A few comments on Manchester. It was only for two nights and I'd been here before so we didn't see a lot in the city. We stayed at the Leven Hotel near Piccadilly Station, a nice place with big rooms and a lot of character. If you're sensitive to noise be careful though about rooms on lower floors overlooking the canal side, especially on summer weekend nights, as this is a very lively entertainment area and Mancunians, like other British people, party hard and late! It didn't bother us too much though, maybe we were just too jet lagged. An Indian restaurant nearby called Arnero is very good. Our main activity here was a day tour with Rabbies to "Bronte Country and the Yorkshire Dales", which was excellent -- good mix of scenery, literary history and pretty villages (such as "Darrowby" from All Creatures Great and Small, real name of which is Grassington). We'd been on a Rabbies tour before in Scotland, and this one also had a great guide and itinerary. The Manchester departure point for Rabbies can be a bit tricky to find, so do a bit of research and allow time for this, as Store St. in front of the NCP car park (which is where it is) is off to the side of the station (to the right as you come out the front), best reached through an underpass that's not well marked, and not to be confused with some other NCP car parks such as the one on Chorlton St. When it's near pickup time though and you've found Store St. you can't miss the Rabbies vans all lined up for their various tours (they also do Peak District, Lake District, and north Wales from Manchester).
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