Day 1 29/3/08 - England

London -> Manchester -> Nether Alderley -> Lower Whitley

Highlight

• The weather wasn’t too bad when we started, but we were definitely worst for wear after the late late night and the early start.
• Got stuck in a traffic jam because of an accident, so only made it to Old Traford at 11:30, not enough time to visit the museum (yeah!)
• Caught the tram out to the city for sightseeing. The tram was efficient, but so crowded!
• First stop was…lunch of course! Decided to visit Chinatown as all the food markets were not available, disappointed to find the place nearly abandoned, there was no one in any of the restaurants.
• We chose Yang Sing as it was recommended by a friend and also because there were at least some Chinese people eating there. The food was quite good, not good compared to Oz or HK or Rotterdam of course, but better than anything I’ve had in London.
• Off to the tour proper. There wasn’t that much to see, briefly viewed the Town Hall, with the square and the statues.
• The John Rylands Library was interesting, but I found it more for its architecture and the “historic toilets” rather than the oldest known piece of the New Testament, the St John Fragment it holds.
• Weather was starting to become very bad, so paid a visit to the Cathedral, which had very good notes and explained everything you can see. The Angel Stone – oldest object in the building and the Misericords – early 16th century wooden carvings were the highlights.
• Walked past the Manchester wheel but didn’t get on because of bad weather (so I guess they must not get any business then!!)
• Walked past the 500 year old house, which is now a pub (of course)
• Spent some time browsing Triangle shopping centre, with its cool design and the metal ball Café Nero, and had a drink there to pass the time before it was time to brave the rain and head to the stadium.
• Got soaked on our 8 minutes walk to the stadium, but the atmosphere from the away Villa fan was electric. They were so vocal, and even though there were only about 200 of them, they completed outshone the 70,000 Man U supporter. And they needed to be vocal too, considering Villa lost 4-0.
• The match itself was one sided, but the game was definitely worth it for the atmosphere and watching the people in front of us sing at the top of their lungs and try to use as many swear words as possible.
• We left the game early, but not early enough, ended up being stuck in the car, trying to get out of the car park for 1 hour.
• We got to dinner at 8:45pm, so we were ravenous. I didn’t really like the sound of the menu, but I was hoping my doubts would be proven wrong. I was very disappointed with the food, it wasn’t bad, but it definitely wasn’t Bib standard.
• We skipped dessert before finally able to crash at the hotel.

Food

• pancake
• Lunch at Yang Sing:
  • Chau siu
  • Vegetable dumplings
  • Prawn dumplings
  • Pan fried Meat bun
  • Steamed meat bun
  • Sticky rice
• Café Nero latte
• Dinner at The Wizard:
  • brioche with butter
  • Pan fried chicken livers, griddled bruschetta, Madeira cream (£7.95)
  • Pressed ham hock & asparagus terrine topped with a poached egg (£6.50)
  • Wizard shepherd’s pie with cheese mash & fresh vegetables (£11.00)
  • Oven baked fillet of hake, rocket & parmesan salad, balsamic dressing (£14.50)