Franconian Beer Message Board
Yobbishness in Manchester |
| Posted by Nick B. on 2011-08-18 00:58:10 |
| As it turned out, we managed to get chased through downtown Manchester right as the yobs started tearing the place up on Tuesday. That was great. We landed at 15:00 as planned, got into our hotel right near Piccadilly Station, and then wandered out to Arndale Center to find a T-Mobile card for my Android internet-telephone device. (£5 to start up a card with x minutes of talk time and y SMSs, but with free internet for SIX MONTHS--easy peasy!) Then on exiting Arndale Center under the pedestrian overpass pictured here: http://tinyurl.com/arndalecentrestreetview to head towards the Angel pub for dinner and hopefully Mallinson's ales (very good of the former, none of the latter unfortunately though the 3.5% Cascade Pale from Hawkshead was brilliant as was a taste of a 9% imperial stout from somewhere in Cornwall), we encountered what I thought was a group of women out on a hen party running up the street toward us, yelling and screaming. No, not a hen party, they were running from a group of hooded yobs who came round the corner yelling and smashing windows with pipes or whatever they were carrying. The missus thought it was gunfire (so innocent, she is), so she panicked a bit and we ran back into the centre, thinking they would just run on by. No, they ran in after us, smashing in the glass doors and a few shop windows along the way. Many shops had already closed though, apparently having suspected trouble that evening. We turned a different direction through the centre than they did, and so escaped any further "danger". Made it uneventfully from there to the Angel, where they hadn't heard of any trouble going on yet. I wanted to take herself to the New Oxford, King's Arms, and Crescent pubs out toward Salford, and even thought that that way would be quieter, being out of the centre of town. Whoops. The KA was closed up, and in the New Oxford (a lovely 3% mild whose name escapes me) we learned that trouble was brewing in Salford. A phone call to the Crescent to find out if they were open: "Who is this?" "You don't know me, I'm a tourist." (Quasi-Canadian accent of mine) "Okay, you can come, but come round the back and knock." They were going to close up around 21:00 though, and we decided we'd better call a taxi to get us back to the hotel. Nope, no taxis running that way. But the train station wasn't far away, though further toward Salford. So we walked uneventfully enough through the smoke to the Salford Crescent station where the train punctually took us to Piccadilly, albeit with a stop along the way whilst yobs were running along the track. Then back to the hotel, which being new and all glass-fronted, we could watch things happen from inside. A bobby at the station thought that the very fine Bull's Head Inn round the corner very likey would have already been long closed, FWIW, a pity as it was another great Manc pub that I wanted to take the little woman to. Here are a few of Manc's finest in riot gear from the hotel lobby: http://i51.tinypic.com/2zjf1tt.jpg and http://i55.tinypic.com/2wf7qqu.jpg . The outer pane of that window got smashed in after we'd gone to bed, apparently causing panick down there in the lobby where it happened. Scarborough was indeed quite calm in comparison, perhaps not surprisingly. 6 nights there with fantastic countryside (moor, steam railroad) and coastal walking (Whitby, Robin Hood's Bay) with a couple of evenings in York (now *THAT* is a great town) made for a fine holiday, even if it did manage to rain a bit. No, really, it rained in North Yorkshire in August! Back to homebrewed ale and Kellerbier now though. :( |
| Followups: |
 Yobbishness in Manchester by barry on 2011-08-18 03:54:54 |
| Yobbishness in Manchester by Nick B. on 2011-08-18 04:06:28 |
| Yobbishness in Manchester by barry on 2011-08-18 06:53:18 |
| Yobbishness in Manchester by Nick B. on 2011-08-18 08:10:20 |
| Yobbishness in Manchester by DonS on 2011-08-18 08:54:11 |
| Yobbishness in Manchester by barry on 2011-08-18 09:23:31 |
| Yobbishness in Manchester by DonS on 2011-08-18 09:41:34 |
| Yobbishness in Manchester by Mark Andersen on 2011-08-18 19:39:14 |
| Yobbishness in Manchester by Nick B. on 2011-08-19 01:32:34 |
| Yobbishness in Manchester by barry on 2011-08-19 05:55:53 |
| Britisches Bier by Nick B. on 2011-08-19 06:27:50 |
| Britisches Bier by barry on 2011-08-19 07:19:58 |
| Cerevisiae Mancuniumis by DonS on 2011-08-19 09:41:18 |
| Cerevisiae Mancuniumis by barry on 2011-08-20 01:43:44 |
| Cerevisiae Mancuniumis by john ratcliffe on 2011-08-20 02:02:06 |
| Cerevisiae Mancuniumis by Nick B. on 2011-08-20 04:58:18 |
| Cerevisiae Mancuniumis by barry on 2011-08-20 13:13:00 |
| Cerevisiae Mancuniumis by Nick B. on 2011-08-21 01:41:12 |
| Cerevisiae Mancuniumis...ack! by Nick B. on 2011-08-21 01:59:17 |
| Cerevisiae Mancuniumis by barry on 2011-08-21 03:15:21 |