SOLO EUROPE IV: DAYS 8-10 [MANCHESTER, THE PEAK DISTRICT, & CHESTER]
after a night of tossing and turning with a fever, i got ready in the morning to leave for manchester. you know i do not feel good when i get english breakfast tea instead of coffee. english breakfast tea is not one of my favorites, but when in england it is everywhere. this would be my longest train ride of my trip (which is really not that long compared to my train rides from my other trips). i have had some weird looks when i said i visited manchester. it is not the most obvious to visit as a tourist unlless you like football. the main reason was that i was a good home base for some day trips in the north & there are some interesting museums in the city. i initially thought i would stay in birmingham, and i think most tourists would, but i was more interested in the museums in manchester (and they were all free!). the uk can get pretty expensive & most museums have admission. manchester & edinburgh were the only cities where i felt like it was more the norm to have free museums. i think manchester is one of the most underrated cities to visit. more on that later.
the city had a boom of textile manufacturing. manchester was the first industrialized city in the world in the 1700s.
after arriving to the train station, i waited at the bus stop to get closer to my hostel. manchester has a free bus line that takes you from the train station to some of the mjor hubs of the city. i felt spoiled! while waiting i met a couple from the area who were so nice & excited to hear about the places i visited. they were old punks from the 1990s & recommended i go to the club scene, but i am boring.
a canal on manchester
i was staying in the potato wharf area (called so because this is the area that cargo ships from dublin unloaded potatoes). canals started being built in the 1760s to move goods in and out of the city. today, you can walk along & across these canals. the relics of the past continue today, but no longer to move products. one of the best parts of this visit was walking these mazes. getting to & from the hostel, i walked skinny sidewalks along these waterways. it is easy to imagine how busy they would be during the insustrial boom. very peaky blinders. to the tram station, you also have to walk through the historic castlefield area. this was once the roman fort of mamucium (c.79), and there are still ruins today you can visit. manchester is very good about having signs explaining the history around you. this made for a very enjoyable walk. surprisingly, this day the streets were completely empty. it felt off & eery, but i realized it was because it was a weekday. it got much busier during the weekend.
i then made my way from the hostel to the local tramway, to go to my first museum, the imperial wars museum of the north. this museum was different from the london one. it is a little more outdated & is in one giant room. the north museum focuses more on peoples experience of war. i still enjoyed it, but if you had to do one, i would recommend the one in london.
the IWM of the north (i had already visited the central london museum a few days earlier)
i also got a delicious lunch: a sausage roll with piccalilli (chopped veggies in a mustard sauce - i really liked this) & some tea for my sore throat.
ceramic poppies memorial
i then took the tramway back to my hostel. near to the hostel is the science + industry museum. the museum is housed in the oldest surviving railway station in the world, the liverpool road station from 1839. i was a little disappointed. i thought this museum would be more thorough about the origins of the industrial revolution & manchester's role, but it seemed to be more about artifacts. they did have working machinery which was cool. as an american, i only know about the industrial revolution in the us. they did have a small exhibit about steven hawking & even his chair.
i did not realize it at the time, but near the deansgate tram station was the castlefield viaduct, which served me as a "bridge" shortcut back to the hostel. today it is just garden bridge, but it was once a victorian steel viaduct for freight trains & used until 1969. i love seeing how relics of the past are now reused in a way to serve the people today. i noticed this a lot in manchester & as someone who loves history, i love feeling closer to it. it was not busy & i had sections all to myself.
castlefield viaduct sky garden" (c.1892)
there are pretty, maintained gardens here, but there is also section left to grow wild in the contaminated soil.
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the next morning, i left for my day trip & took this pretty photo of the deansgate tram station
after arriving to the train station (and going to the farthest platform imaginable), i took a train to chesterfield. the purpose was to make a day trip to the peak district. unfortunately, this was one of the rainiest days of my trip, but that is the uk. it rains a lot. it is a little funny it had to happen the one & only day i was visiting a national park. once i arrived in chesterfield, i had to wait for the peak sightseer bus. this is a private bus company but run in collab with the local transportation company & provides seasonal transportation through derbyshire as the peak district does not have any other public transportation routes connecting the towns, villages, & hamlets. i was nervous as there was only 3 buses that left from this station in the morning & the bus had not arrived on time. i even downloaded the app to check in real time & talked to one of the train workers in the train station. luckily, the bus did end up coming. it was just 20 minutes late. i was the only one who hopped on, but more people hopped on when we stopped into town. i took this bus 3 different times & all the drivers were just so cheerful & funny, which was nice. i had never seen such happy bus drivers. also the busses have a audio guide talking sharing info & history for all the stops as you approach. the bus rolled through the hills & there were even some sheep on the road. as we approached, an italian girl behind me was squealing in delight. it was very cute.
sheep!
the main reason i wanted to go to this area was to visit chatsworth house. i was hemming & hawing deciding if i should go since it was a little difficult figuring out how to get there as it is remote. i felt like i would regret it if i did not try. the chatsworth house is an old stately home still owned by the family, but open to the public. it was used for the exterior & interior for the pemberley estate in joe wright's pride & prejudice (one of my favorite movies of all time). when i was first planning, the house was closed & i decided to at least see the outside since i still wanted to visit the area. a few weeks before my trip, the schedule had changed & the house was open the day i planned. little did i know, there was a literary event going on this day & literally all the tickets into the house were sold out by opening time. i first thought it was a joke. luckily, i remembered there was also a ticket option to only walk the grounds and garden (the worker did not even offer it as an option). i learned that ticket was available when i asked. i was a little bummed because i did not have access to the hallway with the checkered floors & the statue room lizzie visits (such iconic scenes). it did work out since it kept my visit shorter & a storm would be rolling in. at this point it was only drizzling sometimes. so i kept pretty dry during my walk.
chatsworth house (aka the pemberley estate)
the garden
of course i had to do a hover smooch of mr. darcy (the bust used in the movie is in the gift shop!)
the only view i got of the statue room from the gift shop
after spending way too much money in the gift shop (i had to purchase a pemberley estate sweatshirt), i walked to the bus stop to take the bus that actually drove into the peak district national park. i had considered instead visiting the market town of bakewell, but it was a bit inconvenient as i would have to take 2 busses instead of one to the train station. instead i decided to visit the village of castleton, deeper into the deeper in the peak district. the peak district is also the national park where joe wright filmed lizzie standing on the cliffside (another iconic scene).
the best photo i was able to take in the peak district on this gloomy & rainy day
originally i planned to do a small hike up to the castle ruins in the village, but the rain was really bad. it rained A LOT. there also was not many places to shelter at. i was feeling a bit miserable, so i did not stay for too long. i knew going in, my visit to castleton would almost be entirely outdoors as there are no museums or indoor historic sites, other than the small visitors center (with no seating).
castleton
i stopped at a bakery and got a delicious bacon & brie sandwich.
the ruins i would have walked up to if the weather was good
i then took the bus to bamford station. this was one of the most remote & smallest train stations from my trip. bamford is deeper in the peak district with one platform on each side & no ticket office, restrooms, or waiting room! there is only a kiosk on one side of the platform & a small shelter. luckily i got there early as i had to run up the stairs to get across to the other platform as the opposite direction had the ticket kiosk. an older couple ended up also waiting for the train (which was delayed due to weather). we ended up talking about the differences of north & south of england. they were curious if i had issues understanding the accent & i asked the same. it was a nice conversation & the biggest one i had for the day. it was also very british as he said it was "pissin' rain."
manchester station has a memorial to injured veterans.
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the next day was my day trip to chester (i saw lots of cows during my train ride). luckily the weather was really nice, sunny, & super blue skies. i wanted to visit chester as it has medieval charm & one of the best preserved city walls in the country. i mostly visited so i could walk around & see some old buildings. some of the building are not originally form the medieval period, but built in the victorian period as there was a medieval revival.
the eastgate of the city walls
chester town hall (c.1860 - gothic)
chester high cross
i enjoyed walking the chester rows, medieval buildings that are 2 stories with shops & businesses. i ended up going to an antique store & talking to the owner. he said business was hard & people do not want to have businesses here. that it was a relic of the past. the antique shop even had a fireplace from the 1400s!
a stairwell to the second floor of the chester rows
chester's roman past are on display at the roman gardens, a public park.
chester below the eastgate of the city walls.
chester cathedral from the city walls
i decided to leave a bit early & return to manchester. buying a ticket was confusing. i saw online return train tickets were cheap, but at the kiosk they were so expensive & not at the time shown online. i ended up going to the box office & leanring the welsh train company that runs that service does not use the kiosk (only northern railways does) so you have to purchase it at the box office in person. good thing i have no fear of asking dumb questions. because there is no national railway, all the companies work their own way. it was a busy train for a sunday.
i wanted to have enough time to walk more of manchester. like i said, i was not expecting to like the city as much as i did. i thought it would just be too fast (it is known to be a party city) & modern. i thought i would be a bit more intimidating, but i felt safe & the locals were so nice. this was when i really got to see that northern charm. it reminds me a bit of the reputation of southern hospitality in the us. in the north including manchester, people are more likely to call someone like me love, darling, sweetheart, & duckie. i absolutely love pet name for starngers. call me crazy, but i enjoyed my walks more in manchester than the london streets. i liked seeing the architecture & old industrial buildings.
a memorial to those from the world wars
i quickly visited the city art museum (it was free!)
there are a lot of these cool intricate, brown stone buildings throughout manchester.
in 1996, the IRA bombed the city center, which resulted in damage that spanned a half mile. this mailbox survived.
pho in the cornmarket
i then walked to shambles square, where 2 medieval buildings were relocated that survived the IRA bombings.
i also visited the manchester cathedral. the light from the stained glass reflecting on the wall was so pretty.
war memorial in the manchester cathedral
walking back to the hostel i saw the former LNER goods warehouse (the regional railway company)
i ended up staying at the only hostel option in manchester that was legit. this ended up being the most expensive hostel i stayed at during my entire my trip which surprised me. generally, hostel cost is determined by competition, not necessarily cost of living. london & edinburgh though expensive cities to live in, were my cheapest stays. for being an expensive hostel, it was really nice. the rooms were basic, but there was a full kitchen, a big commons area, & you would order food there. it was a more traditional youth hostel & is also used by school kids. i stayed in a female dorm & was roomed with 2 middle aged women. this was the only time of this trip where i was not the oldest in my room!
one of the woman, sue from dorset, was there for all 3 nights so we ended up talking quite a bit & ate dinner in the commons area together the last night. she even gave me her number if i ever come back to visit the dorset area. she talked about how her parents relocated from manchester to the countryside during wwii as children (known as railway children). the last night we both ordered "chips" with onion gravy & cheese. this was also the first time i tried "hp brown sauce," an alternative to ketchup & i think it tastes better (i am not a fan of ketchup). to me, brown sauce is the adult version of ketchup as it is more savory & less sweet. i also met a girl from india but living in london who was visiting for a an electronic music event. she invited me, but i am boring. she apologized in advance that she would returning at 4 am - and she did. she also recommended i try a certain british drugs. she was absolutely wild, but also very nice!
