What a difference a week makes!

From beautiful Bordeaux to miserable Manchester.
The contrast couldn't have been greater. On the one hand, there's sophistication and on the other scruffiness, foul-language and anti-social behaviour. Most of it, of course, in the centre of town!
Luckily for me, I was staying with some friends near the relatively civilized suburb of Altrincham. Mind you, I was dead impressed with the new Hilton Hotel near the G-Mex centre. The lower half of this "thin" skyscraper is the hotel, then above it are private apartments. The tallest residential building in the UK.