mytravelbugbite

Fraser and I spent an afternoon in Manchester with a friend. I have only ever been there a couple of times before and always for a specific reason (e.g. to look around the Uni) but never just to explore. We followed a walking route using the gpsmycity Manchester app to take in some of the top sights.

The route began with us walking through Albert Square which is alongside Manchester Town hall and home to the Statue of Prince Albert. It was a natural starting point and from there we wandered past the central library next door. The domed structure is juxtaposed against the neogothic building next door.

Our trail ten continued down past Beetham Tower, Manchester Opera house, the river and the People’s History Museum until we reached the John Rylands Library. The gothic exterior of the building is impressive but the true beauty is the interior. Despite having a modern entrance you then have to travel down an arched passageway to a group of staircases and carving reminiscent of Hogwarts. The whole thing is stunning and a little bonus was found in the old school toilets, worth having a peek inside even if you don’t need to use them. Added bonus, it is free to enter.

Following this we walked up to the Barton Arcade which was constructed in the Victorian era and is very pretty although unfortunately there are some empty retail spaces which is sad to see but is a common feature among many British high streets nowadays.

Further along was the cathedral which is currently undergoing a refurb so we decided against going in. We avoided the temptation to go shopping in the many stores around this area and went past Urbis, a modern glass building housing the football museum- Manchester being famous worldwide for its football after all.

One of my favourite places we found was the Printworks opposite which was a very kitsch building (think Universal Streetwalk) housing multiple food establishments. We had already decided on a dinner venue so didn’t stop for anything here.

We had our meal at Cane & Grain which was bustling with people out for Saturday night drinks but also does decent ribs and burgers.

Now for the giveaway. We planned our route using the custom feature on the gpsmycity Manchester app. Gpsmycity has guides for 470 cities around the world and are offering 20 people codes to download a city of their choice (normal price 4.99 per city). It works on both ios and android devices.

How it works:

Choose from the list here the city that you are interested in (maybe it somewhere you have booked or somewhere you would like to go). Leave a comment on this post stating which city and what you would most like to see there, then leave me an email address to send the code to. The giveaway will close on 31st March 2016 or when all the codes have been allocated and I will then send them out to everyone, it will be first come first served. So get planning your next city break now.

Disclaimer: I was provided the Manchester app for a trial of its use. All opinions are my own.