Days Six and Seven

Manchester

National Express Coach

Strictly speaking, this is a separate travel which I just happened to take at the same time - I wanted to get all the way to Manchester, but the bus system seems very fragmented in this part of the world.

According to AI, the route would have been:

NXWM 51 from Birmingham to Walsall (35 minutes)

Chaserider 70 from Walsall to Cannock (35 minutes)

Chaserider 74 from Cannock to Stafford (40 minutes)

D&G 10 from Stafford to Stone (25 minutes)

First Potteries 23 or 24 from Stone to Stoke-on-Trent (30 minutes)

D&G 38 from Stoke-on-Trent to Congleton (40 minutes)

D&G 42 from Congleton to Manchester (1 hour 20 minutes)

When you add waiting times, this would have taken around 9 hours, assuming all the buses turned up, and on time!

Even before I left Bournemouth, I booked tickets on a National Express coach for this final leg of the journey. The coach travels along the motorway, so there's not much to see. I decided to use the time to catch up on some sleep. A couple of hours later, we were in Manchester.

Manchester

Birmingham is big, but Manchester is just manic. Tall buildings tower over the streets like nowhere else in the entire country - not even London.

I do find the pace of life gets faster the further north you go in the UK, perhaps because the hotter weather in the south makes darting about from place to place impossible, whilst the colder weather in the north makes it a necessity. But my first impression of Manchester was that even for a northern city, it's crazy.

Manchester is also very expensive, but luckily, most of the museums are free, and there are plenty in the city.

I started with the art gallery, but it did little to spark my enthusiasm - I don't think I was really in the mood for it. I liked the Lowry paintings, though.

Afterwards, I walked to the People's History Museum. This was more interesting for me. It tells the story of how people won the vote, and the right to join trade unions. There's also a display about the Peterloo Massacre.

After checking into the hotel, I went out in search of food. Along the main street, I found all the usual suspects, and plenty of pizza places, but there just didn't seem to be a lot of other choice. Eventually, I found a small cafe which sold mushroom wraps, and at a more wallet-friendly price than many of the other places in the city centre.

Today has been a slower day - I haven't really seen or done much. But on any journey, there are times where you just have to take your foot off the pedal. Today was one of them.

Information

The countless free museums are really great, but I do not like the crazy pace of life in this city.

So this was the last day of my holiday. I started off at the cathedral. It's free to enter, but quite small. Still, absolutely worth the visit.

After that, I tried to get to the Emmeline Pankhurst museum, but I just couldn't find a way in. Instead, I went to the Museum of Industry and Science. Manchester's importance in the Industrial Revolution, and in technological advancements is not in dispute.

I was tired from my travels, and overwhelmed by the city, and so that's really all I did. Just outside the hotel there is a food market, and I bought a Caribbean curry for my dinner and ate it in my hotel room.

Homewards

I took the train from Manchester back to Bournemouth. It takes just five hours, so you're probably wondering why I'd do all the kerfuffle with the local buses getting to Birmingham.

But I'm already planning my next trip - this is a really good way to travel. I'm 47, in normal health, I'd guess, but certainly not super-fit. This style of travel is certainly not just for young people!

Anyway, at Birmingham, a woman sat down next to me and we sparked up a conversation. When she found out about my holiday, she told me that her father would have loved to meet me. He was a bus enthusiast. When he was terminal in hospital, the family bought him a bus timetable of the world.

Then when they visited, he'd tell them where he was and which buses he was taking. In his head, he did some incredible trips such as Kolkata to Kabul.

Five hours later, I was back in Bournemouth.

My favourites were Avebury Henge and Birmingham, but I really enjoyed everywhere I went. Even Manchester - despite the fast pace of the city and high cost of tourism, there are some wonderful free museums, and I'm glad to have seen it.

I will probably go to Birmingham again - there's a lot in that city that I never got to see. I'd happily show a friend round Oxford or Swindon, Kenilworth or Coventry, but maybe wouldn't go there on my own again. 

This wasn't an epic journey by any means - 120 miles as the crow flies, and about 160 by the route I travelled. It took me a total of ten buses, although I could have done this in eight by missing out Avebury Henge.

But this is a really interesting way of travelling. Train lines are usually dug into embankments - you don't see all that much. Coaches usually take motorways. But buses go through the heart of the country, and you really see something.

I'm already planning my next trip. It won't be as exotic as Kolkata to Kabul, but it will be as exciting as Bournemouth to wherever I decide to go!