Manchester United: Manchester's Magic Museums, Memorials and Moments: Including What to see at the National Football Museum and Manchester

Problem
I have been a supporter of Manchester United ever since the air crash 60 years ago. I was only a tot at the time but I remember the shock of learning about it. Where can you go to support Manchester United?

Answer
The National Football Museum, Manchester, is a great place to go. A survivor of the air crash was Sir Bobby Charlton, who attended a 60-year commemoration in February 2018.

Mancunians are united in praising their city. I used to share a flat in London with a doctor from Manchester called Trudy and she claimed that people in the north of England were much warmer and friendlier than in London. Manchester is a great place for museums, whether or not you visit the football museum or are a football fan.

What are my top 10 Manchester sights?
1 The Lowry, Pier 8, The Quays, Salford M50 3AZ. Tel:0843 208 6000.
This complex named after Lowry contains two theatres and assorted eating spots as well as an exhibition of some of up to 100 Lowry paintings. Open Sunday to Friday 10-5 and Saturday 10-5. Free 30 minute tour of exhibition at noon and 2 pm.
The artist painted such evocative paintings with his crowds of matchstick people rushing to and fro, even little dogs. The people looked poor and painfully thin and anxious but full of energy.
Entrance is 'free', with a ticket and donation box. You also see a film on Lowry's life.

In Manchester Art Gallery I looked at a reproduction of his living room with the chair with the spring sticking out. For visitors. A typical artist, employed, but he didn't seem to care about looking after property, only devoted to his art. So good at painting people, but reputedly anti-social. He was given honours in his lifetime but turned them down.
The shop has loads of great items at all prices decorated with parts of his paintings, prints unframed and framed, bags, pill boxes, silk ties, and brooches.
https://shop.thelowry.com/collections/jewellery-and-accessories?page=2

2 A statue of Lowry seated on a bench, drawing, is in the village of Mottram in Longdendale in Greater Manchester.

Memorial to artist Lowry (1887-1976), statue seated on a bench in Mottram in Longdendale, Manchester. Picture author A Carty.

A bridge links The Lowry and the War Museum. Parking is expensive (unless you are staying at a nearby hotel such as the Holiday Inn Express) but you can see both The Lowry and the War Museum if you pick the nearby car park.

3 War Museum

4 National Football Museum
Free entry. Open daily.
Inside the modern museum, see banners, football, football shirts.

Outside the museum, dramatic statue of a footballer flying through the air diagonally to save a ball from the goal. Most statues show people posing upright. Apart from capturing a moment in history, it's an innovative piece of sculpture. Looking at the statue is like looking at a plane. You can't help marvelling at the miraculous design and how it defies gravity and keeps up.

National Football Museum, Manchester, England.

5 The City's Science Museum
So much to see and do here. I loved the history. So much to read and learn that if you go back a year or more later it's like visiting a different place. I recall on my first visit reading a grim story about the flooding of the cemetery sending coffins and bodies and skeletons through the streets, and how that is prevented in modern times. When I went back I seemed to miss this drama and looked at totally different things. My favourite part was the reproduced street with the pharmacy, sweetshop and toys.

6 Gaskell House
84 Plymouth Grove. Home of author Elizabeth Gaskell.

7 Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street.

Manchester Art Gallery. Photo by David Dixon.

8 Jewish Museum
Fascinating. I remember reading about immigrants with coins hidden in the lining of their clothes.

9 Chinatown
Chinese New year, this year starts Friday Feb 16, 2018. Expect lion dances and drums and festivity.

10 Getting About
It would be fun to take a modern tram. And an old-fashioned tram.

Modern Tram in Manchester. Photo by Dr Neil Clifton in Wikitravel.

To make liefe easy, you can also take a hop on hop off bus tour on a bus which is half open at the top, in case it rains or is cold. The cost is about £12 for adults, £6 for concessions and stops include the national football museum. 

For a Manchester United fan anywhere in the world, a great city to visit.

Getting There
Manchester has England's largest airport after Heathrow and it's an award-winning airport.

Useful Websites
http://www.nationalfootballmuseum.com

http://www.nationalfootballmuseum.com/explore-the-museum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_of_interest_in_Greater_Manchester

https://www.visitmanchester.com/things-to-see-and-do/tours-and-sightseeing/tours-and-tour-guides/sightseeing-manchester-p340511

visitengland.com

visitbritain.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Transport in Hong Kong: taxi, train, MTR, tram, shared minibus, walking

I used the airport express, the underground train, the shared minibus, the free outdoor escalator.

The Airport Express Train
We bought the return ticket because it was cheaper than two single tickets.


The Octopus card, equivalent of London's oyster card, can be used on the train and the buses, including the shared minibuses. the shared minibuses depart when full.



Underground Train and stations

Taxi
Taxi drivers don't speak much English. Best to get a local friend or hotel staff to explain the destination. Ask for a receipt.

Shared Minibus
Surprisingly easy. The buses and minibuses have stops with the stopping points in both Chinese and English.

Free Outdoor Escalator
Walking diagonally up to the Sun Yat-sen museum was easy for the first half of the trip. The roads go diagonally so they are not too steep. But the five minute walking distance were told on the internet turned out to be forty five minutes if you are zig-zagging rather than taking the escalator.

The other problem is that the escalators are going up and not down at certain times of day. If you've ever been trekking, you'll know that running downhill may be faster but you are more likely to lose your footing and tumble over unstoppably. Sorry to sound like a sourpuss. Walking is a delightful and inexpensive way to travel, but do allow extra time.

Tram
I didn't take the slim tram. I am not keen on trams. Trams and trolley buses share the same advantages and disadvantages. Like trains they carry lots of people. Like trains tearing along the East coast of America and hitting people on level crossings, trams and trolley buses and pedestrians and cars don't mix.

Trams are bumpy, noisy and scary. Riding on the ones in San Francisco are pretty but pretty scary.

We got rid of the ones in London and now people want to bring them back. Their main disadvantage is that they are like unstoppable trains. But trains are on tracks while trams and trolley buses are almost always in busy pedestrian streets with cars and pedestrians crossing the line. Trams are even more dangerous than cars because they don't slow down, nor stop, nor turn, when pedestrians are seen stopped, stationery, or running across the track.

I nearly got run over when photographing a statue from an empty road in new Zealand. Two trams approached me from different directions. The next day I saw a smashed up car which had been hit by a tram at an intersection.

Compared with a tram, a taxi or shared mini-bus seemed to me a luxury.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author speaker.