Salford Quays, 25 July

Marian and I returned to Manchester on Monday 23 July – hopefully to sort out somewhere to live. Upon getting back to work on Tuesday morning, I found that my trip to the Middle East had been cancelled - I was due to fly to Bahrain on Saturday. I was a bit disappointed at first, but it turned out well in the end because Marian stayed on for the weekend and we got more time to set up the apartment. Marian had found an apartment in Salford Quays back during her first visit in mid-July and we were waiting for the letting agents to confirm everything.

Thankfully the paperwork all went through in the end and we moved into our new apartment on Wednesday 25 July. It is on the 7th floor of one of three large apartment buildings called the NV Buildings. Our apartment is in the building nearest the bridge and our apartment has a nice view of the bridge and quay. It has two bedrooms and came fully furnished, complete with cutlery and crockery - very handy:

The NV Buildings - our apartment is on the 7th floor of the building on the right - the balcony is on on the back right of the building

View from the other side (our building is the right hand one)

Some optimistic fishermen

Below is the view from our balcony in the morning and at night. When the basin was a working port, the bridge could rotate around a central axis to allow ships to pass. Now it is fixed and is used as a pedestrian footbridge:

Salford Quays is about a 10 minute tram ride out of the city centre, and is, as the name suggests, a redeveloped part of the old quays. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this area was an industrial port, full of wharves and warehouses servicing the ships coming up and down the Manchester Ship Canal that links Manchester with the port of Liverpool. Now Salford Quays is a residential area with apartments and a large shopping mall, as well as the Lowry Centre, a theatre and gallery complex (kind of like the Aotea Centre in Auckland). It has nice walkways along the canal and quays, and is quieter than other parts of central Manchester, being away from the main roads and construction areas.

Part of the Quays showing some of the older apartments

Walkway in front of Lowry Mall - the pedestrian bridge in the background can be raised to allow ships through

Looking towards the same bridge and the Lowry Mall (our apartment building just visible at right of picture)

The Lowry Centre - Theatres, Art Gallery and Restuarants