The false economy of flying Ryanair

It seemed like a good idea at the time - we would save some money and get to see a nice city. So when we booked our flights to Manchester we went with Ryanair. A few weeks before we were due to fly they cancelled our return flight meaning we had to book a new flight with BA, which while not expensive was double the price of the Ryanair flight. But so what, this was all still cheaper than flying direct.

Going to Manchester was two flights - the first from Tampere to Bremen. We then had about 6 hours in Bremen as long as we didn't mind the snow that was pouring down. We braved the snow and headed into Bremen town centre. This being Germany, getting to town was absurdly easy. A tram from ten metres outside the airport dropped us outside the cathedral. We then went round the corner and could see this:



Which is a nice thing to look at. We had some nice schnitzel in a cafe and felt ready for the weather. We weren't - it was freezing. We spent the next few hours going between places and being inside for as much as possible. It's a place to go in the sunshine really - it would have been nice to spend more time looking upwards! We pretty much condensed a holiday in Germany down to 6 hours. Medieval catheral? Check. Stamps printed individually at the post office? Check. Heart-attack inducing cake in a cafe in the middle of a maze of ancient streets? Check. Slightly flat beer in a dark pub served by a slightly overbearing fake smiling lady? Check.

Next on the trip was Manchester and we stayed at the Brittania hotel in Piccadilly. I've been to Waves, the bar underneath the hotel and didn't have especially high expectations of the hotel itself. The hotel is beautiful itself but inside is amazing, as though it was designed by M.C. Escher. One of the things I was looking forward to doing in Manchester was to have a margarita in Rodeo. However on arriving there I was confronted with this:



You can't really see from the picture, but Rodeo is now "Keko Moku". It doesn't roll off the tongue quite as nicely but the place is essentially the same. I can recommend the Dark and Stormy cocktail.

It's birthday season at the moment and after Pia's birthday party on Friday in Chorlton we were up bright and early the next day to go to my Dad's 60th birthday party. My Dad himself didn't know that we were coming - what better present than post traumatic stress? Certainly that was the expression on my Dad's face for the next hour after we arrived. I think that in truth our arrival gave the game away about a party later that day but from a purely selfish point of view, it was worth spoiling the surprise just to see the happy look on his little face. Plus it gave me a chance to set up a Spotify account.

Getting up the next morning we had to leave to head down to that there London town. I have noticed that living abroad has changed my attitute towards a lot of things about Britain. For some reason I've become nostalgic for places, like London, that I don't actually have any specific attachment to. So I pretended not to be a republican to try and see Buckingham Palace down Pall Mall, took photos of Big Ben from every angle (and yes, I know that since Big Ben is the name of the bell not the clock tower I realise that I couldn't actually see it), crossed the road to get a better view of look of Downing Street and so on. Most pleasantly of all though we were in the centre of London before the protests in the City.

We spent the last day in the British Museum. I'm sure that I will have been there in the past but I don't remember ever visiting there. It was quite nice to see all the things from ancient civilisations. Say what you want about the contibution of the Egyptian empire to human civilization though, they clearly didn't know what a lion looks like...