A Little City Living

We have been in Manchester for a little over a week now so I thought it might be a good time to pop in and give you an update.

View from the end of the Quay where our hotel is situated.

We are currently living in the hotel that my husband is GM of. We get to stay here for a month while we look for a new home…which we think we have found! It’s a lovely home just out of Chester (CHESTER! Just one of the most beautiful places to visit!). It’s out in the country, as is our preference. It’s actually on a farm which is about as close as we are ever going to get to live out our farm dreams LOL. 

We are currently in the application process so it should all be confirmed by the end of the week. We hope to move in during the last week of September.

View from my hotel room.

In the meantime, we are enjoying our city adventure. My husband’s hotel is situated on one of Manchester’s many quays and surprisingly, there is a lot of wildlife around. Swans, ducks, Canada Geese, cormorants etc. We really have been enjoying watching the cormorants dive for (and catch) fish and the geese noisily fly in noisily each evening.

Walking along the Quay after dinner.

Even in the city, I can see signs of autumn all around. The trees are all beginning to put on their autumn splendour and the urge to decorate my home to reflect the seasons’ glory is strong…except I can’t. Still, October is the month where autumn is at it’s best so I am consoling myself that I still have plenty of time to pootle about in this regard. I’ve bought a pumpkin spice candle already which is sitting in my hotel room right now. I can’t burn it for fear of setting off the smoke alarms so instead, I open the top and have a sniff every so often 😄.

We are currently ‘hotel schooling’ rather than homeschooling. Once the restaurant has emptied out after breakfast we find a comfortable spot and begin the days’ lessons. My eldest joins us to work on her illustrations or goes into the city to visit a gallery or museum. Tomorrow she is meeting up with a friend while we get on with lessons. I think she is feeling a little at a loss at what to do. We knew that living in the hotel was going to be a little heavy going so we are all trying to make the best of it.

Victoria-Leigh’s bee illustration she was working on.

Manchester as a city is beautiful. The buildings! So much history and the most beautiful architecture. Just look at these walkways linking the Town Hall to the extension. It looks like it should be at Hogwarts. The Town Hall itself is just gorgeous. This is usually where the Christmas Market is held which is quite magical to visit, a must-do if you are in the city over the festive season. This year they have an ice village coming to the market – I can’t wait to visit!

Since we last lived here, Manchester has undergone such regeneration! It’s much nicer than it used to be. Very metropolitan and exciting. It has a very similar vibe to London actually. After having lived in a city that was pretty much bombed to pieces in the 2nd world war and lost just about all of its historical buildings, it is lovely to be back in a city that has hundreds of years of architecture everywhere you look.

I will be sure to share more of our city adventures with you over the next few weeks. Now that the house-hunting stress is over I can focus on taking advantage of the art and culture that this city has to offer. I look forward to seeing you back here soon.