Manchester Duck Race

Good Friday saw the Manchester Duck Race down the river Irwell at Spinningfields. The entire area of Spinningfields was heaving with people especially young families all keen to enter the race which was held in aid of the Brainwave Charity which aims to "help children, between the ages of 6 months to 12 years, who have a brain injury, genetic condition or Developmental Delay.".
Starting from the bridge just near the Mark Addy pub, with the kick off due at 2pm, I arrived about 20 minutes early and squeezed my way through the throngs of people to the bridge over New Quay Street, where I managed to secure a position directly above the finishing line. The race started with the corporate ducks about 15 minutes late, where I was stood although you could tell someone was speaking into the sound system, you couldn't actually hear what was being said, so you had to guess.

But the corporate ducks were released and went on their way - very slowly. There were radio controlled speed boats that were used to keep the water flowing and pushing the ducks in the right direction. Like a lot of people I was surprised how small they were, we expected pretty hefty ducks, although by how long they took it was probably for the best that they weren't too huge!

The corporate ducks could decorate theirs as they wished, and there were some pretty sweet costumes, from pirates to artists with a palette and all manner of feathers and head dresses!
Once the corporate race had finished, the clouds had started to gather over a previously sunny Manchester, and before you had time to blink - the general public mini ducks were released by their hundreds from Bridge Street.

Unlike the larger ducks, these took no time in sweeping down the Irwell, keeping tightly packed almost the entire journey. A lot of people were wondering how they would choose a winner when the ducks were at one point travelling in a straight line,meaning about 30 would pass the line together.

Needless to say, in true Manchester fashion, within seconds of a winner passing the finishing line, the heavens opened and people left in droves to find shelter from the rain or simply go home.
I left via Carluccio's for another of Manchester's Best Coffees.

Copenhagen Day 2

For our second day in Copenhagen, there was one trip that had been very well researched - a trip to the Carlsberg Brewery Visitors Centre! It was about 20 minutes stroll from our hotel and is one of the most impressive buildings in terms of decorative architecture I've seen.

The visitors centre costs DKK 60 which is around £7 and includes 2 free drinks (soft or beer), this in itself makes the ticket a bargain as you would pay somewhere in the region of £6 a pint in most Copenhagen bars and the staff all speak several languages like most places in Copenhagen.
The tour starts with the largest sealed bottled beer collection in the world and it is impressive!

Row upon row of bottles, there are also screens with more info and Carlsberg adverts, but we just spent ages looking at all the different labels!
The rest of the tour guides through not only the history of the Carlsberg Brewery & beers, but also of the workers and the city of Copenhagen, pretty much all of the written information is in both Danish and English.

Like most tourist attractions there is also a gift shop which has all manner of Carlsberg/Tuborg related merchandise - we were quite gutted that we couldn't take stuff home in the suitcase with us, they had some nice bottles/glasses etc..
After the gift shop is the aroma room - this was my favourite part of the tour - numerous bottle with various aromas in that are used in beer

the idea being that you sniff them all and mark on a card which aromas you like most, then there is a corresponding chart hanging from the ceiling which tells you which beers you should try based on their aroma. My favourite aromas included coffee, cereal & bread! So then it's on to the Jacobsen Bar where you collect your free drinks - with over 35 types of beer to choose from you are spoilt for choice!
The bar also does some nice Danish food which is also reasonably priced

The menu for food & beer can be downloaded from their website - most beers (after the free ones) cost DKK 25 which is about £3. Also if that isn't enough, in the centre of the room you can see the bottling plant, which is the only part of the tour where you'll see actual brewery action.


After all the fun of the brewery tour, we had a casual stroll back towards our hotel, which is when we noticed all the sex shops on the same street!
We had decided to take in some art in the afternoon so we went to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

This gallery also charges DKK 60 to enter, but it wasn't really worth it in our opinion, unless you're really into 19th Century/Early 20th Century French/Danish art works.

We thought the Early Egyptian/Ancient Roman & Greek artefacts would be interesting but without any context as to why they were collected (the translations were quite sporadic) it left us cold - we'd seen similar collections in Tunisia that seemed far more coherent.

It's probably worth noting that in Winter/off season (ie October to March), most Danish tourist attractions close at 4/5pm which feels quite early.

After this we headed back to our hotel, grabbed a bite to eat, then went for an intended wander, however we didn't get very far as we ended up at the end of the street (literally 30 seconds away) in the Jernbane Cafeen a train themed bar/pub. It was very quaint and friendly - the staff spoke good English although we had a bit of trouble explaining which type of Carlsberg beer we wanted, however - there were folders/menu's on the table, and after pointing at what we wanted we ended up with a good ol' Carl's Lager

The bar train theme (we assumed because of the proximity to the station)was pretty impressive - the seats were from trains, all numbered along with destination plates etc.. the toilets even had train sound effects when you entered! They also had one of the cheapest slot machines I've ever tried, for about £3 we had around 80 goes, of course the winnings were also minimal and we didn't really know what we were doing, but it was fun.

Copenhagen Day 1

This was the second of our 'City Break on a Budget' where we aim to pay £300 or less for travel & accommodation. We opted for Copenhagen as we've both fancied Scandinavia for a while and we'd heard how quick & easy it is to get to Malmo - 2 cities in one break - bonus!
We had a really early start for this trip, arriving at the airport for just after 5am. It was our first time flying with Easyjet so we weren't sure what to expect, we'd checked in online about 8 weeks in advance as the website led us to believe that people were allocated seats the order of check in which we soon found out was misleading. There are 2 groupings - those who've paid to get on the plane first and everyone else, regardless of how soon you checked in. We'd also printed our own boarding cards, expected that as with other airlines we'd just check in our bag and that would be it, but no the happy chappy tore up our boarding cards and reprinted identical ones, whilst trying to sell us the 'guaranteed' seats together (on the return journey, we used our printed boarding cards and just found the bag drop, no hard sell).
After a fairly speedy passage through security we had breakfast, followed by an on time flight and smooth journey. Landing at Copenhagen is slightly strange, as you get off the plane in the same area the folks are waiting to get on the plane to go back to the UK, then you walk through the duty free area to passport control! All very strange (we didn't bother with any duty free as it was more expensive than the UK).
After managing to buy train tickets to Copenhagen H (or Copenhagen Central), we hopped on the train for the swift 15 minute journey, upon arriving at the station, our hotel was literally 30 seconds away.
We stayed at Hotel Nebo Run by a Christian Mission, we opted for an 'economy room' which is what you see - no ensuite as the toilet/bath/shower rooms are around the corner. We also had a desk and TV with several english speaking channels (with plenty of decent TV if you choose to spend an evening in doors). The reception area of the hotel has free internet, tv screens with live teletext airport departures, snack/drink machines and a whole stand of tourist information, including pocket sized cards that also give you discounts on many attractions. We picked up one for the Canal Tours and headed out towards Gammel Strand (ok so we got a bit lost on the way there...)

Gammel Strand
We were a bit early for the last tour of the day, so wandered around taking photos and found a great little souvenir shop behind the horse man statue.
The tours run all year round, although in Winter as when we visited, there was just the red and yellow lines, the boats in Winter have an indoor section with glass roof and is heated and was much needed at times.
The canal tours are a relaxing & easy way to see a lot of the sights without lots of walking, they last approx one hour and take in sights such as Nyhaven with it's colourful fishermen's houses
The Royal Danish Library with it's new extension nicknamed the Black Diamond due to the way it sparkles in the sun
The infamous little mermaid who is currently on display the other side of the world

As well as Christiansborg palace , Christianshavn , the Opera House to name but a few. We were very lucky weather wise, as not only was it gloriously sunny (albeit freezing cold), the last canal tour of the day was during the so called Golden Hour which meant we got to enjoy a lovely winter sunset from the boat

Sunset over CopenhagenAfter the tour, frozen but happy we wandered around for a bit more sightseeing, then headed back to the hotel. Being on a budget, we stopped at the 7/11 store two doors down from our hotel for our tea. Amongst the broad array of hot food & drink they served the traditional Danish style hotdog - different to ours in that they are served in quite a crispy toasted bread roll (almost French baguette style)which is hollowed out, the sauce/mustard etc is then squirted inside and your sausage is squished down inside it, very tasty I might add. The shop also appeared to have a Domino's Pizza franchise inside it, selling pizza, calzone and other dough/pastry based dishes - they even did room service to the hotel!

Central Library

A few weeks ago me & a few flickr friends spent some time at Manchester's Central Library, photographing the building before it closes for major renovations. Due to obvious changes that will occur, the library have decided to relax the rules on photography, so as long as we didn't photography people's faces etc (well unless we asked first) we could go mad and also post them to the Get Wisdom flickr group.
I will confess, it was my first time back in the building since I was at university and it was actually a lot more impressive than I recall. Designed by architect E. Vincent Harris and built in 1934 the 'heart of the library' The Great Hall (previously known as a the Reading Room) is probably the most recognized architecturally for it's large glass dome in the roof.
Outside this room is an outer corridor of beautiful arches
and more stacks of books,along with seemingly endless rows of tiny drawers containing microfilm cards etc.. which seemed to hold the group attention for a quite while, yielding some varied results.

Most of the library is now closed, with the ground floor general readers library closing 18th June and the Theatre & Box office closing 4th July with the newly renovated library planned to reopen in 2013 for more info check the Manchester Libraries website

In Conversation with Don McCullin: Shaped By War

The Imperial War Museum North is currently hosting the mind blowing retrospective exhibition Shaped by War: Photographs by Don McCullin spanning his lengthy 50+ year career. Considered one of the most prolific photographers of conflict, the exhibition contains more than 200 photographs along with video interviews and objects including the Nikon camera that stopped a bullet, his US army issue helmet along side numerous visas and assignment letters. The exhibition charts McCullin's career - from the East End Gangsters and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus to the Vietnam War and Northern Ireland conflict.
Don McCullin’s first published photograph: The Guv’nors of Seven Sisters Road, London,1958. Photograph © Don McCullin
A distraught woman flees the village of Gazabaran with her family after the killing of her husband, Cyprus 1964.Photograph © Don McCullin

Along side the exhibit the museum also hosted a talk in March: in Conversation with Don McCullin. Fluctuating sound levels coupled with screeching microphones meant we missed the first few questions. But aside from technical difficulties it was a really enlightening and deeply honest interview. The overall impression of McCullin is of a very sombre and despondent man. He has obviously been deeply affected by what he has experienced and photographed over the years and this sadness carries over into his more recent landscape photography. For me the most surprising comment of the evening was from McCullin on how he looks back over his lifetimes work and feels it meant nothing, as it changed nothing (ie didn't help stop the wars), and I (like I suspect a lot of people) disagree - whilst his photographs may not have forced politicians into action, I think he has certainly influenced and affected, we the general populous. Certainly I think photography in the media was a strong factor in my joining the protests against the Iraq war in 2001. I think war photography was more in your face, in the danger than the tea time television correspondents ever were. So I think he really does under estimate the power of his work.
Back on topic though, as I mentioned earlier McCullin also talked about his landscape work towards the end of the interview - black and white stark winter landscapes that evoke the same sense of sorrow you get from his photographs of war and from the man himself. Dark, yet not depressing the way some landscapes can be, he has been quoted as saying ‘My landscapes have become a form of meditation. They have healed a lot of my pain and guilt.’
Iron Age fort in the snow, Somerset, 1992.Photograph © Don McCullin

Shaped by War is on display at the Imperial War Museum North until 13th June 2010, an accompanying book Don McCullin - Shaped By War is also available in the Gift Shop.