Salford saunter.

We had a good nights despite a few revelers about the area. There were several people who also wanted to stand on our boat to have their photos taken which was a bit annoying but it is nice to think they think the boat is worth a picture!

This was a picture from our mooring at Central Bay. Behind us is Salford Council waters where there is a wake board course, canoeing/kayaking etc and the Agecrioft Rowing club. The waters enclosed in their docks seems to be coloured blue to I'm not sure if they treat it to keep the 'bugs' down as it is used by people, or not.

It always pleases me to see any recognition for the men of the Merchant Navy who gave so much in the Wars. Unsung heros all.

This is our berth by the Holiday Inn that was on the whole a nice berth. There is a building astern of us, and another berth. The building houses the elsan, water point etc and the office of Neil who looks after the docks for the Council. He is very approachable if you have a question.

Maybe Bomber Command lost more than the Merchant Navy, but if you took in all the base people, maybe not. It must have been a difficult feeling thinking that you were unable to fight back, mostly that is.

We were making our way over Lowery Bridge to the Imperial War Museum, North which is housed in this distinctive building. Apparently the architect, Daniel Libskind, thought of a world torn apart by war and the building represents three of its fragments. He put a teapot, the roundest thing he had to hand, in a plastic bag and dropped it from a fourth floor window. He then used three of the resulting pieces to style the building. The three main shards are earth, with the floor and roof curving downwards, the air shard point up to the sky, and the water shard that ripples away from the others. So now you know.

I quite liked the effect of having such a small entrance from the outside. (The concrete 'hatch'under the sign). After been in Flanders last week it reminded me of the entrance into bunkers and tunnels there.

In the central 'silo' as the spaces are called is this relic of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York after the act of terrorism. It certainly made you think having watched it collapse live!

I was also taken with how small the Harried Jump Jet is. We saw it in the sky plenty in 1982 but I hadn't realised just how little it is!

The museum is laid out with little rooms around the central area and it starts with the WWI and moves around to the present day. There are also little 'side rooms' that have side topics such as Women and war, Empire, Commonwealth and war etc. It is different to a normally laid out museum but we actually spent over two hours looking round, and it is free. The cafe is pretty good too, and we needed a cup of tea.

Whilst we have been out and about in Salford and Manchester I have noticed many buildings being cleaned by abseiling window cleaners. I wouldn't like the bill, but then it would be better than a ladder that length!