Manchester and Salford, Cities 20 and 21 in the UK Cityscapes project

So the first thing I have to say about this post about Manchester and Salford is that I've put them both in one post as they both run into each other in the way that Newcastle and Gateshead do except with even less distance and water between them.  To be honest in some cases I wasn't exactly sure where Manchester ended and Salford began so you'll have to forgive me for placing them together.  I'd also heard that Salford was a really dangerous place and as I was travelling with my daughter I didn't want to take chances so I kept to the redeveloped and utterly lovely Salford Quays, I'm fairly sure they're in Salford but I think some of the studios, maybe the new Coronation Street set for example is on the Manchester side of the water.

Manchester and Salford were actually so big that I feel that I should have spent more time there, 1 day really wasn't enough and I hope to go back in the future.  It really didn't help that we were staying so far out of the city centre (about 40 minutes by bus, we stayed at the Comfort Hotel, North Manchester it's quite a nice hotel, huge beds and it used to be a Premier Inn but I wouldn't recommend it for 2 reasons, the first being that it is so far away from the city centre if you don't drive and the second is that it doesn't have a restaurant, there is a pub next door which does a sort of breakfast but I found it was seriously lacking in quality and price.

I loved Manchester and Salford around the quays area and a personal highlight of the trip was going to the Cloud 23 Bar on the 23rd floor of the Hilton hotel in the Beetham tower which is the tallest building in Manchester.  It's a luxury experience and it really is that, it's not something that money can buy to be able to share it with your 12 year old daughter who you tell one day they'll be hiring the whole place out.  It was all totally worth it when she tasted the £5.50 hot chocolate and said it was the best she'd ever had.  Yes it's going to be a budget eater but the views, the ambience, the service, all 100% worth it and if a special occasion arose I would go back there for sure, probably not with my hubby though as he's scared of heights!

We also popped to the MOSI, that's the museum of science and industry, Abigail wants to be a particle physicist when she's older and wanted to visit the LHC exhibition, £16 for us to get in and was it worth it, well she loved the giant magnet and the presentations about atoms and unblinding and particle physics, to be honest it was totally empty and I didn't think it was all that good but she loved it and sometimes as a parent you have to do things you don't want to for the good of the kids!

and so on with those all important photos, I really hope if you're reading this and you're from Salford and Manchester you don't mind me counting the two cities together but feel free to invite me back and show me around your city!!

This chapel is in Heaton Park (Manchester, not the one in Newcastle) and it's the highest point in Manchester, it's higher up than the Beetham tower which incidentally you can see from here, it's in the photo above but yes, it's tiny winy!

Can I just say that the Trafford Centre is so much more impressive than the Metrocentre, the whole place which seems to be designed to be a cruise ship is seriously impressive!

The Manchester wheel wasn't working while we were there, I was so sad as I'd planned to get lots of images from the top, maybe someone could give me a shout when it's reopened so I can pop back to go on it.

The Beetham Tower, I would absolutely love to see what everything looks like from the very top floor, if you live/work there and can get me access I would absolutely love to come and take some photos, please email me

The views from the 23rd floor were pretty impressive for sure!

Abigail with the Dragons from Dragons Den, I know who's the scariest and it's not them ;)

and so that was Manchester and Salford, cities 20 and 21 of the UK Cityscapes project, next up is Sheffield but it may take a while for me to edit those, I am so busy!!

At the moment I am planning a trip to do 8 cities in 7 days, that's Chester, Bangor, St Asaph, Swansea, Cardiff, Newport, St Davids and Bristol, that is going to be a seriously busy trip but you know by now I like a challenge.