Lowry's Manchester

Grab a curry in Rusholme, home to every kind of Asian restaurant you could wish for.

Take a tram out to Old Trafford, Salford Quays or the new Lowry complex.

Visit Chinatown and see the famous imperial arch (although when I went it was under repair and covered in scaffolding!) Shopping and plenty of it, but where do you start?

Drinking real Aussie beer on a night out in the new aussie pub Walkbout Inn.

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Walking around the city centre is also a viable option, although it is a big place so take a break and have a coffee or a pint of beer at every available opportunity!

The Lowry theme of fancy for fancy's sake does seem to carry through to the restaurant. Prices aren't too upmarket though and I highly recommend the bread-and-butter pudding!

The setting is relaxing, the restaurant has waterside views across the docks.

Typical prices are as follows: Lunch (2 courses, 12-3pm): £10

Pre-theatre Dinner (2 courses, 5-6.45pm): £12

Walkabout Inns provide an authentic Australasian experience where others can only boast Australian memorabilia and warm Fosters on tap. Our great Australasian bar values sport, music, food, authentic products and exceptional service encompassed in a genuine relaxed atmosphere, which is reflective of Australasia as a whole.

My own humble opinion -

Definitely the closest thing you can get to authentic Australian pub in England. Lots of Aussie beer to choose from - I hadn't had a coldie for six months!

Great party music, sexy Aussie barmen (sexier after a few coldies), great atmosphere - perfect for our reunion with traveling buddies we met in Melbourne.

The Lowry is a complex incorporating a theatre and an art gallery, including a large collection of work from L S Lowry! There are also some great photographic studies on display right now although exhibitions will be changing all the time.

The building itself is nothing if not modern, positively space age in fact. It looks a bit like something the Blue Peter team put together (Brits will know what I'm talking about) it looks as though its been covered in aluminum foil. The insides are something of a sensory experience, bright orange and purple walls and carpets and a strange obstacle course of stairs, sloped and curving walkways and escalators that give the visitor the impression of being a mouse in a maze.

Check it out online: http://www.thelowry.com

Athletes will have the chance to compete in world class venues including the City Of Manchester Stadium, currently being built in East Manchester and Manchester Swimming Pool Complex in Oxford Road, which was completed on schedule (!) in the autumn.

The Games will have additional significance as they take place in the Queens Golden Jubilee Year this time around.

Within a very few weeks a Lord Mayor's fund had been set up to help stricken businesses and the decision had been made to turn the IRA's violence against itself and rebuild a city better than ever it was before the IRA left its calling card. Manchester Millennium Ltd was created and a competition held to draw up a masterplan for the city's redevelopment. The competition was won by an international group called EDAW but their plans were anchored locally by the acclaimed Manchester design practice Simpson Associates. The new Manchester features a new square, 240 trees, a park and even a new street.

The masterplan was all about being ambitious. The new Marks and Spencers has four floors each the size of a football pitch and includes a customer lounge "where shoppers can put up their feet, watch television and read a newspaper". It is the biggest Marks and Spencers in the world. Close by is the Royal Exchange which reopened in 1998 after more than £30m of rebuilding. The effective manner in which the vast former cotton trading hall was lightened and made fresh again went way beyond the need to simply reinstate. Every visitor to the city who takes a coffee in the Royal Exchange cafe is amazed by their surroundings.