Monday, December 28, 2009

Red Devil's we Aint

From Bath we rejoined the M5, this time in very light snow. At Birmingham, the M5 merges with the M6, which takes you practically to the Scottish Border. On we drove and it began to get dark. There was a lot of traffic on the motorway but we took our time and eventually arrived in Manchester at 5.30pm at our Travelodge in Ashton under Lyne. Just as we pulled into the carpark it began to snow in earnest so it was decided to have dinner and a pint at a local pub instead of driving too far away. After dinner, walking back to the Travelodge, and the snow was coming in at a 45 degree and was as large as a 50c coin at least.

The next day we awoke to our car being covered in about 4-5 inches of snow on the roof. We walked to McDonalds for breakfast and then came back to get ready for Scott & Jenny Henry's christening of their son Noah. This mean a 10 minute drive to nearby Mossley but in the snow which was still pouring down, it took us about 30 minutes. The road was quite treacherous and we did not go over 20miles an hour in the car. We finally found St George's cathedral in Mossley and parked the car in snow about 8 inches deep. Walked into the cathedral and it was lovely to see a face to greet us that we recognised-Scott! After the service we were invited to join the bus trip to the Alpine restaurant in nearby Delph. Yes we would do that as the snow was now so bad we could barely see 30 metres. Off we went and after about 45 minutes of slow going we arrived at the bottom of the hill to the aptly names Alpine restaurant. On foot from there up the hill we walked on the slippery ice and new snow. After about 3 hours we departed by the same bus back to the car in Mossley and then crept our way back to the Travelodge in the snow which was still pouring down out of the grey sky.

The weather across the UK at this time was awful. Scotland had -16C in the Highlands and heaps of snow and London and the Home Counties were brought to a standstill will all of the snow which rolled in from the North Sea. At this point I did think we may get stuck in Manchester as it snowed for the whole time we were there.

No comments:

Post a Comment