My cousin took me to Lancaster this weekend for a Taiwanese Scientific Symposium for PhD Students. While we did waste an entire beautiful and sunny day in Lancaster to sit indoors at the University of Lancaster to listen to PhD researchers and students give presentations of their studies, it was still pretty interesting to learn what PhD studnts do and what kind of research they have been performing of their studies. Plus, free food (lunch, dinner and breakfast), free hotel stay, and freetransportation there and back, was pretty awesome.
The Sun Hotel and Bar was pretty awesome, we had great accommodations, service, and food, right near the Lancaster Castle. Lancaser Castle has this little quirk where even today, it is still a full functioning prison, so when tourists visit the back part of the Castle, just know there are actual convicted prisoners (usually for offenses related oto drugs or alcohol) that are being housed in the front part of the Castle.
The city of Lancaster actually reminded me of Montrematre in France because ofthe hills and how everytime at top of the hill there's some grand building. I think there are about two major hills in Lancaster. The first hill has the Lancaster Castle and the Priory Church of St. Mary on top of it. The other hill, is Williamson Park where the gorgeous Ashton Mememorial folly resides at the top with the Lancaster Sundial and the Lancaster Butterfly House.
They actually host weddings at the Ashton Memorial and I would consider strongly having a wedding at the memorial sunny day if I could afford it :) I felt like a character out of a Jane Austen novel walking through the memorial. Imagine, Mr. Darcy and Emma waltzing on the ground floor and then climbing up to the top to see all of Lancaster and the Lake District in the distance. Sooo romantic.
Prior to visiting Lancaster, we visited some cities in the Peak Disrict. We first dropped by Buxton, to visit their famous landmarks like the Buxton Cresent, the Buxton Opera House, the Pavilion Gardens, and St. Ann's Well to drink holy/sacred water. Then we traveled to Matlock Bath to walk along the River Derwent and to ride the cable cars up to the Heights of Abraham. The Heights of Abraham is wonderful hilltop park in Matlock Bath for families to visit. We got to climb the Victoria Prospect Tower for some spectacular views of Peak Disrict and climb underground into the Great Masson Cavern to see what it was like to be a miner digging in its caves for lead.
And the previous week before, I had visited the serene and charming city of Chester. Chester houses the last remaining remnants of the Roman city walls. It was completely surreal walking on the Chester city walls knowing how old those walls were and what they were used for in the past. Even cooler was their shopping center in the heart of the city. They house the only two-story gallery shops where customers can actually walk on two levels of shops from one shop to the next. IF there is a off-the-beaten path city I would recommend, it'd be Chester. The city has an ancient Roman amphitheater right outside the city walls, you can actually walk on the city walls and circle the city, you can walk along the River Dee, or visit the grand Chester Cathedral. No matter where you turn, there's some piece of history you can appreciate in this town.
Returning to Manchester, I finally got to try some curry along their famous Curry Mile. Curry Mile is this segment of Wilmslow Road where my cousin lives that has tons of Indian Restaurants selling curry, hence Curry Mile.
Even though I stayed in Manchester for most of my journey in England, the city itself was pretty interesting. Salford Quays in Greater Manchester is just minutes away from where I stayed with my cousin. We were able to visit the Imperial War Museum and visit the LS Lowry Gallery (which honors the incredibly quirky artist, Laurence Stephen Lowry) in Salford Quays), and walk along the Manchester Ship Canal. No matter what, there was always something to see, some place to visit in Manchester.
And so it comes to an end.
My visit to England and Paris has been so much fun.
Though I ran into trouble at the early parts of my journey, for the most part, I was pretty lucky. I managed to see what I wanted to see in London and in Paris, and if I were to go back, I would know my way around both cities.
Tomorrow, I'll be leaving Manchester and heading for London Heathrow. It's been amazing, seeing everything that I did see, I don't think I ever want to leave. There's just so much history, so much charcter to every single city I visited that even if it was some city I have never heard of, there was still some amazing landmark for me to appreciate.
London, Paris, Manchester, Liverpool, Lake Windermere, Windermere on Bowness, Hill Top, Chester, Buxton, Salford Quays, Matlock Bath, and Lancaster: Thanks for letting me being a tourist and running around your city!
It's going to be so surreal when I return home. I'll miss the Kinder Bueno bars and the Kinder Surprise eggs, along with Marmite, treacle tarts, black pudding, English breakfasts, and all the fun pub food I got to try in my journey.
Again, many thanks again for reading!! I wish I had been able to post more pictures of my journey during my visit here, but when I return home, I definitely will (slowly but surely) be uploading all my photos. I'll try posting one more entry while in Manchester tomorrow before I leave for the airport!
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