M62 Sojourn

As newly (self) appointed Cultural Attache (well, I'm often called a case) for Merseyside, I visited the hometown of Manchester City yesterday. I had a swift stroll around Chinatown and Piccadilly. Obviously a few pub stops were inevitable, one of which led to an encounter with a guy from New Jersey with his Nikon D700 dwarfing my new baby D40. The poor chap had never been to Liverpool on his trips into England so hopefully that will change soon.

One thing that struck me was the cultural diversity and integation in the city. Of course if the odious BNP had their way, such people and relationships would be banned.

Anyway, details of most of the pubs can be found on this site.

So, some pics (including a couple taken in Liverpool on the way home.

Bremen 2008

Some photos from the 3 day trip to Bremen in Germany.

Part 1

(see Part 2)
Manchester/Salford

Due to the lateness of the flight we did not arrive until 11 O'clock and could not find a pub open in the district we were staying in near to the airport. So, a bottle of Beck's from the local kebab outlet had to suffice.

We spent a number of hours in Salford prior to our trip to Manchester Airport. It is worth knowing that the journey can be staggered at no extra charge on National Express (about £6.50) so we got off in rainy Salford. Our first destination was the Union Tavern on Liverpool Road but when we arrived there they were using the bar as a location for filming an episode of Coronation Street. It will be interesting to see what the storyline involves in a few weeks. My guess is that it involves Liam's death and the shady hit-and-run driver's payments. Quite disappointing that our obvious acting skills were not utilised.

We walked a bit further to the excellent Marble Arch pub in Manchester which brews its own beer. I settled on a Porter.

Next port of call was the old Beer House pub which is now called The Angel (it's on angel Street). We had a light beer from Dunham Massey brewery in Cheshire but this and its replacement was not in good condition. The pub appears to be favouring the gastro side of its customer base. It was disappointing that there does not seem to be any Belgian Kriek on draught as was the case with the old pub.

By now we were getting nicely lubricated and we plumped for another pub with a Coronation Street connection. This Holts pub had toilets officially opened by three former stars - Stan Ogden, Billy Walker and Alan Howard.

Prior to leaving for the airport we settled on the Circus Tavern. Another good Holts pub with a cosy snug room with hundreds of pictures of the famous including visitors to the pub like George Best.

Confused at Manchester

I thought the intro to Brown's speech - using a soundtrack of Higher and Higher - was bizarre. It reminded me of two things: a Darts match entrance and Jocky Wilson, the Scots player immortalised by Dexys as background to their TV performance of Jackie Wilson Said.

Manchester Pub Crawl: August 29

Taking advantage of National Express fun fares we combined a trip to a pet shop specialising in rare animals and fish, with a visit to some of the Real ale pubs of Central Manchester.

My journey got off to its usual difficult start as Merseyrail journeys were terminating at James Street due to emergency engineering work thus necessitating a trip across town to the coach station.

Gullivers
This is a JW Lees house selling their basic entry level best bitter. Opinion was divided on this brew with 2 votes to one in favour. The pub is in one of Mancster’s less salubrious areas with a shop selling porn DVDs, a sex cinema and a white withcraft store along the same street. Can I just say that this wasn't my idea to go there. The culprit knows who he is and denies he knew the street was like that! (and the band played 'believe it if you like!' The beer itself was reasonably cheap but the pub is only worth a swift visit.
Smithfield Hotel
This is near to the famous Band on the Wall club (it seemed to be closed when we went past). This was a shame. It obtained its name from the fact that the artists literally played on a raised stage up against a wall. Many famous bands have been in residence here. Judging from the state of the outside it certainly needs some work doing on it before it rises from the ashes. We were told it will re-open though.
Inside we settled on halves of different beers on offer. Copper Dragon from Skipton Brewery was a good starter at 3.9%. However, we had less success with our second choice of Greenfield’s Long Thumper (4.2%) as this had clearly turned vinegary. It is always a black mark for a pub when the barperson is less than forthcoming with a replacement with the usual ‘nobody else has complained’ being churned out as an excuse. To be fair, it was exchanged for another choice but this type of attitude leaves a taste in the mouth similar to the bad pint. One wonders if we would have succeeded if we had been on a solo visit.

Crown and Kettle, Oldham St, ancoats, Manchester
This was a nice little pub with some interesting beers on sale. I plumped for a Knoll Street Porter by Bazens Brewery (5.2%). A very satisfying dark ale with oaky notes.
We also tried Hornbeam Bitter (3.9%) which was satisfactory. Apparently it has recently re-opened after fire damage. All beers were well kept.
Bar Fringe (Swan Street)
This does not look so inviting from outside but is actually quite an attractive pub inside with a small beer garden facility. Due to the good weather, we took advantage of this. The pub sells a range of Belgian and German beers, which was good to see, but we did not partake as we had other fields to plough.

A fine half of Phoenix Bitter was duly quaffed.

Marble Arch Brewpub, Gould Street/Rochdale Road
This, I feel, was the highlight - a superb pub with its own beers on tap. There are a number of rooms and an outside area. The brewer was busy preparing a mash at the time and I was fortunate to see the some of the process. The brewing area can easily be seen from the window on the doorway. The pub’s website www.marblebeers.co.uk is being updated and not available at the moment.

We then headed for the station after a final beer in a pub in Piccadilly.

We were disappointed to see that The Beer House was not open at the moment. This had been a stalwart from our previous visits to Manchester.

Prior to the pub visits we took the short trip to Manchester Pets And Aquatics neat the Apollo Theatre. They have some weird and wonderful creatures from gheckos to albino chipmonks. There are a number of parrots around the shop. Beware of the one pictured in the slideshow. It'll have your sunglasses off your head if you don't watch it! The hedgehog was priced at £150 but we wondered what the lifespan would be, given that the common hedgehog only lasts a few years in the wild.

Ringo The Starr

I'm still working on a record of our sojourn in Manchesterland. Photos to follow.
In the meantime I recommend the new Ringo Starr compilation Photograph. Put a little Ringo in your lives. I was impressed by this review of the overlooked classic Snookeroo. Ringo himself has talked fondly of it. It was written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. The lyrics (north of England etc) are quite interesting given the fact that Taupin (the wordsmith)was American and Elton came from Southern England (although his father came to work up here.

George is often the Beatle most underrated but we should remember our Ringo. August 18th 1962 means so much.