Sightseeing in Manchester

I’ve been thinking about the sightseeing plan for my family’s visit during the New Year holidays. They said, “we’re coming Manchester to see you!” which is sweet, however, I wanted to impress them because they would have to spend 14 hours in the airplane from Osaka to Manchester.
I went to a tourist centre to collect some sightseeing information, maps and brochures. In my Japanese guidebook of the United Kingdom, I found area guides for Liverpool, Chester and York, but not for Manchester. I also read some other guide books at the library, but I only found a little information over a few pages. Manchester is the third biggest city in England; however it’s not famous for sightseeing.
I remember one of my English teachers spoke about the three most popular sightseeing places; Manchester United’s stadium, the wheel of Manchester and The museum of science and industry in Manchester. As a starting point I included all these places in our plan and I made a rough schedule. Usually schedules don’t work perfectly so it’s impossible to prepare completely, however, I still spent lots of time scheduling. My effort was rewarded and our sightseeing was on schedule for the first three days.
One of the highlights was the Manchester United stadium guided tour; we saw many trophies in the museum and we entered the waiting room for the players and the entrance to the pitch. It was an hour long guided tour and kids got a post card of one of the players. My brother told me, “hey Eriko, you’re small enough, you can go and get the card for kids.” At first, I thought he was joking, but he wasn’t and I succeeded getting a card...oh dear!
On the fourth day, I got a Happy New Year message from my English teacher so I replied him “now my family is staying” then he said, “I’d like to see them sometime.” His words surprised me because my family is staying here for only five days, however, our schedule wasn’t tight so I rearranged it and we met up at a café with him and played pool together. He teaches English from beginner to advanced level so he could communicate with all of my families without a problem. My brother studies English in Japan, but he doesn’t have chance to practice with native English speakers, so it was a wonderful opportunity. My teacher said “this is English hospitality” and he enriched my families stay.
When I came to Manchester in June 2007, one pound was equal to 250 yen, I always compared the price with Japan and I felt everything was expensive, but now it’s around 150 yen. I thought eating out cost a lot, but each portion is bigger here than Japan, so when we went out and shared plates, it didn’t cost much.
During my families stay I discovered many interesting things about the city and had a wonderful holiday. I believe they feel the same way.