the English Premier League...or so I'm told. I did read that they are the richest. I'm supposed to be a Chelsea fan, so I guess I can't like ManUtd. For anyone interested, Chelsea v ManUtd preseason game is this Saturday! Who is going down to their local pub to watch????????? Anyone?? Anyone?? Bueller??