bigmacbear (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bigmacbear) wrote2025-09-01 11:59 pm
bigmacbear) wrote2025-09-01 11:59 pm
Ireland and England Trip - Day 10 of 11
MONDAY
I woke up about an hour before the alarm to use the bathroom, and took my morning Tylenol early to combat an impending hangover. I rolled over on the 7:30 alarm since Gary was already awake, and got up for the day about eight. We went downstairs about 8:30 for breakfast and made arrangements to meet Tim for lunch at eleven. That settled, we returned to the room and watched game shows while Gary looked up transportation schedules for the day and for tomorrow's trip to the airport.
At eleven, we met Tim in the lobby and caught the free bus around downtown, first line 2 all the way around just for sightseeing, and then line 1 to get us to Deansgate station. It was raining rather heavily when we arrived at Deansgate. We caught the Trafford Center tram, then switched to a Media City UK tram at Cornbrook. As we alighted from the tram, it was still raining but not as hard. We looked at the food on offer and decided to skip lunch for now and head for the ITV studio across the canal for the abbreviated Coronation Street Experience tour (the outdoor sets are available only on weekends). We arrived too late to join the noon tour, but we were able to book the 2 PM tour while we were on site. We returned to the main Media City development for lunch at Prezzo, an Italian eatery serving pasta and panini on the lunch menu.
We just had time after the meal to return to ITV for the tour. Our guide was a cute otter-pup. Much of the display included pithy quotes from the show over the years. After the tour, Gary purchased a fridge magnet, and we proceeded to the nearby Imperial War Museum tram stop in rain that vacillated between moderate downpour and barely there. Tim had umbrellas for us, which helped a great deal. The tram terminated at Deansgate, so we switched to a Piccadilly tram. We left Tim at Piccadilly and returned to the hotel for a nap.
At seven, we met up again in the lobby and went in search of a pie shop (the one we'd attempted to visit the previous night was closed until Wednesday), and found a place called Pieminister around the corner from Affleck's. I had the Moo pie with mashed potatoes and mint mushy peas. The place was operating on a cash only basis because their Internet connection was broken. We walked from there to the Rembrandt, but Tim was not impressed with their beer selection, so we went next door to Via for a final drink of the trip.
We all went back to the hotel and said our goodbyes to Tim out front. We packed up all our clothes, leaving only the items we would need in the morning, then watched the end of Coronation Street and the ITV news before preparing for bed.
I woke up about an hour before the alarm to use the bathroom, and took my morning Tylenol early to combat an impending hangover. I rolled over on the 7:30 alarm since Gary was already awake, and got up for the day about eight. We went downstairs about 8:30 for breakfast and made arrangements to meet Tim for lunch at eleven. That settled, we returned to the room and watched game shows while Gary looked up transportation schedules for the day and for tomorrow's trip to the airport.
At eleven, we met Tim in the lobby and caught the free bus around downtown, first line 2 all the way around just for sightseeing, and then line 1 to get us to Deansgate station. It was raining rather heavily when we arrived at Deansgate. We caught the Trafford Center tram, then switched to a Media City UK tram at Cornbrook. As we alighted from the tram, it was still raining but not as hard. We looked at the food on offer and decided to skip lunch for now and head for the ITV studio across the canal for the abbreviated Coronation Street Experience tour (the outdoor sets are available only on weekends). We arrived too late to join the noon tour, but we were able to book the 2 PM tour while we were on site. We returned to the main Media City development for lunch at Prezzo, an Italian eatery serving pasta and panini on the lunch menu.
We just had time after the meal to return to ITV for the tour. Our guide was a cute otter-pup. Much of the display included pithy quotes from the show over the years. After the tour, Gary purchased a fridge magnet, and we proceeded to the nearby Imperial War Museum tram stop in rain that vacillated between moderate downpour and barely there. Tim had umbrellas for us, which helped a great deal. The tram terminated at Deansgate, so we switched to a Piccadilly tram. We left Tim at Piccadilly and returned to the hotel for a nap.
At seven, we met up again in the lobby and went in search of a pie shop (the one we'd attempted to visit the previous night was closed until Wednesday), and found a place called Pieminister around the corner from Affleck's. I had the Moo pie with mashed potatoes and mint mushy peas. The place was operating on a cash only basis because their Internet connection was broken. We walked from there to the Rembrandt, but Tim was not impressed with their beer selection, so we went next door to Via for a final drink of the trip.
We all went back to the hotel and said our goodbyes to Tim out front. We packed up all our clothes, leaving only the items we would need in the morning, then watched the end of Coronation Street and the ITV news before preparing for bed.