Not going to Manchester

In January, Susan dropped a message asking who was interested in going to see a Golden Mummies exhibition in Manchester. You would think we would have gone by now! But we haven’t. We didn’t get around to actually planning anything until the summer. And we plan something for early-ish October.

When the day approached, I found out that the day before I would be going to a funeral in Gateshead, and that I was probably going to be home rather late. I wasn't overly keen on the next morning immediately jumping into another vehicle and travelling to the east again! So we postponed it. To late October.

That day all seem to go well. Sue and Dean came to pick me up. Together we had brought an extensive picnic; the idea was to drive to Manchester, have picnic in a park, and then go to the museum. So we set off. But quite soon, Dean noticed that there was something amiss. He saw a diversion on the satnav. There had been an accident! We had to be re-routed from the A55. And the only other available roads there are rather small. 

It took us forever to get to the roundabout where we were diverted. And from that roundabout, things did not improve. There was a lot of standing still going on. And this exhibition require a booking; we had a particular time slot for going in. But the ETA the satnav gave crawled closer and closer to our actual time slot. We were starting to wonder if we could make it. Should we perhaps turn back?

Our diversion went over Sychnant Pass. Before we had to reach the pass we had given up on Manchester. So what to do now? I suggested we were in about a beautiful environment; might as well consume our picnic there. It was pretty close to lunchtime already! And the others agreed. So when we finally reached the pass, we just parked up. And we walked towards the sea.

We ended up on Penmaen Bach. The actual accident that had closed the road must've been right below us! But we went there for the view. We could see the Great Orme, the Penmaenbach climbing area, and the hills behind us. And the congested A55. And we found a nice rock to sit on.

The Great Orme

We unloaded our bags. It looked absolutely fabulous! What a feast. And Sue and Dean had even brought plates and cutlery. We were not regretting too much we had never made it to Manchester. But sitting on a hilltop did mean that we were quite exposed. Quite soon, Dean was cold! So we didn't linger awfully long.

A feast!

Two happy picnicers and a cold Dean

When we got back to the car, there was no traffic on the road. We could move quite fast! Until we caught up with the queue. Getting back to the A55 took a long time. And there were more queues further on, including on the A5, as that was where a lot of traffic was diverted to. Especially large vehicles that would struggle with Sychnant Pass. I was glad when we got to the village!

We still have not seen these mummies. But the exhibition still runs until the end of next April. We haven't discussed whether we are going to try to give it another go. But we could! Would it work out that time? But for now we were all just impressed with the lovely picnic we had had…