Manchester

So at about 5:45 am, Ladyfriend and I are sitting in the Window Exit waiting for boarding to finish on our 6am departure from Colorado Springs.  I was low on time, so I had my name on the Make Up List.  I noticed there was a Manchester trip in open time for that afternoon and made a call to scheduling to see if it was going to come to my seniority.  Miracle of miracles, it did, but I realize that the reason it did is because it is a 757 trip and no one likes to fly a 757 over the Atlantic.

So after landing back in the Big D around 8:30, I dropped Kirsten at home and then went home to unpack and then repack before heading back for my 2:15pm deadhead to Chicago.  I was blessed to get to sit in a seat surrounded by a large family of talkative and messy French people.  They were spilling drinks left and right and passing food around, dropping stuff everywhere.  When we got to Chicago, their zone looked like a disaster area.

The flight to Manchester was different.  I had not worked one of the 757 Transatlantic services before as our Europe trips are too far to use that equipment.  The crew was all on reserve.  Apparently it is the least popular trip on the bidsheet, so everyone trades off it.  The flight was full, but I was pleasantly surprised because the "Mancunians" (people from Manchester) are simply delightful.  Very low key and laid back.

We arrived in the morning right on time.  I was a bit worried about the nightly riots and looting, but apparently the night before was the night the police finally got a hold of the situation so it wasn't "supposed" to be a problem.  The hotel staff still suggested we return to the premises by 6:00pm or so in case there are problems.  Several of the shops around the hotel were boarded up because of broken windows from the nightly riots.

Most of the crew were just going to sleep and stay in their rooms, but one of my co-workers, Geoff, said he would show me around the city.

Downtown Manchester is pretty small compared to London with it's ever expanding boroughs, but like the British capital, it is heavy on the Victorian architecture.  City Hall looked like a church cathedral. 

Downtown's main shopping center was the site of the new "Shop a Looter" campaign.  CCTV cameras are everywhere in the city and lots of looters were caught on camera at the stores where they were "shopping".  Now there is an effort to have the public help bring these people to justice.

It was starting to rain, so we decided to visit the Old Wellington, which is the oldest tavern in Manchester.  It was built in 1552 in a part of the city that at the time was called the Shambles.  The building has actually been dismantled and reassembled at least 3 times over the past 30 years to maximize space for downtown development.

When the rain let up, we started back towards the hotel, but then it started up again, so we made our way towards another pub and enjoyed a pint of Stella and watched the rain.  

It finally let up and we made our way across the main square toward the hotel.  I came upon a Boots/Waitrose combination store (Boots is my favorite drug store and Waitrose my favoroite grocer in the UK).  Two great things rolled into one!  After purchasing my provisions for the night and for the way home, it was time to get back to the hotel.  We rolled in right around 6pm, the suggested time.

There was no problem with looting that night though.  The next day, our flight home was about 8 hours and 25 minutes, or about 5 hours too long for that type of plane.  Of course right after landing in Chicago, a freak hailstorm hit the airport and it rained like crazy, so I was delayed heading home on my deadhead, but finally made it about an hour later than scheduled.