Turing around Manchester

Yesterday around 8:00am (GMT), my flight from Atlanta touched down in Manchester.  I made my way through customs, picked up my backpack from the baggage claim, and took the train to the city centre.  There, I checked into the hostel, bought a SIM card to activate the quad-band GSM phone I picked up in California, and walked around for part of the afternoon in an attempt to hold off jet-lag.

In the late afternoon, I made my way to Crossfit Central Manchester for a WOD, my first visit to the gym since June.  After doing some toes-to-bar, handstands, and burpee broad-jumps, I'm feeling a little rough around the edges, but glad I went.  Post workout, it was straight back to the hostel for dinner.

In the evening, I joined a group of folks at the hostel for a tour of bars and clubs.  I went to one bar and then pulled the plug on the night, heading back to the hostel for some sleep.  After a long day of travel, I slept like a log.  On an interesting side note, the bar featured mostly British and European beers, but they had Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on tap.  It seems odd I could go 1/3 of the way around the world and find a beer from within 200 miles of where I grew up.

Today, I ventured out into Manchester to walk to a handful of nerdy destinations.  First, I headed to the Alan Turing Memorial in Sackville Park.  Mr. Turing was an engineering hero in World War II, but a tragic figure after the war ended.  A couple years ago, he was granted an official apology from the British government for the way he was treated.

Mr. Turing and his deadly apple sit, permanently, near the university in Manchester.  There is allegedly a computer buried under the memorial.  Today, I sat with them.

On the way back toward the hostel, I spotted the Manchester court house.  It has an impressive clock tower, shown below.

With narrow streets and a limited viewing angle from my camera, it was difficult to take an image that does this building justice.  Hopefully, there is plenty of justice going on inside.

Closer to the hostel, I spotted a pair of street names that tickled me in just the right way.  How could I resist taking and sharing pictures of streets named after famous scientists?

Faraday Street has a Cuban bar/nightclub at one of its corners.

Where does Nicholas Cage go for a haircut?  Con Hair.

In light of yesterday's news, I wonder if Steve Jobs will have any streets named after him.  Time will tell, I suppose.