Day 3 Manchester wanders

A day for wandering.  We caught the tram into the city, first stop was the bank to put some funds in our UK account to remind it we haven’t fallen out of love with it.  Then we tried to top-up our UK pre-paid sim cards with our UK account, but we weren’t allowed to do that.  Sigh.  We are using Heathers address for the UK sim cards (must be UK address) but our UK accounts have our NZ address.  Because the two don’t match, our transaction is declined.  Sigh.  So next stop was the Three shop to buy a top-up, this will give us cheaper comms for both here and once we get to Norway.  Spark does not have a roaming pack for Norway and the rates are horrific.  The cocky 18 year old behind the counter irritated me right off the bat by telling me that the top-up pack I wanted wasn’t available and he didn’t know anything about it.  So I took a moment to find it advertised on their website and he went to “check with the Manager”.  Universal code for saving face.  He came back to tell us that yes, we could indeed have the pack advertised on their website (imagine my surprise) and that if we bought package A the data allocation would double automatically.  After that he was very helpful and obliging, so I didn’t have to flame him when we left the shop. 

That little task complete we headed off to Waterstones bookshop.  The rational in visiting this place first, is that I know J will load up on books.  Books are heavy.  The fact he now has to carry them for the rest of the day, encourages him to be more circumspect in his purchases.  Yet we still came away with about 10kg worth.  Ok it was 6 books, but by the end of the day it will feel like 10kg.

Then we more or less zig zagged our way across the very central part of Manchester, visiting random shops that took our fancy.  A stop to Uniqlo for J, who wanted some more jeans.  They have a same day alteration service which is free, in fact 3 pairs were done in about an hour.  We had a lunch stop and Pret a Manger, an old favourite from our time in London, and then headed to Allflecks market.  This is a 3 floored building with random shops, of a similar ilk to Camden market.  Stalls selling crystals and charms, record stores, used clothing, star wars figurines, steam punk costumes, beads, you get the idea.  Eclectic and interesting. 

I was starting to feel a bit weary by this point, jet lag has kicked in and I had not slept much the night before, and I have the beginnings of a cold.  Damn my work colleagues that had been coughing and hacking the week before we left.  We made our way to Federal café for a coffee and cake and a sit down.  The it was time to wander back to the tram stop, via the John Rylands Library.  This is a beautiful building that was built/gifted to the city just over a hundred years ago.  Hard to describe, so I’ll let the photos tell the story.

We headed home for a wee rest and change into our glad rags.  Heather has us booked for dinner at The Ivy in town. She has a perfect track record so far, taking us to some amazing places both on this trip and our London experience earlier this year, and she was spot on again this time.  The food was really amazing, as was the décor.  Again, hard to describe, so I will let the photos tell the story, and here’s a link to their website https://theivymanchester.com/the-ivy-roof-garden/ 

From the outside

The ladies bathroom

The 2nd floor restaurant, with an Asian theme and a stunning floor

With our tummys full enough to crack fleas, we caught the tram home again.  The boys had a dram of Oban to cap off the night, I had a cold tablet (you can get decent drugs here with pseudoephedrine, and wow, they really do work) and went to bed.