so much seen, in so little time!

Well, we've done so much in the last few days I'm bound to miss something out, but here goes!!

We hopped on the train to Manchester - only to realise we'd booked on the day after the FA Cup Final so the train was full of Manchester City fans drinking, singing, and celebrating their victory. Pretty entertaining.

We got to Manchester and experienced our first real rainy day since we've been here....and have been experiencing days of rain for the last three....but they havent been torential and we've been really lucky at getting a few bursts of light sprinkle while walking about the sights.

Our beautiful, welcoming, and enthusiastic tour guide - miss Anna Murphy- has been VERY obliging in driving us to the far reaches to see some of the best bits that Manchester area has to offer. We first travelled south west to Northern Wales to check out Castle Conwy (which has been there since the 12th Century), and a lovely village called Chester. Lots of character and a cool feeling of 'real' England. We also got to see and explore the 2m square smallest house in Britain. We passed an amazing castle on the way to Conwy and when we asked about how we could get to it we were told that its "only 200 years old" so probably not that interesting to look at and was privately owned anyway....imagine.
On the way home, we finished the day off with traditional English fish, chips, and mushy peas.


Today we travelled north and explored some bits of the beautiful Lakes District. We saw Lake Windermere (famous for Beattrix Potter) and Lake Conniston. Very cute viallges, with amazing scenery in between. We thought we'd seen some lovely countryside yesterday but this was just amazing. Lush green forests and paddocks, speckled with sheep, cows, stone walls and amazing buildings.

We quickly visited the Trafford Centre on the way home - a huge, elaborately decorated shopping mall. The food court was like being on a cruise ship with a band playing classic 'love boat' music and oldies dancing. There was lion statues at every entrance, marble staircases with gold trims, roman statues and frescoes painted on most of the ceilings - the most intense mall we've ever experienced!

Tomorrow we are sorting out our trip around Ireland and having an organising day in Manchester city - time to buy some wellingtons for wwoofing! We might be ending the night with a famous Manchester curry, beer, and pub quiz!!