From Liverpool to Manchester

Leaving Liverpool for Manchester was quite hard. I had been really enjoying my time with Jamie but I am sure she was a bit happy to get me out of her hair (and her bed.) We had our toast with salami for breakfast with a nice glass of O'Boy chocolate milk. I said goodbye to my home for the last seven days and headed with Jamie through Wavertree, past the cemetery and Liverpool Women's Hospital and arrived in the center of Liverpool. The walk to the bus was all to quick and Jamie waved me off.

The hour bus ride was over to soon and I was in Manchester. Not that I was dreading it or anything. It's a beautiful city that has lots to offer and pretty buildings. Helped also by the weather being very nice I got to my hostel, dropped my bag off and headed to have a walkabout.

I wandered around much of the city centre with no real direction in mind before making my way through Printworks. I was heading in the direction of Teacup, the lovely little cafe I had enjoyed the last time I was in Manchester. I was stopped on my feet when I found a restaurant called Walrus. I could not resist the name and so headed inside.

I enjoyed their honey glazed ham complete with fried egg and hand cut chips. It was everything I hoped for and really made me crave ham and bacon and ham and bacon and ham, ham, ham!

As I enjoyed my lunch, I checked on Tripadvisor for some hope of what I could do with the rest of my day in Manchester. I found a free museum and that museum happened to be the Greater Manchester Police Museum.  It was only open one day a week and that day was today. Happy Tuesday. I headed along Thomas Street, finding Newton and the hostel I had stayed at the last time. Crossing streets in confusion I finally found my destination.

When I went inside I was happily greeted and informed that it was the 40th anniversary of the Greater Manchester Police and they gave me a free keychain. I wandered into the museum, clutching a pamphlet briefly detailing how the police force came to be.

The, well lets just call them GMP from now on, is the third largest police service in the United Kingdom. GMP employs; 7,565 police officers, 519 Volunteer Special Constables, 739 Police Community Support Officers, and 2,741 members of police staff.

The museum was very interesting with the cells on display as well as the old court room. It gave a detailed look into what the police station was like through the years as well as the progression of their uniform and tools they use.

 After the museum I headed back to the hostel to finally check in. Settling into my room a little, I managed to take a quick selfie of myself to show that I am still alive and haven't been taken over by a fraud.

 After checking my favourite food eat app, I decided to go around the corner from he hostel to check out this little shop/cafe called Fig and Sparrow. I headed inside not sure what to have or eat and decided on a lemon tart and hot chocolate.

I made a good decision as it was very tasty and no matter how hard I tried I could not make that tart re-appear onto my plate. Guess I'm not magic.

The cute cafe with things for sale on the right. Lots of cute things that I wish I could spend all my monies on.

 A quick stroll back to Picadilly, always entranced by the ferris wheel. I grabbed a quick bit of dinner (aka a sandwich) and headed back to my hostel where I sat outside on the patio enjoying the art staring back at me.

A few hours later I decided to try and go to bed early which was a regret as I got almost no sleep. Was woken up by noisy noisy boys and then someones phone started ringing around 4:30 am. Good grief.

Next post: My journey to Milan and Domodossola.