MANCHESTER

Saturday in Manchester with teeming rain. The art gallery was just over the road so I popped for a tea. The gallery is very child friendly with heaps interesting things for kids including being able to put up their drawings as an exhibition. Lots of 18thand 19th century portraits and Rembrandt's self portrait ..which I thought would surely be in Holland. Went to the massive Arndale Shopping Mall and got lost. When the rain abated I walked south down Oxford street to the Whitworth Gallery past Manchester Royal Infirmary (what a name for a hospital!) BBC manchester, Manchester Uni (enormous). Gallery very limited due to preparing for some event and had some Tracey Emin etchings which I could quite get. Having time on hand finished the "Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Association" which is a lovely book about the German occupation of the Channel Islands during the 2nd WW and the ways the Islanders coped. Recommended light reading.

Sunday came with a slightly better prognosis so I set off early along the canal towpaths out of Manchester. There were few people but a number of canl boats...not like our big one in France because the locks are tiny and very narrow and the bridges pretty low.

Made it to Hyde by morning tea which I could only find in a pub. Being Sunday morning many blokes were on their third pint and were quite chatty re my travels. Lots of navigational advice offered. I headed off to the town of Glossop, a typical grey stone Midlands Town which reputedly had an interesting heritage centre...which was closed. I chowed up on food to prepare myself for the ascent of the Woodhead Pass to cross the Pennines. I set off and the rain came down and the wind decided to blow hard from the direction I was heading. Undeterred , I struggled up from Glossop to the moors and stopped at the first place that offered acccommodation. They were booked but recommended me to the "Old House" B&B which the helpful proprietor pointed out was DOWNHILL. I arrived wet through but felt much better after a shower.....amazing you can stand under the shower for ages and not feel guilty here. It was 3pm and cold so I retired with another book.