Manchester
It would be hard to imagine a bigger change than from the peace and slow- moving life of the canals to the bustling city of Manchester with its incredible number of newly- finished, part-completed and just started building sites - Commercial blocks, shopping malls and appartment blocks ranging in height from just a few storeys if in an older, renovated building such as a church or library, to the second tallest building in Britain with 65 floors, 27 of them being the Hilton and the rest appartments! I have to admit that for the first few hours I was seriously thinking of immediately heading to the Lake District, but as I sit in a pub garden in one of the city's quiet alleys chatting to two lovely Georgian ladies, I am pleased I stayed. My hotel is fabulously located in one of the few remaining medieval parts of the city. The hotel is certainly old, rather run down, but superbly located. My room is fine, though in need of some TLC, and to my amazement, there is an iron...