Spring Break Manchester and Liverpool

Our Spring Break plans came into being because of some great airline deals by Ryan Airlines.  They were promoting their new route from Stuttgart to Manchester, England with really cheap tickets.  The thing about budget airlines like this is that they make their money in many other ways, such as charging for checked baggage, charging for getting an assigned seat (more if you want leg room, although if you want to recline your seat into a comfortable position, you will just have to find another airline to accommodate you), refreshments (including water) while in flight, even charging to print out your boarding pass at the airport if you are some poor person and don't have a personal printer at home.  Our strategy to thwart these devious plots consisted of forgoing any checked baggage and just carrying a backpack per person.  This meant that we had only a couple outfits a piece and minimal toiletries that are airport security approved.  We also printed out all of our boarding passes for all six flights ahead of time, effectively draining my printer of ink.

We didn't really know what there was to do in Manchester so we ended up having a day trip to Liverpool on our first full day there.  We took a bus tour around the city, stopping at the wharf where there is a museum on the Beattles.  Unfortunately, the girls weren't all that interested in touring the museum and we weren't anxious to spend 70 pounds on a museum that the girls were going to complain about.  So we ended up going on a big Ferris wheel that was located across the street and then taking the bus back to the free history museum.  I'm afraid that going to the Smithsonian museums ruined other museums for us.  

One of the more interesting phenomenon that happened to us during this trip was that we never ate English food in England.  Manchester and Liverpool turned out to be very diverse places with many good foreign food restaurants.  The first night we were there we had Chinese.  The day of our Liverpool trip, we had Spanish tapas for lunch and went back to Manchester and had the "best burritos in town."  Although, we did get to try new beverages that were English.  Fentiman's botanically brewed sodas were among the more "interesting" drinks we experienced.  The dandelion and burdock drink with ginger extract was an intense combination of lollypop/cough syrup and burning ginger that I'm pretty sure would eat through plastic if left on there long enough.  Oddly enough, the taste grew on me although I couldn't let the drink linger on my lips very long before it got too painful.  

The second full day in Manchester happened to be Easter Sunday.  We thought we would take the bus to the Manchester United soccer (football, to the Brits) stadium and take a tour.  Only we found out that it was really pricy, again especially for children that weren't that interested.  Not that it mattered as it turned out because we missed that bus stop and ended up at this big shopping mall that resembled the Taj Mahal.  Despite the holiday and closed shops, we saw people entering the building and milling about the gigantic mall.  We eventually discovered that the food court and some other things, like the movie theatre, were actually open.  This was good for us as it was lunch time.  We had lunch at Five Guys burgers (again, not English food) and decided to play laser tag in honor of Malia's birthday the next week.  We were thoroughly tromped by Arnie who seemed to come out of no where and then disappear before we could retaliate.  And then for dinner we had some great Italian food at a place right next to the main square area in Manchester where tons of people where just relaxing and enjoying the sunny Easter afternoon.

The girls in front of the Spanish Tapas restaurant in Liverpool

On the tour bus in front of one of the cathedrals in Liverpool

Arnie relaxing on an anchor

On the ferris wheel high above Liverpool

Eating ice cream outside the History museum

Kaitlyn(above) and Malia (below) drinking Fentiman's dandelion and burdock drink.

On the bus going past the Manchester United Stadium.
 I was on the wrong side of the bus to get a good picture of it though

Bethany and Jessi dancing in the fading sunlight near Piccadilly Gardens train stop

Eating appetizers at Ask Italian 

Riding home on the bus