Bridgewater Canal Lunch

We travelled by train to Manchester on Saturday to visit Davie and Chanel. I love my visits to Manchester and when David and Chanel move to Scotland in August I will be quite sad not to have a reason to visit here regularly. On the other hand it will be great to have them living closer to us. The train journey was rather trying. It was very hot and the guard told us that the air conditioning was broken in our carriage. So we moved to the next carriage where it was nice and cool - at first. Unfortunately the air conditioning broke there too and it got hotter and hotter. I eventually dozed off and when I awoke as we approached Manchester, I was extremely hot and bothered. Davie and Chanel met us at Manchester Piccadilly and took us for iced coffees to a nearby Black Sheep café which thankfully had air conditioning, and I slowly cooled down. We took a tram to Media city and checked in to our Premier Inn before meeting David and Chanel for an excellent dinner at the air-conditioned Botanist. Later we went on to the bar next door, the Seven Brothers, and sat outside in the warm evening. It really is summer when you can sit outside on a warm evening at ten p.m. 

The main event of the weekend was of course our Sunday lunch cruise on the Bridgewater Canal. We arrived at Worsley in plenty of time and went for a walk along the canal. It was hot. Very hot. In fact I later discovered that it was the hottest day of the year so far in the UK, reaching temperatures of 32 degrees, and it can’t have been far off that at the Bridgewater Canal. I was very worried about how I would cope with the heat whilst sitting in an enclosed canal boat. Luckily it was cooler than I had expected because the roof was solid rather than glass so it wasn’t getting an unreasonable amount of direct sun indoors, the windows were all open, and as the boat moved along there was a slight flow of air which was helpful. There was also an endless supply of cold water with ice, supplied by the lovely staff. Reassured, I really enjoyed eating our delicious three course lunch as we travelled along the canal and back for three hours. The canal banks were overhung with many trees and bushes in their full summer regalia. David noticed an abundance of cherries growing on some of the trees. We saw a little lighthouse, canal barges, and people walking and cycling along the towpath. It was so relaxing and enjoyable. 

We were so stuffed after our huge lunch that we weren’t really hungry for dinner, but we decided that we should have something or we might be very hungry by bedtime. So after strolling along the canals at Salford we had a light (and surprisingly spicy) supper at a Caribbean restaurant near the Lowry. Back at the hotel, we caught the end of Elton John’s set at Glastonbury. It was being hailed as a great triumph online, but I thought that it was good but much the same as the couple of times I have seen him live in concert.