Ok, a quick trip report, in thanks to those that offered suggestions (even those I didn't follow
)
I arrived in Manchester early afternoon on Tuesday and went straight to the
Manchester Art Gallery. Not many "A" list grand masters and the like but a nice bunch of Pre-Raphaelites and a fair collection of "B" lister Dutch genre and still life painters, as well as, of course, Valettes and Lowrys and many others. The gem for me was a portrait by Angelica Kauffmann.
Then went to check in at the
easyHotel Manchester, which I chose primarily for its location but also had the benefit of being only £45 a night. Basic but clean modern rooms in an old converted warehouse (only evident from the outside). Double bed, shower & loo ensuite, towels, TV, WiFi, that's it. Only downside was that it has secondary glazing (rather than double glazing) and so not so well sound insulated from the street as it could be, but things improved on the second night when I got them to move me from my original ground floor room to the fourth floor.
Tried to get a table at
Matt & Phreds but they were fully booked (Valentine's night), so went for a beer at the
Quarter House, basically the first pub I came across (I was thirsty!). £6 for a Guinness, hmmm, London prices. Then went to
El Capo where Mon-Thu they have cheap tacos, from £1-£2.50 depending on filling (the £1 ones are beef chilli) and I had six tacos for £11 and a pint of some IPA for a fiver. Good food, good deal! Then went to
Matt & Phreds expecting to stand at the bar but managed to get a seat at a no-show's table. Band with female singer doing a (mostly) pretty good job of (mostly) the Great American Songbook. £5.50 a pint for Guinness. Nice evening.
Wednesday went to the
Whitworth Art Gallery. Well, interesting, if you're into fabrics and wallpapers, and there were some (a few) bits of historic fine art, but mostly contemporary so overall not to my taste, which goes
generally to pre-20th century. Still, glad I went, interesting enough for a visit but don't think it'll go into my "go again" list. Worth grabbing a window seat for a coffee in their
café though, esp. if you can't walk around the
art garden 'cos it's peeing down with rain, as it was for me!
Went on to the
Science and Industry Museum where, unfortunately, (a) it was half term and so full of kids and (b) they're undergoing a massive restoration and so over half of it is closed. Still, what's still there is interesting and I recommend turning up at 2.30pm for when they crank up one of the spinning machines. With what's still there and the temporary exhibition of
Turn It Up: The power of music (paid for, no kids!) I stayed until chucking out time (5pm). Definitely a revisit when it's all fully open again.
Returned to the hotel to freshen up then to the Wetherspoon's in Piccadilly for a £3 pint of
Lancaster Red, very nice, and then, just 'cos it was also new to me, a £3 pint of the Wolf Brewery's
Granny Wouldn't Like It!!!, which is really a meal in itself! Very hearty. Trotted on to the
Blues Kitchen. Good food, reasonably priced, especially liked the Szechuan ribs. Draught beers not dark enough for my tastes but still managed a few of their session IPAs. 'Twas supposed to be soul night so was expecting Aretha, Motown, etc, but got a house band with a female vocalist doing
very energetic renditions of lots of stuff, only about 50% soul (and no Aretha). That
Summertime is supposed to be a lullaby seemed to pass them by as they did it at 180bpm ... even Janis would be shocked! Nevertheless, enjoyable and I stayed until the end.
Thursday went to the
Manchester Cathedral, which I enjoyed and will leave readers to look up to see if they would too (I particularly liked the angel minstrels), and while there couldn't resist dropping into the
Old Wellington Inn, just for a quick coffee, which claims to be the oldest building of its kind in Manchester (1552) and, despite the Wikipedia comments, I thought still had a lot of olde worlde charm. Then back to the
Manchester Art Gallery for a talk on their current exhibition (
The Dandy) followed by a highlights tour, followed by another couple of hours of taking a second look at everything (and a first look at some stuff I missed first time round).
That evening I felt in a glutinous mood and so, after stopping at Wetherspoon again for another couple of pints of the
Lancaster Red, went to the
Tops Buffet all-you-can eat restaurant, which I did! <
insert Mr Creosote Emoji>
. This place is on a different scale to the buffet restaurants I've been to before (not that many in truth). It seats two or three hundred and there were over 80 dishes being served (not including deserts), an eclectic mix of Chinese, Thai, Indian, Japanese, English and Italian. And, unlike some of the London Chinatown buffets, were you have to search for the beef amongst the green peppers and onions, the meat dishes were meat heavy. Not haute cuisine of course, but everything was tasty and at £19 a darn good nosh! I expected (as with the London Chinatown buffets) to be stung on drinks but the (passable) IPA was £5.50 a pint, so much the same as elsewhere. Went off to
Matt & Phreds again afterwards but that evening it was a New Orleans piano player (+ drums and d.bass) that wasn't so much to my taste, so just stayed for one beer.
Friday went to the
Salford Museum and Art Gallery, which has a reconstruction of a Victorian street (shops, etc), a small but interesting collection of paintings and an exhibition by local surrealist-ish artist Rachel Goodyear, which I found intriguing. I went onto
Castlefield to take a look at the Roman remains there and for a walkabout of the canals, and then onto the
John Rylands Research Institute and Library, which is worth a visit just for the building itself, which has a lot of intricacies to examine, but even more so if you ask them to pull out their facsimile of their Gutenberg Bible, one of the first fifteen.
Oops, I meant this to be a
quick trip report and I've gone on a bit ..... but hopefully someone will find some use in it at some point ....
)