12 Days of Manchester: 12 is the length in kilometres of the proposed HS2 tunnel
- Train tunnel will extend 12km under central Manchester
- Train will get people into the city faster
- Part of a series on Manchester's culture to keep you entertained over the break
Who really knows how, when and if the HS2 high-speed train network will be built, but proposed plans include a 12km long tunnel under Manchester that will arrive at Piccadilly station meaning commuters can get into Manchester a lot faster than before.
Why would you want to get into Manchester faster? There is so much to see and do here, so please let me inform you.
There are many bars, music venues and sports teams here which I have discussed earlier on in this series, so I need not bore you with that and the plentiful events coming up in the city have also been covered in the New Year’s Day article.
However, there are a number of things I have neglected to mention about Manchester that are worth visiting, so here goes.
The Central Library is always worth a visit, if not for its architechture alone. The huge reading room is quite an incredible site, but adjoining it is the music library, with a number of keyboards to use and other instruments to hire. There are also a number of interactive exhibitions dotted about the building and often some guest curations of books.
Other museums or exhibits, such as the Museum of Science and Industry, the Manchester Art Gallery and the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art are also worth a visit if you’re in the art/museum mood.
Affleck’s palace in the Northern Quarter gives you an alternative shopping experience, in that you can buy bohemian or unusual items you could not find in most high street stores.
If you fancy venturing out of the city centre, the Curry Mile in Rusholme is somewhere you should visit. Any type of Indian or middle eastern cuisine you could think to try you can find there.
There are a number of vegetarian or vegan restaurants in Manchester, perhaps more so than most cities. V-Rev will give you vegan fast-food. Earth Cafe is a vegetarian diner. Eighth Day make a number of delicious vegetarian and vegan meals in their underground cafe, with their wholefood shop on the ground floor. Unicorn in Chorlton is an organic vegan supermarket. Fuel in Withington makes some nice vegetarian pub dinners and Sanskruti on Mauldeth Road makes the most incredible curries I’ve ever tasted and all of it is vegetarian or vegan.
If exercise is your thing, you can run about on inflatables at KickAir or spring about on trampolines at Go Air.
There are also all of the escape rooms, crystal mazes and other such adventure activities becoming vogue in a number of cities, but you’ll often find them in Manchester before anywhere else outside London.
Tomorrow is Epiphany, the 6th of January and we will all be back as usual from the 7th, so we hope you’ve had a good Christmas break and we hope to see you as we get 2019 underway!
