366 Photos - 147 /366 - One last blow out - (mostly library) architecture again...
Last day in Manchester....
And the city did what it does so well - it rained...
Well, it's all that practice... It was supposed to just be cloudy - it didn't say we'd be in the cloud! That's the Hilton Hotel building spiking up there - right into the cloud, which then leaked on just all of us... So after all my researching the perfect outdoors thing for ease of transport and kids etc., we went and played in the Arndale Centre instead. Which is pretty much completely different - don't think a single shop was in the place I remember it...
Had to leave brother and nephew and niece and s-i-l around lunchtime, which was a bit sad. Everyone was cute, including my brother (don't tell him I said so), and s-i-l was pretending that nightmare two years ago didn't happen, and was all fine and friendly, so even she was okay, which had been my worry! People!
So I headed back towards the YHA - on the bright side, it'd stopped mizzling. I looked up and caught a good glimpse of old-Manchester and the new... (the new, by the way, is largely the result of my Manchester being bombed by terrorists about twenty years ago, when I was in Alaska - thank you, IRA, it came back stronger!)
I paused at the old John Rylands Library (actually built by Enriqueta Ryland, to commemorate her husband) - and oh, the pause was worth it! Go through the modern reception area, up the stairs, and suddenly...
Is it weird to even take photos of the toilets? Okay, it is, but you've got to agree...
...cool old toilets! (But working perfectly well... *g*)
Loved the coat hooks still up...
Authorial insertion. *g*
Looking up...
...and books.
Looking up at books... *vbg*
...and bookcases.
There were a couple of exhibitions on too - this one was right up my street (and the perfect setting for it) - Magic, Witches & Devils in the Early Modern World. I took this pic...
...before I saw the sign saying pics of the building only, not the books on exhibition, which is such a shame, cos they were very cool. (Info and a brief vid advert here if you're interested).
Interestingly, there was another exhibition on the floor above - printing really - with fragments from the Bible that dated to c125AD and the 300s-ish AD. Again, no pics... (This one in the Rylands Gallery)
Look at this decoration too - rosettes on all the ceilings and vaults. I reckon the sculptor was a bit orally fixated, though... *g*
Today's stairs were both simple and gasp!
This atrium looked like a mirror...
...and the lights made mad effects every time I took a pic!
The reading room...
Although this one has a card catalogue in it, similar niches surrounded that main area, and had ordinary people/students working in them - imagine!
And that was the end of my Manchester sojourn, and my holiday - I got back into wee car, and nipped off home (and when I say nipped, I went via the Welsh borders so as to miss Birmingham's rush hour, and it worked beautifully. The sun came out too, and everywhere was edged in white may blossoms, fields crossing fields, bouncing off hills!)
And then it was very nice to get home too, which is a nice thing about holidays - they remind you how much you like your own house too. *g* It was a slightly odd holiday, but it was a holiday, and very nice too. Thanks for coming with me!
And the city did what it does so well - it rained...
Well, it's all that practice... It was supposed to just be cloudy - it didn't say we'd be in the cloud! That's the Hilton Hotel building spiking up there - right into the cloud, which then leaked on just all of us... So after all my researching the perfect outdoors thing for ease of transport and kids etc., we went and played in the Arndale Centre instead. Which is pretty much completely different - don't think a single shop was in the place I remember it...
Had to leave brother and nephew and niece and s-i-l around lunchtime, which was a bit sad. Everyone was cute, including my brother (don't tell him I said so), and s-i-l was pretending that nightmare two years ago didn't happen, and was all fine and friendly, so even she was okay, which had been my worry! People!
So I headed back towards the YHA - on the bright side, it'd stopped mizzling. I looked up and caught a good glimpse of old-Manchester and the new... (the new, by the way, is largely the result of my Manchester being bombed by terrorists about twenty years ago, when I was in Alaska - thank you, IRA, it came back stronger!)
I paused at the old John Rylands Library (actually built by Enriqueta Ryland, to commemorate her husband) - and oh, the pause was worth it! Go through the modern reception area, up the stairs, and suddenly...
Is it weird to even take photos of the toilets? Okay, it is, but you've got to agree...
...cool old toilets! (But working perfectly well... *g*)
Loved the coat hooks still up...
Authorial insertion. *g*
Looking up...
...and books.
Looking up at books... *vbg*
...and bookcases.
There were a couple of exhibitions on too - this one was right up my street (and the perfect setting for it) - Magic, Witches & Devils in the Early Modern World. I took this pic...
...before I saw the sign saying pics of the building only, not the books on exhibition, which is such a shame, cos they were very cool. (Info and a brief vid advert here if you're interested).
Interestingly, there was another exhibition on the floor above - printing really - with fragments from the Bible that dated to c125AD and the 300s-ish AD. Again, no pics... (This one in the Rylands Gallery)
Look at this decoration too - rosettes on all the ceilings and vaults. I reckon the sculptor was a bit orally fixated, though... *g*
Today's stairs were both simple and gasp!
This atrium looked like a mirror...
...and the lights made mad effects every time I took a pic!
The reading room...
Although this one has a card catalogue in it, similar niches surrounded that main area, and had ordinary people/students working in them - imagine!
And that was the end of my Manchester sojourn, and my holiday - I got back into wee car, and nipped off home (and when I say nipped, I went via the Welsh borders so as to miss Birmingham's rush hour, and it worked beautifully. The sun came out too, and everywhere was edged in white may blossoms, fields crossing fields, bouncing off hills!)
And then it was very nice to get home too, which is a nice thing about holidays - they remind you how much you like your own house too. *g* It was a slightly odd holiday, but it was a holiday, and very nice too. Thanks for coming with me!