9. Hamilton - A cultural mini break to Manchester

Back in January we headed over to Manchester to go and see the highly acclaimed musical Hamilton. We giggled as we booked it, realising that we were now eligible for “Senior” tickets at the theatre 🤣 Being 60, and attending a weekday matinee seems to have its advantages 🤣 Having gone down a storm in the London west end, the musical was performing in Manchester for a couple of months, and according to the reviews, one not to be missed 😃

Hamilton tells the story of America’s Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, an Immigrant from the West Indies who became George Washington’s right-hand man during the Revolutionary War and helped shape the very foundations of the America as we know it today. The musical score blends hip-hop, jazz, blues, rap, R&B and Broadway - the story of America then as told by America now. 

The Palace Theatre is beautiful, despite it being in need of a bit of TLC 😃 It felt quite strange arriving at the theatre mid afternoon on a Wednesday - something we would not normally do - but interestingly it was a full house! Admittedly there were a few schools groups attending, but just looking around it seemed like the bulk of the audience was just normal people like ourselves - and not all people of 60+ on senior tickets 🤣  

We felt really fortunate to have the time and opportunity to visit the theatre on this occasion - felt really decadent in some ways going to a mid week matinee, but that’s obviously something we can do now not working, and 60 🤣 To add to the decadence we decided to make it into a mini overnight trip, staying in a great little Aparthotel by Piccadilly station. Even better, we managed to dig out some air miles from an old account which ended up paying for the hotel in full 😃 To top things off, we also got to use our gift voucher, won at the Freedom From Torture Street Food event last November, and booked in at the highly rated Australasia restaurant in Spinningfields. Quite an interesting place, definitely food of fusion type, but overall not particularly our cup of tea. Despite that, we had a lovely evening, and were amazed when the extra spend over and above the voucher price was written off by the restaurant as an extra gift 😃

So overall we had a great mini trip to Manchester. Being able to increase and prioritise the diversity of cultural experiences in our lives feels such a luxury and a privilege, and something we feel extremely fortunate to be able to do 🙏 Bring on the next! 🤣