Manchester in March (updated)

The end of the week finally arrived. We packed our bags and headed off to Euston station where we caught the train to Manchester. The trip was about 2.5 hours but we were impressed with the comfort of the train (especially Stephen who had room for his knees!)

We were greeted upon arrival by some familiar faces and whisked away (in their shiny black BMW!) to the Wysel residence where we caught up on a year’s worth of news (this went well into the wee hours of the morning).

Saturday (after being introduced to coffee at Nero’s) we headed further north and east to a place called Bedford, home of the National Media and Photography Museum. Some of the museum highlights included the animation exhibit featuring Wallace and Grommit and the Wombles, the making of television exhibit featuring Stephen the weatherman and the history of photography featuring some cool, old school Kodak adverts. But the overall highlight of the day was the imax 3D underwater adventure. Armed with goggles (designed such that no-one would want to steal them!) the underwater world was brought to life and inspired Stephen and I to do another diving adventure soon!

[update: Matt has posted a video of me looking like a goon in front of the blue-screen when making this photo - for this and more check out the Wysel's blog]

We returned to Manchester for Saturday night and after a few false starts (you really need to book in advance on Saturday night!) we discovered one of Manchester’s gems (‘Room’) – yummy cocktails and food combined with great company made for a very pleasant evening. Topped off with Belgian chocolate and ice-cream (sorry guys both the chocolate and the ice-cream is way better over here) and a lunar eclipse at midnight we slept very well indeed!

Sunday morning we dragged ourselves out of bed and joined Matt and Jo for a service at their new church. It was strange to be halfway across the world singing the same songs but it definitely made us feel right at home. We whiled away the afternoon shopping but all to soon it was time to catch a train back to London. It had been a very fun weekend (thanks Matt and Jo!) and we will look forward to seeing more of our Australian mates soon.