A Day Trip to Manchester

Time for a road trip and rather than deal with the crazy road network in Britain, we opted for a train to Manchester. The train pricing scheme was insane. Prices ranging from 14 day advance, 7 day advance, one day return no restrictions , one day return leaving after 9:30 am…. Confusing – and expensive! The cheapest fare was $16.00 for a 45 minute round trip train ride.

We got off at the train station and took the free city bus to the Museum of Science and Industry. The museum has five buildings, one is the world’s oldest passenger rail station (c 1830.) One of the largest buildings highlights the Industrial Revolution and was a John/Gordon dream museum. The most fascinating part was in the main building with a working cotton mill. They demo-ed the process of creating cotton cloth from start to finish and you got a sense of the awful life of the early factory workers.

After a bit of searching, we found the double decker bus tour and did a loop around the city, stopping at the Imperial War Museum.

A quick train ride home, take out sandwiches from Marks and Spencer at the train station and back to the hotel.