War, what is it good for....

Playlist
Various - Prognosis vol 8

Up and out to a nearby coffee house for breakfast - the hotel wanted £27 for the two of us to breakfast there - we declined the offer...

Post breakfast, I took some pics of the Manchester architecture...





...before we took the Eccles Tram out to Salford Keys...







...and over the Manchester Ship Canal to the Imperial War Museum North...





I must admit, we did not expect much of this, thinking it would be a collection of militaria...

It was though, quite brilliant and we ended up spending a good three hours in the building, enjoying the exhibits, the multimedia shows...



...and the viewing platform, from where we could see all of Manchester, including a different take on the iconic Hilton Hotel building and nearby Old Trafford stadium...





In the shop, I purchased a book of first World War Poetry to remind myself of the works on which I wrote my dissertation nearly thirty five years ago, on the changing face of war poetry from 1914 to 1918...





After a coffee and cake in the cafe, we walked back over the bridge to The Lowry...



...and enjoyed an exhibition of work by Leo Fitzmaurice...





...and I bought a book on "the photograph as contemporary art"...



Then, into the Lowry Outlet Mall, but enticed only by some notebooks for me and some Cadbury sweeties for the two of us...

We walked back round to Salford Keys, took the tram back into town and walked around the Northern Quarter again, finding a good bar on Thomas Street, the Marble Brewery...



...and sat outside in the sun...



In the evening, we were about to dine at the "best" Chinese restaurant in town but were advised by a Big Issue seller to instead check out the restaurants round the corner which weren't trading so much on their reputations...

All the change in my pocket thanked him for the advice...

And so, avoiding the place where Anne suffered food poisoning a couple of years ago when here with Lynn, we plumped for a "Try Thai" and I enjoyed a very tasty, very, very hot salad while Anne partook of the cheeky wee spring rolls - both following on with red thai curries - mmm, mmm...



Almost as good as Annie's own...

We ended the night in the hotel bar watching Ghana throw away a last minute of extra time penalty chance against Uruguay to reach the semis of the World Cup - and then going on to lose the subsequent penalty shoot out too - ouch!

Highlight of the Day : Imperial War Museum North...