International Trip Recap - Part I - Manchester, England

Deidra dropped me off at the school at 3am on Saturday morning (Mar. 8) and we took two buses, with a total of 20 students and 3 adults (minus those that were meeting us at the airport), to the Salt Lake City airport. From SLC, we flew to Atlanta, and then from Atlanta to London on a red-eye flight (the first of many). Then we flew from London to Manchester. Because of our extended layovers at each airport and the time we lost going traveling east (6 hours), we arrived in Manchester on Sunday at approximately 3pm. We went to our hotel, took showers and got freshened up, and headed to a Pub for dinner. As an official tourist in England, I felt it my duty to get authentic fish and chips, which turned out to be quite tasty.

While in Manchester, we had breakfast at the hotel restaurant, The Beefeater.


We learned that a "proper English breakfast" consists of eggs, sautéed mushrooms, fried tomatoes, baked beans, sausage, and back bacon (which is about 100 times better than American bacon). I decided to substitute toast, fruit, and granola for the tomato and baked beans. But it was a great way to start your day.

We visited two Weir Services facilities in England, including the facility pictured in the previous post. In addition, we toured a Jaguar/Land Rover plant not far outside of Liverpool. The automated fitting and welding operations were pretty impressive.


The last night we were there (Monday), we had some free time in the evening to have dinner and walk around a bit. We split up into numerous groups and my group ended up eating in Picadilly Square at Barburrito - a Mexican Grill which seemed to be the English equivalent of Chipotle. I could not have been happier. We then walked around and saw the sights a bit. My camera (really, Deidra's camera, which she let me borrow) does not do well in the darkness, but here's a picture I tried taking of a cool fence and building.


Stay tuned for Part II - Dubai . . .