Manchester -> Toledo

Short flight to Manchester and a quick shuttle ride to the Marriott Manchester Airport. Was a nice hotel and I only paid $92 through Priceline. Took the shuttle back to the airport and paid 1.40 Pounds for an evening return. One tenth of what it costs to get to Heathrow from London. Bah. I think I remember swearing off returning to London at one point in the past and I started to remember why. Anyway, Manchester looked bleak, like Trainspotting bleak. I got off at Oxford Road station and wandered around the city and university area stopping in various bars along the way. I talked to a few people in these places who took a little while, then said "Wait, you're from the States?" One guy said "We don't get many tourists around here. Apparently the guide books say this isn't a safe city." I can see why, although even the guys with all the ink were cool.  There really weren't any tourists, they had real ale (Old Peculiar, Old Speckeled Hen) for 2.50 Pounds ($4.60) as oppossed to the 3.20 for 1664 or Carlsberg in London (The Southwark Tavern did have Budvar and Staropremen for 2.95 which wasn't bad), and the pubs weren't packed because the students appeared to be mostly gone.

The airport was a mess the next day for my flight back. They have a nice space but people are everywhere and the layout sucks. They put two big planes to Chicago that depart 20 min apart at a shared boarding area. For an hour preceeding the flight, every 30 sec there were "DING DING!" and some boarding announcement. Very annoying as was the security before checkin. They had people asking questions about bag packing and other useless crap then had to pick a receipt for your trip out of a stack. Very lame when you have a full 767. Some combination of AA and the airport should make this better. AA kinda sucks for in-flight service and beer/wine were $5. I'll definitely stick with BA or Lufthansa or even United in the future if at all possible. O'Hare was its normal big crappy self and the flight back to Toledo was uneventful. After paying a $140 parking bill and an hour of driving, I was back in Ann Arbor. Yay. Now for Summer.