Outdoor Ice Skating

Yesterday we took Charlie ice skating to the outdoor temporary rink, situated outside Swinton Town Hall. Skating In Salford is apparently twice the size of last year's white elephant, which means last years was pretty tiny. we paid £6 for adults and £4 for the child booked online through Quay Tickets (no booking fee either which was a bonus), which includes skate hire - despite what is advertised on the council website, the sessions were an hour each, not 45 mins, although if you spend as long as we did putting the skates on you could easily lose 15 minutes. There is a small snack bar type places serving hot drinks etc..

It's been a good 14 years before I was last on ice skates, so it took a bit of getting used to, especially with the fabulously uncomfortable plastic hire skates which left my foot arches in agony. But a fun time was had by all, Charlie managed to not fall over at all (compared to the 8 times on a previous trip with school a few days earlier). There were staff on hand at all times to keep the kids/teenagers in check, which they handled very well in between picking people up off the ice.

We chose to go at 5pm just as it was getting dark and the area looked very festive with all the lights from the town hall, there are also several firs surrounding the rink with lights.
I have to say it feels very weird to be skating outdoors in the town centre with the buses pulling up every five minutes at the side, but it was a very enjoyable evening out.