Visit to Manchester

This was our second escape to Manchester, which proves that we quite liked it the first time we went, besides the fact that we have a friend who lives there. Another of the reasons why we have returned to Manchester is because it's a beautifully decorated city at Christmastime, so we travelled there during the December bank holiday. The cheapest flights to get there are with the airline, Ryanair.

If you go at the same time of year, you are going to love the city centre. In Albert Square, the Town Hall is all lit up and is adorned with giant illuminated figures (Father Christmas, for example). You can also walk around the square, visiting the different stalls where you can buy Christmas decorations, or any other gift really, and enjoying a bite to eat; we chose a hot dog and, to drink, you have to try the mulled wine. Every year, they change the mugs that they serve the wine in, so when you pay for the drink, you pay a little bit extra as a deposit for the mug. If you return the mug, they give you the deposit back, but you can also keep it, and this is what the deposit would be used for. In all honesty, the mugs are very cute and there are lots of people who take them home with them.

Manchester at Christmas is a city with a lot of charm: you can walk through the city centre where everything is all lit up, and there are people singing in the street, which makes the walk around more enjoyable, in spite of the cold temperatures. One of the things that I like the most are the typical little English houses decorated with lots of lights from the roof to the door, all decorated with little snowmen or Father Christmas lights (think classic Christmas films). Therefore, it's for this reason that I have always wanted to spend the whole Christmas period in Britain, which is something that I am still waiting to do.

If you are sports lovers, you can try to go to a Premier League football match and watch Machester United or Machester City. In the end, we could go to any matches, but we went to visit the Manchester City ground, the Etihad Stadium, and the club's official shop.

We had our friend's car, but you could rent one (although be careful, they drive on the opposite side to Spain) or look at train/bus times, to visit other places close to Manchester. The first time we went to Manchester, we visited York, which is a very pretty city with an impressive cathedral, and we ate in a friendly, and rather charming, place. Last year, we visited both Buxton and Oxford. In Buxton, we walked through the Pavilion Gardens, visited the Opera House there, as well as other points of interest. When we visited Oxford, we went to Christ Church College and Cathedral, walked along Cornmarket Street where there are lots of shops and musicians singing, visited Oxford's Natural History Museum, and, finally, walked through the Oxford University Parks, which, I must say, are beautiful. It's such a shame that it started to rain on us, but it is a place where you can wander around peacefully taking in both the nature and some animals, like ducks, squirrels, or birds.

York

Buxton

Oxford

We went out one night and went to a place where they played Spanish music. I don't remember the name of the club, but it was a small place that we got into free of charge.

I recommend going to a really big shopping centre called The Trafford Centre, which is really amazing with its beautiful decor, where you can go a bit of shopping and, when you get tired, have something to eat in one of the numerous different restaurants there. We ate in an Italian place called Pesto: the food that we ordered (pizza and cheesy garlic bread) was really tasty and came very quickly.

To conclude, I recommend that you visit Manchester, or any other British city during the run up to Christmas, to enjoy all of the Christmas charm and spirit, the Christmas markets, the typical mulled wine, as well as doing a little bit of shopping.