I was in Manchester yesterday.
I was pretty impressed when I found out that the city operates a free bus shuttle (called Metroshuttle) that operates in the city centre. It runs 3 circuits around the major landmark in the city (including the bus terminal, train stations and town hall). The bus runs rather frequently (Route 1 runs every 5 mins while Route 2 & 3 runs every 10 mins). It is really quite efficient.
A little background about the city: Manchester is the first industrialised city in the world. Manchester was involved in heavy industrial construction during WWII and as a result, it was heavily bombed. Nowadays, the city is not that industrialised or polluted. It is quite pleasant, actually. It also has a large Asian (oriental) community and its Chinatown is relatively big in comparison to London's.
My office is right by the town hall so I took an opportunity to visit the Christmas market at the Albert Square. The people from the office told me to specifically ‘search for Santa'. Well, you can't really miss the giant inflatable Santa on top of the town hall building. Nevertheless, I found that quite funny.
Added 29/11/2006: I was just told that the Santa is made of bullet-proof material because someone tried to shot it down some time ago.
(Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2005/11/08/171105_festive_markets_event_feature.shtml)
The Christmas market is continental European-style so you can find German bratwurst, Glühwein (a spiced mulled wine), gebrannte Mandeln (roasted almonds), Lebkuchen (gingerbread) and also French and Dutch crêpes, cheeses and charcuterie. Of course, there are also Christmas trees and handcrafts. It is really quite ‘festive'.
I bought some spicy sausages, which always goes well with wine. I was kinda in a hurry to leave Manchester for London so I didn't hang around for as long as I want.
Anyway, SP and I are going to a few more Xmas markets in the coming month and I am really looking forward to it now! :)
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