For those who said this place is expensive and those who said it was going to burn a whole in our arse...get a load of this bargain! Ed has pulled one out of the bag, and is taking Deb to Ireland for a holiday for her birthday. We scored flights for 2 pennies each, RETURN!!!! With taxes it comes to £40 for two people return! That's about Aus$95. To put this into perspective we regularly spend this much to travel on public transport around Yorkshire to climb for the day!! Deb thinks she is worth more than a penny for her birthday but is sure Ed will provide enough chocolates on the day to make up for it! We've got 4 day there so we're going to travel from Dublin down to Cork, keep going left round Ireland and then back up through the middle. All we are taking is a carry-on bag each and that's it. We'll stop off at B&B's so the accommodation will cost heaps more than the airfare. We are off to Spain at xmas but thought what the heck everyone needs a warmup holiday!
Since we are leaving England in 6 weeks, we are trying to see as much each weekend as possible. Last Saturday we got the train across to Manchester. We were very surprised at how modern Manchester is - although this is mainly due to the big IRA bomb which went off a few years ago. We checked out the Science and Technology museum which sounds like a place that boring old farts visit, but it was in fact very interesting. It was spanned over several buildings. There was a whole building dedicated to the RAF which had old planes and suicide planes that the Japs used to use, plus old one man flying machines and the first passenger jet. There was another building dedicated to steam/gas engines. Then the main museum building had exhibits on famous people who discovered various things over the years such as the geezer who split the atom, and all sorts of other nerdy science geeks. It was interesting though. Our main reason for going in originally was because one of the top windows overlooked the Coronation street set and Deb was dying to see this. Unfortunately Corro Street bosses are a bunch of wankers and have blacked it out and barricaded the entrances so you can't see a thing anymore. They used to do tours but they've stopped that now too.
We then wandered about the streets abit and then headed to a big shopping centre out of town called the Trafford Centre. The day we went was choc-a-bloc with all the xmas shoppers so it was hectic to walk around but it was still a nice wander and passed a few hours. We had a mission getting back due to all the crowds getting onto a bus. While we were waiting for our train home, we stopped at an old pub for a drink. This pub was a couple of hundred years old and originally was located in a different part of the city but was moved piece by piece one brick at a time to its current location.
The following day, Ed had a day off and went bouldering locally. Deb went into Leeds to see a museum called the Thackray Medical museum. It was excellent and really interesting. It was 3 stories high and covered everything from modern and historic medicines and procedures as well as reasons behind illnesses and disease. They had built an old replica Victorian street which showed how people used to live before they knew about hygiene and disease - it reminded Deb a lot of Asia now! There was a few graphic sections on the way they used to do operations, one in particular was how they would amputate limbs with no anesthetic.
This weekend we went on a long walk over the moors which is something we have wanted to do since we arrived. Tania and Nick have done this walk before and it sounded really good. So with Tania leading the way and navigating we walked from Hebden Bridge to Haworth which was approximately 15 kms. We walked up and down moors and valleys. The moors were very bleak, and rugged. It was freezing cold, wind was blowing a gale and we were very exposed in places. We saw some great views though which in one way was good because it was beautiful scenery, but on the other hand we could see the miles and miles of walking we had left to do! Hebden Bridge is just down the road from where we live. Haworth is a small village with traditional old stone buildings lined by cobblestoned streets and old church with ancient graveyards. It is mainly renowned for the Bronte sisters who grew up and lived here. The house where they lived and wrote their books is still standing as a museum which we didn't go into but we walked around the outside and had a sticky beak. They are buried in a vault in the church which we did go and look inside. We had a coffee to warm up as it was starting to get even colder, then caught the bus home.
We are a great time in England now that we settled in and really enjoying the different things England has to offer. If it's any consolation the only sunshine we are seeing is when we flick on the telly and watch Home and Away!
Mark