We’re now in the second week of our UK Adventure. Jackie has started volunteering in the Library. My involvement begins with some minor stuff later on. We’ve either been busy trying to get settled in or laying low, resting up from it all. I generally do a lot of walking for exercise but today was the first time I’ve actually gone out exploring just for the fun of it. The weather is perfect for a walk, in the 60’s and a bit overcast – a typical summer day in Manchester.
Our neighborhood is a nice one. Lots of driveways with gated drives, small and often paved front yards, and beautiful homes. Just down the street there’s a house gate with the Batman logo on it. One of the cars is also branded with the logo. Apparently, we’re well protected!
The main street (main streets are often called “high street” here) is less than 10 minutes away. There are lots of shops ranging from restaurants to two butchers to a green grocer. So far our favorite place to eat is the carry out (“take away”) fish and chips place. But we’re still very early in our time here and there are plenty of eating places to check out. Our main place to catch the bus is in front of the fish place but depending on where we are headed, we might want to walk a different direction to catch other busses going to different areas of the city.
People are walking everywhere. From what I can tell, this has little to do with the excellent weather. In spite of all the cars and traffic, the great public transit encourages people to walk rather than drive. A surprising number of people don’t own a car or even have a driver’s license.
Of course, the biggest difference so far as the roadways are concerned is that people drive on the left side of the road. You’d think that since we are walking that that wouldn’t matter to us. However, every time we cross the road we have to be sure to check the traffic in the right direction. In fact, “right direction” is just the way to think about it! Look to the right for traffic. Honestly, I feel like a 6 year old being given permission to cross the street alone. I look back and forth about 4 times before I hurry across the street.
Aside from the number of people walking and having to be aware of traffic the other thing we’ve noticed is the presence of sidewalks on both sides of the road just about everywhere. Sidewalks are called “the pavement” here, and it is unusual for a roadway to not have sidewalks on both sides. Judging by the number of pedestrians it makes perfect sense.
As I mentioned, we’re in a nice area here so I’m sure that things aren’t just like our neighborhood everywhere.