this is potato wharf, my favourite area in manchester. the hostel was just around the corner. these wharfs are named for the goods shipped out of the warehouses that once stood there. potatoes, for instance. no potatoes now, but there was a guy standing in one of the barges, his head sticking out the door, grilling sausages in the rain.

potato wharf castlefield was the street name of my hostel, apparently. castlefield was a civilian camp back when the romans were trying britain on for size. now, some of the ruins have been unearthed and some have been reconstructed. looking out through a reconstructed archway, you can see soldiers marching to battle. in the rain, of course.

this is the front of the john rylands public library. what's great about manchester is how incredibly beautiful and historical buildings are actually used - rather than being allowed to decompose and spawn corpses and spirits and bubonic plague. this was, at one point in time, a church. it was raining when I took this picture. see the big drop?

the next three pictures are of manchester cathedral, a medieval masterpiece that grew in segments over the course of several centuries. what I loved here, besides the stained-glass windows and the general prettiness, was the vibrant green of the grass and the knobby bits on the tree. it was raining as I took all three of these pictures.

purely manchester. one beautiful building after another, a bit of scaffolding, and rain.