End of summer weekend break

We wanted to do something on this the  very last  bank holiday weekend of the summer  so Mark  booked a night in  Manchester Sunday to  Monday.
We drove across  Sunday morning and  arrived in Salford  quays just before 11 am.
As  we  couldn't check into our  apartment,  we went for a  little  wander  before  getting the bus to town.  Where we stayed  is called  Media  City and the  BBC and  ITV  moved some of their  offices and  programming from  London.  As a result,  Vera  got to see some of her  favourite  TV  characters.
I  town  we had lunch  and then  went to the  beautiful John  Rylands library.  I'm so impressed in general how most  museums in Britain are  free  and  so  child friendly.  In the  library  there was a gothic  treasure hunt,  where  Vera  got to look for small coffins  containing   secret  answers to  questions  that could only have been seen with a special  torch.

After the library  we  went to Manchester museum,  located near the  university.  Here we saw  lots of  animals,  both  stuffed and live  as well as the coolest thing,  and what we came for,  Stan  the  T Rex skeleton.

Once  back "home" we went out for some  pasta  before a big  sleep  for  little  tired  legs.

Today  we've been to the  Imperial War Museum,  another great  family  museum,  despite the tough subject  area.  It showed  the human side of  war, and  included  modern  conflicts.  We really  haven't learnt a thing. ..

At the end of the visit  we spent time in a creative  room for  children where  Vera  made  a great  picture after lots of  cutting and  gluing.  A great way of  processing everything they'd  seen.

Then  we walked across to the  Lowry  museum (also  free although  we made a  donation) and saw the  L S Lowry exhibition as  well as  Vera's favourite,  a room  with a giant  bouncy  call  with  spikes  and  covered in  "ink " that children  got to bounce around the room  and  the ball made  patterns on the walls.  Cool and  interactive!