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Christmas Rideout 2014

Blog Date - 25 December 2014

Christmas 2014

Last Christmas (I gave you my heart...) I went out on the bike. It's far more fun than sitting around a table piled to the rafters with expensive food, most of which will end up in the bin. I went through Preston that year and revelled in the surreal emptiness of the deserted streets. It's a strange sensation to be in a town you've only ever seen busy for 33 years and find no-one there at all. I imagined myself on the set of an apocalyptic movie, I half expected zombies or aliens to come out of nowhere.

This year (to save me from tears...) I've decided to see what Manchester is like on Christmas day. I hope to find it just as empty, spooky, peculiar and surreal as Preston had been. So after being a good boy and doing the family thing I'm now sat on my bike heading down the East Lancs road and into a micro adventure in the city. I'm feeling smug, pah, no turkey for me! That's how I roll doncha know.

There is a problem though. I am not the biker with no name, the lonesome rider who's cruising the desolate and deserted highways of some long forgotten land. No, these roads are pleasantly quiet but they are far from deserted. Cars come and go here and there, people walk their dogs and mothers hold onto young ones taking their toys to show the neighbours. It is peaceful, but it's not deserted.

2 cars at an otherwise empty junction in the city centre
Oh man, it's heaving, I hate Christmas traffic.

Nor is the city deserted. It is certainly a lot quieter than normal yet small clumps of people wander around the streets. They consist of mostly younger folks, students looking for pubs and teenagers looking for entertainment in the form of trouble.. Inside the odd open cafes or bars are filled with everyday folks who are either avoiding the dreaded Christmas Dinner or cant find one to attend. Random cars come and go. The Chinese quarter is almost bustling. And yet even though I don't have the place to myself it is still refreshing to see no trams, no buses, no traffic jams, no queues and no booming noises from building works and road works.It is peaceful, but it's not deserted.

a handful of people and parked cars in manchester's chinatown
Chinatown is positively heaving, as you can see.

I use my time and this peace to become more familiar with the city centre, just in case I ever have to return. I can deal with places like Bolton or Preston because I know where I'm going. Manchester's too big to learn in an hour but it's handy to at least have a starter for 10, some basic idea of the layout. I cut down back roads, explore the side streets and nosey into the courtyards. I never realised the big round Library thing was quite so close to big town hall thing. I live and learn.

A massive inflatable santa overlooks the empty town hall square in manchester
Santa overlooks the chaos on the town hall square.

After an hour I've seen enough. It's been a useful and productive trip so far, quite pleasurable too. I am a little deflated to find Manchester is not mine and mine alone but at least I've been and had a look. Ho well. As I ride out of town I imagine inside each and every house is a young boy pushing sprouts around his plate in the hope that they magically disappear and all the while he just wants to play with his new toys. This notion of the perfect Christmas is far from perfect for some. Perhaps for many. I get lost in my thoughts as I get lost in the streets around Cheetham Hill.

a low bright sun set over the concrete buildings in radcliffe
The low winter sun over a deserted Radcliffe town centre

I drop into the Middlebrook Retail Park on my way home. This is another place that is never lifeless with it's 24 hour Tesco, restaurants, shops and cinema. I never noticed that there are in fact gates across the entrances to the car parks, not until now that they're closed and block my path. 

metal gates bar the entrance to the car park and shops at the middlebrook centre
Oh! Where did they come from?

It is a busy world that we live in. I guess we don't realise just how busy it is until it all stops for one day.

the vast empty car park and closed tesco in horwich
Imagine that...Tesco...closed on a Thurday.

Reader's Comments

DD said :-
Riding on Christmas day is the only thing that keeps me sane! Empty roads and quiet lanes. I wouldn't go to a city though, not when all the countryside lanes are empty too. I saw some lovely places last time.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Hi DD. I know what you mean about the countryside but Christmas day is the only day I can get to see the city without having to battle with the traffic.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC

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