Life in Northern Towns

We went to St Annes last year for a drive and to be truthful I've been itching to revisit the place. St Annes is a few miles south of Blackpool with its own mini pier and beach.  From Manchester we took the M61, M6, M55, A5230, B5261 and B5233 to St Annes.  It's quite easy to miss the signs and end up in Blackpool like the first time we went. St Annes is a more upmarket resort than Blackpool, but then again that's not a difficult achievement.  The place is known as a retirement destination and from the number of charity and antique shops you can see why.  On the map you will notice it's called Lytham St Annes, but don't be fooled like me the first time I went - it's two towns close together and I think the map makers were being a bit lazy labelling the map. Parking in St Annes is generally pay and display, although further out along the Promenade road there is some free parking.  I always forget this and end up parking at pay and display by the mini pie...

We've been to Southport lots of times as it's a nice place to go.  Okay you don't go to see the sea as there's a couple of miles worth of beach before you reach the shore, but I like the fact although Southport is a seaside resort it doesn't feel like one.  Of course there is the pier, an arcade, some seaside type shops selling rock, chips and cheap tat, but you can easily miss it as it's confined to one part of town.  The rest of Southport is fairly respectable.  The centre is based around  Lord Street (A565), which is broad and leafy with interesting heritage shop fronts. Normally we park by the Marine Parade near the Promenade.  It's pay and display parking pretty much everywhere in Southport and the only freebie parking is on the edge of town.  There's a retail park on Marine Parade with lots of chain eateries like Nandos, Chiquitos and McDonalds. You can walk the pier from the Marine Parade toward the town which is nice.  I quite ...

After a short break from writing my blog I'm back.  Yay!  Thankfully I'm free from course commitments for a few weeks so I'm back on the road. This time we went to Ormskirk in Lancashire.  We've passed through Ormskirk  lots of times on our way to Southport, but this is the first time we've stopped. As a kid I had been to Martin Mere Wild Fowl Trust on the edge of town for a school trip to look at all the birds.  They had pink flamingos there as I recollect or was that Chester Zoo? Ormskirk is fairly straightforward to travel to from Manchester.  We took the M62, M6, M58 and the A570.  Nothing exciting to report on the journey, but word of warning there is an earlier turn off on the M6 to Ormskirk.  Make sure you take junction 26 as you will be on a motorway for longer instead of A roads. It's a leafy drive into Ormskirk and there seems to be lots of farms surrounding the place.  The landscape is quite flat really and for some odd reaso...