Manchester; Saturday, 10 November, 2012

With a very good night’s sleep, and a massive breakfast inside me I headed out from the hotel and took the short walk to Manchester Oxford Road station to pick up the train to Piccadilly (I was feeling lazy) and then the train out to Buxton on the edge of the Peak District.

As it had been quite late when I got up, and then even later by the time I had finished stuffing my face at breakfast, it was almost 1pm by the time the train finally made it into Buxton. I had a bit of a wander around the city centre, which has a striking resemblance to Bath, before walking through the Pavilion gardens and out to Poole’s Cavern, located out the back of town.

The cave system is spectacular with a series of amazing chambers and a river running through parts of it, not to mention some of the fastest growing stalagmites in the world.

Having taken in the caves I took the 20 or so minute walk up into the hills to the folly of Solomon’s Temple from the top of which there were stunning views over Buxton.

By now the sun was already starting to get low in the sky so I walked back down to Poole’s Cavern and then on back into town to have a final wander around before heading back over to the station and catching the train back into Manchester.

From Piccadilly station I caught the tram out to The Lowry at MediacityUK in Salford to pick up a ticket for the comedy show the following evening I’d booked to see, and then had a wander round the piazza in front of the BBC’s offices, with the slightly disorienting effect of watching a live BBC sport report on a big screen that was being broadcast from the studio immediately behind my back (but sadly the studio faces the windows so the cameras can’t see people going past).

Then it was back onto the tram to St Peter’s Square to take in the Town hall in a slightly more deserted form, including the slightly creepy giant lit Santa on the roof of the porch.

I walked back from the town hall towards the hotel through Chinatown, so as I was there I stopped off for a bite to eat before heading back to the hotel for another good night’s sleep.