The first place we drove to was Saltaire- I really liked it at first, but then as we were walking around it seemed almost unsafe. A lot off people had braces on their steering wheels so their cars wouldn't get stolen...not enough eye on the street! Jenny and I had a great lunch though- tomato and lentil soup with brie and crackers. We went to an art museum and I went a little crazy int he gift shop- there was so many amazing books and cards! After we drove straight to Liverpool and walked around the city a bit until dinner. It seems like a pretty cool town, but the Beatles thing makes it a little touristy.
The next day we were in Wales- what an amazing day! The sun was shining and the scenery was spectacular! The language is ridiculous though- can I buy a vowel!? We went to two Edward I Bastides- Conwy and Canaerfan- that were really interesting. Then we drove down to Port Meirian. It was literally a Disney World. This rich guy essentially bought a ton of land and designed buildings in every style imaginable. It was interesting to see though thats for sure.
Thursday we left for Manchester and stopped in Port Sunlight and Chester on the way. Port SUnlight was so picturesque! I felt like i was in Pleasantville. It was great to see how some people were reacting to all of the horrible living conditions in the cities at the time, I think it might have just taken it a little too far with the open space. It was literally sprawling! Chester was crazy- it was an old Roman Castrum and so we walked all the way around the city on the Roman Wall, and explored the actual city. I have never seen more Tudor style buildings in my life! It was weird though, most everything was shops- and we didn't even have time to shop!! There was an amazing movement system along the streets- there would be stores along the sidewalk with open almost porch-like walkways that stretched all the way across in front of another level of shops. Very neat.
Once we got to Manchester we went out to dinner as a group. There was a snafu with our room though because they hadn't cleaned it yet- we got two free bottles of Champagne. AFter we went out to get Indian food- it still hasn't let me down. I LOVE INDIAN FOOD. The meal was amazing plus Sara was able to get a free bottle of wine because it was her birthday. We went back to change and get ready to go out, but the night was a bit of a bust. There was literally nothing open! No one was out and everything had already closed for the night...not to great of a first impression.
Today (Friday) we walked around with DuPuy in the morning and then were set loose at 11:30. It was freezing so we went to get 'hot drinks' and then did some shopping. It is really expensive shopping around here- unfortunate- so I didn't get much. Then Sara and I went to the 23rd floor of the humongous new Hilton that is built here to get some arial views of the city and had coffee. Hopefully tonight will be a better outing than last- then were off to Oxford int he morning!!
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