We checked into the Britannia Hotel in the city and raced upstairs for a well deserved and needed shower. After freshening up, we went for a walk around the town centre. Saw the chinatown arch, a few old buildings and then went off to the visitor information centre so Kaye could satisfy her pamphlet addiction :)



Being a bank holiday, the town centre was quite empty - but after a while people started appearing out of nowhere and the place was bustling along nicely. Manchester United had won their premiership league the night before by the fact that Leeds beat Arsenal, so the headlines reflected the mood of the city.



We walked around and took in the sights around Picadilly Gardens, the Library, Theatre Royale and John Rylands Library. We stopped for coffee / morning tea at Starbucks in Television House and discovered that a mugachino is somewhat of a bucket sized object here, good to know.



Malls are called "Pedestrianised Zones" here, and car access is restricted by automatically retracting bollards that sink into the ground with prox card access controlling them. Cool :) They look much nicer than boom gates.

On to St Annes Church, the Exchange Theatre (starbucks are EVERYWHERE here) and up Market Street (the main shopping district). Stopped at the Sawyers Arms Hotel so Kaye could use the loo, I had my first beer - a John Smiths Smooth.



Next we walked past Arndale shopping centre which was bombed by the IRA back in June 1996. We picked up some mobile SIMs for our phones and made our way back through Picadilly Gardens (where lots of people were dancing in the fountain) to the hotel.

After a bit of a nap, we ventured out for dinner and found Kailash Nepalese and Indian

restaurant which Kaye had read about in the Lonely Planet - £8.95 for a 4 course set menu meal, which turned out to be a feast! My second local beer was a pint of Stella (ok, a Belgian beer, but hey, it was a pint). We were quite satisfied with that and went back to the hotel for a long sleep.