Boys' day out

Tom with "Isle of Mull"

As I was to be on my own for 5 days from Wednesday, we decided that I would take Tom out for a day on Tuesday. He mentioned that he would like to do a museum (very grown-up!), and in the end we decided on the National Football Museum in Manchester, which of course involves a couple of train rides (another good reason).

We drove from Ingleton to Lancaster, and got the First Trans-Pennine Express train, but not before we had seen a beautiful freshly painted Class 37 (Tom's favourite diesel engine) going the other way towards Barrow.

Our train was surprisingly empty, and Tom managed to charm a young Chinese lady, who was on her way to Liverpool for sightseeing, and an older English lady, who was clearly impressed by Tom's chatty affable nature.

Nice lunch

Naturally, we had to watch trains at Piccadilly Station for a good half hour once we arrived, which involved plenty of Virgin Pendolinos and one enormous container train, which he enjoyed very much. He counted 40 containers, which was probably about right. We then wondered down into central Manchester, wondering where to have lunch. As luck would have it, we came across a tapas restaurant with lunch specials, so a lunch of lovely Spanish food was the order of the day.

After a quick trip to Fatface to replace the hat that Tom left on a train last time we were out together, we headed to the Football Museum. Entry is free, but for a £5 donation,  you can have your photo taken with the actual Premier League trophy (which was so heavy he couldn't lift it) and a go on the penalty shootout tournament upstairs.

To be honest, a lot of the exhibits in the museum went over Tom's head rather - I think he would've been happier watching highlights clips from years gone by, but there was just about enough interest there for him. We were probably there only for an hour and a half or so, but I enjoyed it, and I think he will too in a couple of years.

The trophy

I had promised him a tram ride back to Piccadilly, but the lines were being dug up, so we opted for one of the free city centre buses instead. Big mistake. It was a very hot day, there was no air conditioning, the traffic was terrible, and we got the bus going the wrong way round a circular route. In the end, I couldn't bear it any longer, so we jumped off at Oxford Road station and got the train one stop back to Piccadilly, where we only had about 10 minutes watching trains before ours arrived.

The journey back was equally uneventful, and we got a table again, meaning that he was able to play with the multitude of vehicles he brought in his rucksack.
We had a slight sulk when I told him we were going home for tea with mummy rather than a pub tea at The Bridge Inn in Tatham, but all in all it was a pleasant day out.