Manchester City Walk

After arriving by train at Victoria Station we start our exploration of Manchester.

Liverpool and Manchester have interesting museums that are free to enter: kudos to the British government for that. Perhaps we prefer the museums in Liverpoo, but that is a matter of taste. Nevertheless, Manchester also has a lot to offer in this area. We ignore National Football Museum and Manchester Art Gallery, respectively, because of no interest and no time.

We do visit John Rylands Library, not so much a library but rather a Victorian Gothic cathedral dedicated to books. The beautiful building from 1900 with elegant arches and stained glass windows is worth a visit in itself. Not to mention the impressive collection of ancient books and manuscripts.

In People's History Museum we discover the story of the common man and woman in Manchester, both past and present. Encouraged by the museum staff, we let ourselves be tempted by photos with costumes and museum props.

We briefly pop into Museum of Science and Industry. Here we marvel at the world's first computer with internal memory (1948) that goes through life as a Baby. However, this Baby is huge: the size of an entire room in the museum. In addition, we discover a number of interactive installations.

The shopping streets of Manchester do not have the intimate atmosphere that we know from cozy authentic shopping streets in city centers with us. Here we mainly find modern shopping centers or wide shopping streets between a street plan in checkerboard pattern with many traffic lights. Nevertheless, you can find just about everything you are looking for in Manchester.

Is it a lack of sun? Most of the buildings here in England are very grey. This is no different in Manchester, although we find colorful murals, many with bees and bumblebees. The worker bee is therefore the symbol of the city. Since the industrial revolution, it has symbolized the work zeal of the "colony" of workers. Since the terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in 2017, she became the symbol of unity. We also find color in the gay district with numerous bars, hotels and restaurants on the waterfront.