Welcome back to AlexJo Stories, everyone! Today I am going to talk about my trip to Manchester in December before coming back home for the holidays. As I didn’t have the blog on in that period of time, I haven’t had the opportunity to talk about this interesting place. So Gabi and I went to Manchester in December for her birthday. I planned everything as a surprise for her because she is a huge fan of Manchester United. So, because of that, our trip was filled with football aspects. Hahaha!
After seven or eight hours of sitting on the coach, waiting and getting bored, we arrived in Manchester. My advice for you is trying to get to Manchester by plane, by train or by your personal car. We went to Manchester by coach all the way from Canterbury (just to have an idea Canterbury is in South East England and Manchester is in the North, all the way up). It was horrible because it took us an eternity. So if you have another option to go to Manchester than the coach, trust me, pick the other one. What can I say about the city is that it doesn’t look at all as a typical English city. It is really industrial because as you might know, Manchester was the city where the Industrial Revolution started. It has all these high modern buildings, but you can still fell the Enligsh vibes.
Top 5 things to do in Manchester:
- Go to a Football Match (preferably a Manchester United match)– It is a great experience and if you love football trust me you will enjoy it! Also be careful with the tickets because they are really hard to get. So make sure you plan that in advance.
- Visit Old Trafford (the Manchester United Stadium) – I am not a football fan believe me, but I really enjoyed seeing all the hidden parts of the Stadium. We went to a match two days prior to the visit and seeing everything after being there for the match was super interesting. Plus, Manchester United has a great stadium with a really attractive history.
- John Rylands Library – If you are a book lover, the John Rylands Library is really interesting and the architecture of that building is breath-taking. Apparently, Enriquetta Rylands, the wife of John Rylands founded the library in the memory of her husband. It was opened for public readers in 1990. Now is part of the University of Manchester library and hold various titles. I would love to study there.
- Visit the Museum of Science and Industry – Well, I am definitely not a fan of industrial or mechanical or anything that has to do with
science, but this was really interesting. First of all, the museum is huge. It holds all these machines and information that are kinda fascinating. Two employees from the museum explained and showed us the process of manufacturing cotton fibers. It was pretty engaging because we understood better how the industrial revolution started and how it worked during all those years. - Go to the Football Museum – Who does go to Manchester without visiting the Football Museum? It’s super fun and it has a lot of interactive games that you can play. All of them relating to football of course. As a passive person regarding football, I enjoyed this museum a lot. Trust me, you have to visit it!
Oh, I almost forgot. If you are an Instagram junkie as I am sometimes, you have to visit the gardens from the University of Manchester main buildings. During winter time those gardens are beautiful. Manchester is a great city and you have to visit it at least once in your life. A week is enough to visit everything you desire and even more. I hope this article helps you a little bit if you aren’t sure about going to Manchester. Since I am living in England, I want to visit more cities here. Oxford, Cambridge, Liverpool. Let me know if you liked this article and I will keep you posted about my travels in the next Travel the World article!
Right now, I am considering Barcelona, Rome or Edinburgh. We’ll see what trip will come up next! Have a great week everyone! I will see you on Wednesday! #seeyousoon!