Rome Trip, Day 1

Picture of Manchester and Allison's contribution to the Manchester Art Gallery

I will now recap our trip to Rome in the same manner I recapped our Christmas trip...

"January 10:

We are in Manchester now (for our second night) before heading out for Rome tomorrow morning. It was cheaper for us to take the train down and fly out of Manchester than to fly out of Newcastle, so that's the main reason we're leaving from here. We're a little nervous about the weather wreaking havoc with our travel plans, however. Many British flights have been cancelled in the last several days as this nation tries to cope with several inches of snow (despite what they seem to believe in this country, the best way of dealing with 2-3 inches of snow is NOT to just throw some grit on it and hope it goes away--it's to actually clear it away so it doesn't just stay in place, turning from ice to snow to slush and back again every day). It was a really pain dragging a 50 pound suitcase through an inch or so of slush on the sidewalks of Manchester.

We got to Manchester around 1:00 yesterday afternoon, after some train delays (trains are also still being delayed/cancelled like crazy right now, despite the fact that it hasn't snowed for 3 days--there have been some brief snow showers, but no significant accumulation). We sat on a train at Newcastle station for 45 minutes or so before departing yesterday and had to switch trains at York, rather than going direct to Manchester, due to another cancellation. But we got to Manchester OK at last, had a packed sandwich for lunch, and checked into our hotel around 2:00. We walked around Manchester a bit before we came across the Manchester Art Gallery. They had several interesting exhibits, including an interactive one which Allison quite enjoyed. She even contributed a tag to a 'traveling wishes' exhibition there. After that, we headed to a pub that we had discovered online for dinner. It was a very delicious meal, but we happened to be getting there right as a televised Manchester United soccer game was coming on. It certainly made for a very interesting dining experience. It was kind of exhilarating being in Manchester for a Manchester United game (for any of you who don't know, they are essentially the Yankees of England), but I also now have a better appreciation of what it's like to be a non-Yankee fan in New York.

Today, we woke up later than usual (which was nice after a very busy week of work), before wandering the city a bit and catching a bus to our other hotel near the airport (we have a 6 AM flight tomorrow morning). It was nice to just get to the hotel early, learn some Italian, study for a Greek test I have to take in Rome (booo), and just generally relax a bit. Early to bed tonight...hopefully the weather cooperates tomorrow."