On Friday evening, had a quick pint after work and caught the train up to Manchester Piccadilly, and changed there for the local train down to Didsbury, where we met up with Si and Will and headed back to Suzi's place, right by the station. Without wasting time, we caught a bus, not before Si being on the receiving end of a punch from some local chavs, over to Fallowfield which is the student area of Manchester. We did a bit of pub hopping, not forgetting to stop by Baa Bar for their awesome £1 shooters. After another couple of pubs, we grabbed a kebab and headed home.

Yesterday morning wasn't too early a start, with Will cooking us all one of his legendary fry ups. The afternoon we took a walk (in the wind and rain) down to the O'Neills for an afternoon of sport. Starting off with the football were the two local derby games with Man Utd beating Everton and Liverpool drawing Man City, so not bad for both local teams. After the football was the England vs New Zealand game, and then finally the Italy - Springboks game, where we eventually got to win a game 32 - 10. After the O'Neills we pub hopped a bit and then made our way home, grabbed a curry and then out to the Printworks, and specifically to Tiger Tiger for the night.

This morning we headed out to a local Wetherspoons for a breakfast come Sunday roast and then off for some city sightseeing. We began by stopping by the Old Trafford, a football ground that needs no introduction or explaining. We took a walk through the gift shop, which was more like a mall than a shop, and then left and headed into Manchester central.

We made our way firstly to the Hilton Hotel, which is part of the Beetham Tower - a landmark 47-storey skyscraper in Manchester city centre. It is the tallest building in Manchester by a significant margin. It consists of a Hilton Hotel up to level 23 and apartments from level 25 up to the triplex penthouse on level 47. The 23rd floor is deeper than those below, and has two glass windows in the floor, offering views down to the ground from the skybar Cloud 23, which is the only skybar in Manchester. After having our High Tea while overlooking the city, we took a walk across to the Christmas Market and browsed around there for the afternoon - unfortunately all too full from our tea and cake to try any of the German traditions.

Despite the miserable, cold and rainy weather for the entire weekend, still had a fantastic time up in 'the Manc'. And the best thing about going away for a weekend and leaving on the Friday is it always seems longer than just a weekend away. Unfortunately back to work tomorrow morning, but a weekend well spent! And of course, a new city to add to the ever-growing list.