Manchester has an interesting position in British history. Known as a place of radical ideas, it lays claim to many firsts: the first railway station in the world, the first successful splitting of the atom, the first stored-program computer. The birthplace of both capitalism and communism as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels began writing the Communist Manifesto at Chetham Library, the oldest public library in the English speaking world. Today. most would know Manchester as having the world's most valuable sports team, Manchester United. During our visit, the World Cup has taken the players away, so we will not be taking in a game at Old Trafford, ManU's stadium and the largest in the UK. No matter, our visit to the city will be busy enough.
I did manage to get a golf game in when we arrived last night. The Withington Golf Club, directly across the street from the Britannia Country Hotel where we stayed, has a special for hotel guests so.... I popped over. The course is a short only 6300 yards from the back tees. However, it is narrow with majestic trees lining the fairways and doglegs which force precision over power. It wasn't busy, I finished in just over two hours. What a great way to play! After golf, Johanne and I hit the local pub for the traditional Sunday dinner. Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding. The perfect end to the perfect day.
Today, we will make two trips to the airport with a visit of Manchester sandwiched in between. The first airport trip was uneventful. My parents arrived from Toronto, delayed slightly by the slow luggage and customs clearance, but otherwise no worse for wear.
We headed downtown to explore some of the unique architecture of the city and have lunch. First passing through the Trafford area of greater Manchester, home of the aforementioned ManU football team. Followed by the Safford Quays, where we had planned to go to Mark Addy's , which was reputed to have the best pub food in town. We found it after a few tries, parked and made our way along the Quay, just as the rain started coming down. Not a good sign. Johanne and I have been in the UK for 6 plus weeks..... no rain, my parents have been here for 1 hour, BINGO it rains! We enter the main doors of the pub, it doesn't look promising, the place is like a cave...a big empty cave. I am thinking, if the food is so good (according to the guide book) why is the place empty at 12.30? Turns out, they closed the kitchen about 6 months ago, selling beer being way more profitable then selling food..... and people will always come back for the beer. Can you believe it, 200+ "food serving" pubs in Manchester, we drive all over to pick the one that doesn't serve any! We pick a place nearby and have a nice pizza lunch. The pub will have to wait. Lunch behind us, we drive through the centre of the city's busy market area including China town. Manchester is a business centre, first and foremost. Tourism is important to the UK and Manchester, but not the most important. The city is great for music and food, nightlife and even theatre, but it is not really charming. We have other places in mind and a second pick up to complete, so, soon after we arrive we are on our way out of the core and back to the airport. The introduction to England hasn't been very English for our recent arrivals. Nowhere to go but up!
Back to the airport, we go to pick up my brother Jeff, arriving from Calgary and the guest of honour for the trip to the Open Championship. It is his 50th birthday and the Open is his present! By now, I am an old pro with the traffic and the GPS but I get completely lost trying to steer my way out of the maze of one way streets. The GPS politely suggesting turns, the navigator also suggesting turns with a little more enthusiasm then the GPS, the new arrivals in the back offering a few suggestions too. We are all laughing and eventually the GPS straightens everything out. We arrive just on time to see Jeff emerging from the exit. Wit no further navigation challenges, we arrive at our home one hour later. We will be in Chester for a whole week, in a nice little cottage.
Chester is a fantastic medieval village. It is considered the best preserved wall city in all of England. Its streets are filled with Jacobean style black and white buildings from the Victorian era.
The town has four gates, west, east, water and bridge gates, following the original design from the Roman occupation of this area. Roman ruins can be found just outside the East Gate. We walked the entire city along the fortified walls, some 2.5 miles. An excellent way to learn the city's character, the location of the secret little enclaves, the busy restaurants and the action. Access to the walls are unabated here, something you don't get that much of in England's other medieval towns. After all the exploring, we have worked up a thirst. Time for the pub. As luck would have it (or good planning), we have a pub 30 meters from our cottage.
It will become our home away from home for the next few days. It has excellent internet access, which is good since our cottage does not. Internet has been a challenge lately, it is why the blog is somewhat behind at this point. I promise to have it up to date over the next two days.. In the meantime, I am afraid I have to spend more time at the pub. It's tough, but it has to be done!
Tomorrow we are playing golf, not "watching golf". We are playing the Southport and Ainsdale golf Club. This historic links has been host to two Ryder Cups and is a regular open qualifying venue.
The course sits next to Royal Birkdale. We thoroughly enjoyed the day, from the warm greeting we received from the starter upon arrival, to the last putt dropping. The scores were not enviable but the day was among the best ever. The pros are all on the course at Royal Liverpool, we will join them tomorrow.
Royal Liverpool at Hoylake is a about 38 minutes from our cottage. The first 30 minutes were easy, the next 30 were filled with people and traffic. We had reserved parking right next to the clubhouse, thanks to our Greenside passes. We entered the gates, adjacent to the 4th fairway. There, we were met by a wall of people! At first it was difficult to make our way, we seemed to be swimming against the current. After 10 minutes, we started to figure things out. The course was divided in half by the huge tented village and at the east end of the village stood the 18th hole grandstand with the iconic scoreboard, where the leaders names are posted manually throughout the day. We followed a few groups as we made our way to the Greenside lounge. Once there we picked up our "on course" radio's to listen to the play by play while we watched. Our passes provided for front row seats on the first tee to watch all the big names tee off and centre middle seats in the 18th hole grandstand to watch them finish.
Tiger on the first tee.
Our table in the Greenside lounge.
Garcia, Fowler, Donald on the first tee.
Getting around the course for all the parts in the middle proved relatively easy, once we got the lay of the land. To say it was amazing might be an understatement. Can't wait for Sunday. Tomorrow, we skip sports for a tour of Liverpool, home of the Beatles. In order to get to the golf course we played a few days ago, we drove through Liverpool, the bad part, run down streets, working docks, business's boarded up long past their glory days. It was not a place we're keen to re-visit. Thanks to Johanne we did not. This time, we got it right. Albert docks is the place to go. Rejuvenated from the rough and humble days of industrial Liverpool. Albert docks is a vibrant area filled with restaurants, hotels, shopping and museums. We covered all of them on a grey, somewhat chilly morning. The weather did not dampen our spirits, this area of Liverpool is fun. The cornerstone of the docks is the Beatles museum. It even has a life size re-creation of the Cave where it all got started. The line up to get in was hours long, so we explored the rest of the space having to pass on the Beatles. The Maritime and Slave museum are absolutly amazing, recounting the horrific history of both the sinking of the Titanic and years of slave trading on the docks of Liverpool from the boats coming from Africa.
We did manage to catch some of the Open championship at a local restaurant before heading back to Chester for dinner. Tomorrow we head back to Royal Liverpool for the final round. Johanne and mom will be joining us.
The route to the course is simple, now that we know the way. We arrived a little later today around 11am, as the big guns don't tee off until 2pm. We have a game plan. Follow some of the big names not in the hunt first, then find a good seat to watch the leaders come through then head to the tented village to watch the last through holes on the big screen. There is no chance to get close to the 18th hole. We followed Phil, Tiger, Watson and many others, before settling in right by the tee on 10. Great seats only feet from the tee box. We moved from there to 12, to watch the final groups come through. The excitement could be felt throughout the course as Sergio closed the gap on Rory. Even Johanne, who is not a huge golf fan, was wrapped up in the energy.
Rory on the 12th after just missing his birdie putt.
If you love sports, you must find a way to attend the Open Championship. They know how to put on a show. Tomorrow we will be saying goodbye to my brother. He heads back to Canada, one more thing checked off the bucket list for all of us. The rest of us are off to the Emerald Isle.
Be Well
Fore!!
