09.04.2019

Visiting Manchester, Liverpool, Chester and York

As an inland Spaniard from dry Madrid, it is a pleasure visiting the green northern countries, which includes UK. Here is a summary our walks during a long weekend in North England. We were based in Manchester, and from there traveled to Liverpool, Chester and York.

Day one. Arriving to North West England. MANCHESTER

Manchester is the place of origin of a lot of music bands (Oasis, The Smiths, Chemical Brothers…) but there are not only musicians, also architectures. Sir Norman Foster was born and raised in Manchester, and the City has a good number of remarkable buildings.

It is not a big city, 530.300 people living in the Centre, around 2,5 million in the Greater Manchester. One the benefits of its size is that you can walk across it in a 15/20 minutes’ walk.

Our day around the city started in Piccadilly, leaving the Piccadilly Gardens behind you, towards Chinatown and the Gay Village.

Visiting the Gay Village, after crossing the canal, we stopped in Sackville Gardens and the Alan Turing Memorial.

We turned around in Sackville street and went to Chinatown Arch. In Chinatown area we highly recommend the visit to Manchester Art Gallery and Central Library.

From there, you can go down to John Dalton Street and visit Castlefield and the Spinningfields. The Science and Industry Museum has an interesting exhibition about how cotton mills used to work. In the Spinningfields, the John Ryland’s library is beautiful neo-gothic building.

From there, you should go up through Deansgate to Victoria street and you will reach the Medieval district. The cathedral is not very big, but lovely nonetheless and on its rear you will find the Football Museum, and in its proximity, our favorite area in the city, the Northern district.

Walking down from the Northern district, crossing Market street, you will find Picadilly gardens, our starting point.

Eat:

Here go a couple of suggestions that we visited:

The Patron (If you go there for the dinner, they have live music downstairs) (Northern District)
Pen & Pencil (Northern District. Live music)
Mackie Mayor (Northern District, great brunch)
Byron (Picadilly Gardens. Tasty burgers)

Other suggestions for food and beer: Port Street Beer House, Piccadilly Tap and Albert’s Schloss, and at Deansgate, Hawksmoor.

If you are staying in the city, of course, there is a good variety of hotels from various international hotel chains, Mercury, Hilton (in the Beetham tower designed by Ian Simpson), Jurys Inn… The Principal and Gotham are two beautiful hotels.

Day two. York.

Try to get a nice window seat on the train traveling from North England industrial towns to York. The Yorkshire countryside is a beautiful green and well-kept grass garden.

Having only a day, keep in mind that there are three attractions in the city that will likely take almost all day: The impressive cathedral, the Yorkshire Museum and its lovely gardens and the Wall. The full wall’s walk takes around 2 hours, and you should at least, walk the cathedral part of the wall (around half and hour). The Shambles is a great area for lunch. The Shambels’ pubs are like museums, and if the sun is shining the Shambles’ open market is a good place to eat or to buy food. All coffee shops around the canal in front of the museum’s gardens are cozy and perfect for afternoon tea.

Day three. Chester.

(If you are traveling from Manchester, be aware that Transport for Wales’ trains does fewer stops than Northern’s trains).

As it was the case in York, when visiting Chester, the Cathedral and the walls are a Must. Crossing the city from the Cathedral, to the Roman Amphitheater, and from there, taking the wall to reach the Watergate. You will find the Chester’s racecourse on your left going up from the wall to Watergate.

From there, you should cross the city by walking, and visit Grosvenor park. From there, you may want to have a walk by the River Dee side, all bridges are worth visiting, and the view is so pleasant.

Suggestions for Food and Drinks: (We tried Sticky Walnut):

Restaurants:

Sticky Walnut
Hoole
Chef’s Table
Joseph Benjamin
Olive Tree
Grosvenor’s hotel Restaurant
Blackstons (for fish and chips, close to the TownHall and the Market)

Pubs:

Telford’s (By the Canal)
Old Harkers Arms (By the Canal).
Old Boot Inn (In town)
Bear and Billet (In town)
Brewery Tap (In town)

Day four. Liverpool.

The rape blossom fields on the way from Manchester to Liverpool announced a great visit. Yes, Liverpool rocks!

Whatever you prefer, museums, food, live music, night clubs, impressive cathedrals or just taking a walk and getting lost in the city, everything is possible there.

Getting off the train in Lime Street Station, our visit started at St. George’s quarter. From there we went to the Cavern Quarter (Beatles) and then Albert’s Docks: The Liver Building, The Liverpool’s Tate Gallery and the Beatles’ Museum. (Queen Victoria, Albert Sax-Coburg and The Beatles are everywhere in Liverpool, so to enjoy the city you better like them or at least not hate them).

From there we went to Liverpool’s Cathedral, visited its cemetry, and the Metropolitan Cathedral.

My feeling is that one day is not lengthy enough to really see Liverpool.

Here go some food suggestions for drinks and food: