Anyway, on Sunday I tried to qwell my travel lust by going on a road trip to Cheshire. Michael decided to come along and so it was his choice to go to Wilmslow.
Cheshire is a lovely green county, south of Manchester with the biggest concentration of millionaires in the country. Wilmslow is a small town serving this well heeled community, but unfortunately they don’t seem to be interested in Sunday shopping because the town was very quiet and half the shops were closed.
This is the house I would choose.
Apart from around 3000 cyclists who were doing a 100 mile charity ride, the place was pretty dead.
I am always wary of companies who “organise” charity bike rides and charge a fee. None of which goes to the charity involved and the rider gets their own sponsors. Sky and British cycling do this for free and the events are very well organised. In around three hours on this cycle event I saw two marshals and no feeding stations were evident. Indeed the riders were stopping at Starbucks and other local cafes for refreshments. 3000 cyclist at a small entry fee of £10 is a lot of profit. Some companies charge £30-£40. I am not saying the company who organised this event are ripping people off, but if anybody is thinking of doing a charity bike ride just be wary and use Skyride if possible
http://www.goskyride.com/?DCMP=KNC-
So we cut our losses and caught the train back to Manchester city center, which in contrast was absolutely buzzing.
During the Olympics and Paralympics for some reason, the normal restrictions of Sunday trading laws have been suspended, so the shops are open to 1900h. The amount of people taking advantage of these extended shopping hours is testament to the majority attitude to ” Sunday being a day of rest”.
As somebody who has worked Sundays as a normal working day all my life, I feel that any day can be a “rest” day and the law is undemocratic and outdated.
We ate at our favourite Chinese restaurant, The Rice Bowl on Cross St Manchester
http://www.the-rice-bowl.com/
This family run place serves consistantly good food and fantastic service.
So although todays road trip was not a huge success, we got out, the sun shone.
Better than sitting in front of the telly!
Denise
love from Bolton
3 days to Vendange in Paris!
22 days till Boston trip!
denisefrombolton 
More on the theme of Charity bkie rides. I am not the only one who has become suspicious of the organisers of these events.Here is an article from Trevor Ward in the Guardian in June 2012 on the same theme. I also note that the ride we saw on Sunday had no closed roads and no police presence. So they had not had to pay for policing.http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2012/jun/20/charity-bike-rideSorry I am on a soapbox now!
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As a new bus pass holder, I've had mine less than a week, I still can't get over how far I'm able to travel with it. David has had his bus pass for a couple of years now and I've always been quite jealous of this but now we can both travel for free it's brilliant! We took the train to Greenfield at the edge of Saddleworth on Saturday, walked along the canal and got the bus home. Tomorrow we plan to get the train to Manchester, then bus to Rawtenstall to see the East Lancs Railway steam engines. I've also discovered we can get a bus all the way from Levenshulme to Matlock Bath in Derbyshire. As it's a service bus, long distance restrictions don't apply!Hope you have a lovely time in Paris and Boston Denise, happy travelling both far and near.Love Janet
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Since your comment is in the middle of two photos, I'm trying to figure out which house you would take. I'm guessing that it's the modern one with the higher price tag. It looks lovely!The bus passes are a brilliant idea. I think that I already told you that I was upset when the people in the town where I lived in Switzerland voted against senior citizens having a pass to ride the bus for free.
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So excited for you Janet on getting your bus pass. We have travelled as far as Skipton and always intended to go on a trip to York. However they don't make the local bus timetables very accessible, unlike the railways. The train to Greenfield sounds interesting. I must explore that when I come back.Have a lovely time in Rawtenstall.Love Denise
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Mary Kay, you are right, it is the modern house I like. My taste is quite contemporary.The bus pass not only give freedom to senior citizens who usually are on a restricted income, but bring economic growth to areas. When we went on the road trip to Skipton, a market town on the edge of the Yorkshire moors, (as mentioned above) Every single person on the bus was using a bus pas and had been spending their money in the market a, cafes and shops of Skipton.Have a good weekend in Deauville.Love Denise
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