Fwd: Further tales
Tina McInerney
So on to Chester. I have already mentioned the apartment and Liverpool. As usual, we didn't waste a trip or our National Trust membership and on the way to Chester, we visited Lyme Park which is just outside Manchester. The special thing about this large house is that it was where they filmed the scene in "Pride and Prejudice" where Darcy comes out of the lake and meets Lizzie Bennett! The other special thing was that have the oldest missal still in existence. It was printed in 148something and published by William Caxton. You can google Caxton to find out what he did - people of our generation learned about him at school!
Manchester was another day trip by train from Chester and another interesting day. We set off early as usual although late enough for me to grab a takeaway flat white from the best coffee shop in the UK. The owner had been to Melbourne and knew how to make coffee so it received a visit from me everyday. When we arrived in Manchester, I went off to take a walking tour whilst Dad went to visit the Manchester United stadium. The tour was great - led by a very eloquent guide who spoke very well and had some good stories. The highlight was the John Rylands library, another huge Victorian building. It was beautiful inside and, at this time, featured an interesting exhibition such as a fragment of papyrus containing lines from St John's gospel believed to originate from the 1st century. It was a little weird because I thought I would see a whole page but it was only a scrap. They also had a copy of the first folio of Shakespeare's poems - it is his 400th birthday so a lot is going on about this man.
After that, I went to find the People's History Museum which was the story of the working man in Britain. It featured stories about the trade union movement and the ordinary person. Then it was time for tea. I had read about this cafe/tea shop so went off to hunt it down. I found it in this rather seedy street and wondered whether I should bother but I did and it was an interesting place. It was called Richmond Tea Rooms and it was a bit like being down the Rabbit hole in 'Alice in wonderland' - all frilly, floral, chandeliered and pastel. I had the Hatter's afternoon Tea which I thought appropriate. And then I went off to meet Tony at the station and back to Chester.
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