Manchester October 2 & 3, 2007

We left London around 11 am to take the train to Manchester. We had to take the tube from near our hotel to the Euston Station, to catch the train. We planned on this, so we only took backpacks for our trip to England. They are much easier to take with you when you are travelling on the tube and on the train.

We arrived in Manchester at about 2:30 pm and walked from the station to our hotel. The Gardens Hotel was only a 2 minute walk from the train station and was located right on the main square of the city. This square had lots of shops, cafes and was the main bus and trolley stop.

The view from our room of the square
For our first night in Manchester there was a football match (soccer for us Canadians). Manchester United was playing Roma (Italy). You could feel the excitement in the air, as this was a very important match, something about the first time these 2 teams played each other after a match went violent in Italy. After dinner we tried to catch the match on tv at a pub but we could not find a pub with a tv, so Scott had a few pints.

Our second day in Manchester we walked around visiting a lot of the different markets, and just seeing the sights. These are just a few photos of the the buildings and pubs near our hotel.

The evening of our 2nd day in Manchester was the International Brewing and Distilling (IBD) Conference Gala dinner. This was the reason for our trip to England, as Scott wrote his IBD Brewing exams this past spring and got the highest mark in the world on exam #3, and the Gala dinner was where he was presented his award and cheque (500 pounds !). This is Scott receiving his award from the president of the IBD.