Manchester

We padded gently around the wide, spacious rooms, gazing with respectful envy on the vast collection of leather-bound books laid cozily to rest on the dark, glossy shelves. Down the dusky corridors with their tall, vaulted ceilings were more libraries, waiting with hushed dignity for inquisitive minds.

This is the John Ryland Library, a red brick Victorian-era edifice in central Manchester that was built specifically to house a fabulous and growing private book collection. Now, as well as acting as a library and study area for the University of Manchester, it's a museum, showcasing many important ancient texts and first editions, of which I found most impressive to be a small piece of a Greek bible dated to 125 AD.

Outside the calm of the library, Manchester was vibrant and bustling. A jazz band was ripping up Albert Square in front of the city hall, Piccadilly Garden was blanketed with sleepy sunbathers trying to avoid the inevitable footballs flying about the grass.

When we left the highlands, we spent a few more nights in Glasgow with Piper, as well as her fiancee Danny and his mom Beth, who were visiting from Canada. After a day of intense planning and washing the highland mud out of our clothes, and a tasty meal at the Indian restaurant underneath the apartment (thanks, Beth!), we grabbed a bus to Manchester.

We spent quite a bit of time in the free museums because, well, we like free stuff. Although transport and accommodation can be frustratingly expensive in Britain, many of the excellent museums are entirely free, which is an amazing break for the wallet.

The Imperial War Museum North hit many of the same notes as the other war museums we'd seen in Britain and on the continent, but had a fantastic array of personal stories - to me, these glimpses of humanity during war years are far more gripping than any overriding narrative could be.

The Museum of Science and Industry was also a hit. There is a big collection of both steam and combustion engines, which kept Dan very happy, and the displays about the city's time as the heart of Britain's Industrial Revolution are excellent. Science is fun!

The winner, though, above the informative science bits, was the big exhibit on the evolution of Manchester's sewage systems right from Roman times. Slightly gross, but neat. And we walked through a reproduction sewer that was complete with fake rats.

Just outside the doors of the museum are the physical remnants of the Industrial Revolution:the area known now as Castlefield is full of old rail bridges, big factories and canals.

Although we didn't get to sample any of Manchester's famous nightlife, we did patronize several pubs.

I like British pubs, and so does Dan. I like the bar-style service (rather than table service, and this usually includes ordering food at the bar) because I like the relaxed atmosphere. I love the couches and low tables that make the place feel like a livingroom. Sometimes it actually feels like someone's home: pubs can be a family affair. While we were taking in some afternoon pints at a pub near the science museum, we watched a flock of kids flit between their parents, on the patio, and the park next door. In Tobermory, we watched three generation of family dance to a local cover band. In Cambridge, the proprietor's twelve-year-old son brought out our toasties and did a quality check.

Whether this is good or bad or neither, I don't know, but in the latter two cases it's charming, and undeniably it's part of the pub culture.

S.