Don't expect a conventional weekend
6:00 PM YOUR ‘HOME’ FOR A FEW DAYS
Manchester, as it is a long way from having a user manual, you can start at the end. In this case, for the newest and most shiny. The First Street urban project has just opened its doors as a kind of complex of offices, restaurants and streets ideal for millennials . Its best-known entrance, under the red bricks of the Withworth Street railway viaduct, only heralds the passage to a parallel universe in which the streets are full of sculptures with aspirations of being icons. Other than that, First Street is everything you'd expect from a Google neighborhood, complete with ping-pong tables to unwind during business hours. For the tourist, or more noteworthy is entering HOME, a cultural center sponsored by Danny Boyle where you can spend the afternoon between movies, exhibition halls and cafes in his restaurant. The culmination of all this Z paradise is the brand new Innside Manchester hotel, the first of this range of Meliá in the United Kingdom in which everything is cozy and modern in equal parts, with a DJ included in the evening happy hour.
The Innside Manchester Hotel, on First Street
DAY 1
10H00 ART AND COFFEE IN THE PARK
Following this reverse chronological journey, the day can begin by visiting the penultimate novelty of the city. The Withworth Gallery has always been a basic cultural space to understand the creativity and inbreeding of this city , but, with its expansion and reopening, its fanfares are riskier. It not only houses the university's art collection, but also this space dares with transversal exhibitions curated by artists with which it surprises its visitors . In addition, the fact of gaining space has made it possible to open a highly recommended cafe where you can serve your first or second shot of caffeine in an idyllic setting, connecting with the trees and sculptures that surround the complex.
11:30 AM THE ETERNAL OXFORD ROAD
A mile separates this museum from the city center. Something more than 20 minutes walking that can be lengthened if, instead of walking automatically, you enjoy one of the most charming streets of the city. Born with its growth due to industrial expansion in the 18th century, this axis still retains some of that centuries-old charm that has been lost in downtown because of the skyscrapers and shop windows. Its main monument is the university complex , with spaces such as the Hall, the city museum -of an amazing neo-gothic- or the contemporary music conservatory.
University Hall, on Oxford Road
1:00 PM EATING AT THE BBC
You have to take the tram to navigate down the canals and reach the old docks of Salford and Trafford. Barely a decade ago, there was nothing here but the memory and ruins of what was a key port for the 'Mancunian' (Manchester) industrial boom. However, thanks to a titanic effort, this riverbank has been rehabilitated in order to house Media City UK, a complex of television studios into which the old Granada Studios (home to some of the best British TV comedies) have moved and is now they alternate filming days with tours of their facilities . However, if the television culture of this country is hardly known, the most logical thing is to stay at its doors, enjoy its parks and eat like a TV star in fancy restaurants in which they also reinvent the tradition, such as the Damson.
Shall we play at innovating on the plate?
14.30 SALFORD SKYLINE
As well as hosting TV, Salford has also left a hole in its cathartic renovation for history and culture. The former has a full tribute, in its war facet, at the Imperial War Museum North, a surprising building designed by Libeskind in which tanks, weapons and uniforms recount in an entertaining way the relationship of this empire with the war from 1914 to the present . Art and entertainment, meanwhile, have a home at The Lowry in an indescribable way, full of plays, movies and dance and in which a charming art gallery exhibits the works of LS Lowry . This post-impressionist painter reflected the industrial era of the city like no one else and his work has been revalued, in part, due to his love of football and the patronage of his work by the English footballers' association.
16:30 THE OLD, OLD TRAFFORD
Just a 20-minute walk separates the docks from one of the cathedrals of football. The Manchester United stadium is a mess of icons, myths, corners with history and idols sculpted with such a high impact that any visitor can enjoy their visit. In addition to honoring historical cracks like Best or Ferguson, this coliseum offers a one-hour tour in which his trophies are admired, he walks through his stands, he jokes in his press room, he poses in a locker room full of anecdotes and, in the end, he jumps onto the field with the thunderous music that accompanies Pogba and company when They come out of the locker room. The ecstasy is reached in his famous bench made of red brick in which jokes are made with Mourinho himself taking his place.
Manchester United icons and idols
8:00 PM ‘AFTERWORK’ OR ROCK & ROLL
This city is not exempt from the division between the posh and the alternative. In fact, it is perhaps more visible and obvious than in other Western cities. Therefore, it is convenient to choose between Spinningfields or the Northern Quarter, between sophisticated and slicked-up joints, or nostalgia and recreation of the 80s and 90s . In any case, starting with a dinner at the Australasian table can be an ecumenical solution since all kinds of audiences congregate on its tablecloths. It is what the fusion of oceanic and Asian cuisine has. After dessert, the differences become more visible. Auditors and the like march a few streets down the street, to the dance halls of joints like the Bills, the Tattu or the Manchester House. For their part, the most restless souls bet on going up to the northern neighborhood where the great atmosphere of bars like The Blue Pig, Odd Manchester or Cain & Grain awaits them.
Here, the night is for restless souls
DAY 2
09:30 BREAKFAST IN THE NORTHERN QUARTIER
Whether or not the night has given much (even to join it with the day), it is advisable to revisit this neighborhood when the sun shines. But before starting the walk, its cafeterias act as one more exponent of the consumerist counterculture, at least of the big chains. Small establishments reign here where coffee is roasted, tea is revered and silence is respected. Some like Fig+Sparrow , North Tea Power , Takk or Home Sweet Home deserve a whole morning, although there is much more to the day.
10:00 THE PUNK HERITAGE
when going out on the street, the neighborhood continues to offer infinite ways to enjoy the 'underground' character that it enjoyed at the end of the 20th century . An umpteenth case of creativity born of low rents, deindustrialization and the anti-establishment (and hatred of Thatcher). Time and speculation have not been able to with this spirit, which today endures among **the filthy stores that survive in Afflecks **, a kind of alternative supermarket, and in **the well-cared studios of the Manchester Craft & Design Center **, an old wing of the food market reinvented for young creators and artisans. Nor do the years go by the Center for Chinese Contemporary Art , a gallery where local artists with Chinese roots exhibit that has become a curious cultural lung in the neighborhood.
NEVER say NO to breakfast
11H00 ESSENTIALS DOWNTOWN
The center of the city, abutting the North Quarter, has a series of 'mandatory' coordinates for anyone who wants to get an imprint of the artistic muscle of the city . There are more anecdotal ones, such as the Chinese arch that presides over the entrance to George Street , the Chinatown of this city. Then there are the most cultured ones, such as the Manchester Art Gallery , a museum that uses the free hook (like the rest of the cultural exhibition spaces) to surprise with a very noteworthy art collection where the Constables and the Turners stand out. The good dose of Neo-Gothic is received inside its superb town hall and through the galleries of the John Ryland library, one of those pastiches that is described as referring to Hogwarts. It is also not bad to browse in the central library of the city , a renovated building with the odd architectural trompe l'oeil, or take a look at the Museum of Science and Industry , a collection of obsolete hangars and factories that tell the story of the city's importance in the development of modernity .
John Ryland Library
12H30 MUSIC TOUR
Good old Craig Gill, after 30 years playing drums in various groups, decided to embody the history of 'Mancunian' music and be the best guide for all those fans of Oasis, The Stone Roses, The Smiths or Joy Division who made a pilgrimage to discover the clubs that marked his life. Thus he created the Manchester Music Tours in which the walking tour through the city center has become his best seller. In it, spaces such as the Hacienda , a club that became a legend in the 80s, or the India House number 47 , apartment in which Noel Gallagher lived and was inspired by his first two LPs. There is also no missing a look at the Factory Records or Dry 201, scene of the mythical '24 hour party people' . A tour of no more than two hours that can end at the Albert Square Chop House, one of the most recommended restaurant-pubs in the center.
3:30 p.m. PEP’S NEW HOUSE
Before turning to the East, it should be noted that **most football fans have a curious space in the National Football Museum **, a brand-new complex that tries to claim that this sport was born in England and that the Premier League It is the most authentic league. Not bad as a curiosity, as one more stop on the football journey. **The one that is not to be missed is the tour of the Manchester City facilities, with special mention of the Etihad Stadium **. Unlike its neighbor United, this club has more local fans, a more modern coliseum and hardly any glorious history. The latter is supplemented by a beautiful house, completely blued by the team colors and quite VIP due to the renovations that have turned it into a luxury facility. During his visit there is no lack of passage through the changing rooms, through the front box where the Arab sheiks dominate the world and through the benches, the place where Pep Guardiola gets more nervous every week.
Etihad Stadium, the home of City