I ended up in Manchester for a couple days this week — my husband needed to go for work, and I needed to take my laptop to the Apple store to replace a failed hard drive (boo!). I couldn’t get a Genius Bar appointment, so I showed up shortly after the store opened and hoped for the best. Luckily, they had space to fit me in; unfortunately, the estimate was a four hour wait.
Suddenly, I had four hours to wander in central Manchester. The caveat: I’d get a text shortly before they were ready to see me, and that might be sooner than four hours, so I needed to stay close. But I wasn’t going to stay in the shopping mall (ugh, I can’t stand the noise and feel of indoor malls) so I looked for what to do in the area.
A quick look at the geocaching app told me that I could easily wander throughout the city center looking for caches. I didn’t find too many caches — it’s hard to be stealthy with all the crowds drawn outside on a warm Sunday afternoon! — but I did have a great excuse to wind through various neighborhoods.
And after handing over my laptop for repairs, I stopped at the Manchester Art Gallery. I had an hour to wander through, enjoying my favorites and discovering some new artists.
All in all, a lovely afternoon of wandering and serendipity!
Expat Linguist 