Since I was in the area for Agile North, I took another day off work to hang around in Manchester because my last visit had been less than an afternoon, and I did want to test if there was really any truth to the, “It’s grim up north” comments you hear about all the time. I arrived fairly late on a Thursday evening, shattered from the full on conference day, and ended up on a slow train between Preston (where the conference was) and Manchester.

Unfortunately I didn’t really get much of an impression of what Preston was like – it seemed to be a large University town, and since most people seemed to be travelling in from around the area, instead of from the area, I figure there wasn’t too many IT opportunities around. Anyway, back to Manchester.

I stopped at the Manchester Oxford (Street) train, one of four major train stations in Manchester as it was closer to the hotel I stayed at than any of the other ones. As I found out on Friday, all of the stations aren’t actually too far away from each other, and that Manchester itself is extremely pedestrian-friendly. I grabbed a bite to eat at a non memorable Thai restaurant, before walking around the area and turning in for the night. I noticed several places around town setting up for the Christmas markets, and a gigantic, very rounded Santa perched next to, what I think was, their Town Hall.

Waking up the next morning, I skipped the breakfast since I had dinner so late and proceeded to walk around town. Most people were on their way to work, and it was once again nice to have a day off when everyone else seemed to be a terrible (not quite London pace) rush to get to their office place. Like many English cities, Manchester has it’s fair share of cobblestoned roads that admittedly make it a bit of challenge to walk fast, particularly when they’re covered with a slick from the continuous light drizzle.

I stopped at Katsouris Delicatessen (113 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 2BQ) hoping that they would make some great coffee, and they certainly disappoint. That latte kept me going all the way to lunchtime as I walked around. I love the fact that the space invaders also managed to hit up Manchester on their visit to England. Although I enjoyed seeing all that there was to see in Manchester, it definitely had a bit more of a homely feel, and I can understand why people might enjoy living up there.

My highlight of the day was making it out to SportsCity, where I had prebooked a ticket to do the Manchester City Experience, or basically a guided tour around the Manchester City Football Club grounds. As you can see from the picture above, we got to get up very close to all different parts of the stadium, including the different suite rooms they have available, the press room, the home city changing rooms, and the tunnel all the football players come running out of.

I think it definitely helped that our tour guide was an obviously fanatical fan, and recounted many of his own stories about events that happened in the stadium, turning the tour into something much more interesting. I didn’t realise how many different places football stadiums had for watching (with the above, very comfy chairs reserved for the more exclusive suite room season ticket holders). It also helped that there were only three of us on the tour, and so we had plenty of opportunities to ask our own questions and just take in the whole atmosphere. I loved the way they had the sun lamps blasting yellow light down on to the pitch, the fact that we were standing right next to where all the players would come running on, and I can understand the thrill that footballers must experience running into a roaring crowd.

I really wanted to spend a weekend in Manchester and the surrounding area, but due to prior commitments ended up having to return late on Friday. Fortunately I had prebooked an advance first class ticket on Trainline, that made the very long journey home less unpleasant.