I thought I’d set up a thread to cover the events of an upcoming trip. Some of you may be familiar with previous ones covering trips to Bath and to Folkestone. The title of this one is more about the timing than the destination as it will cover both St Patrick’s Day next Wednesday and Cheltenham Gold Cup day on the Friday. On St Paddy’s Day I’ll be in Edinburgh and by the time Gold Cup day comes around I should, trains permitting, be in Manchester. Gold Cup day in Manchester is a regular trip for me when I meet up with a few work colleagues who take a half day and trawl around the pubs watch the racing and have a few beers on the way.

At various stages during the tour I will be accompanied by mates Graham (fellow PG member Grailhunter) and also Chris. You may recall Chris as FP (Fizzy Piss) from the Bath Blog. We may possibly also encounter the Happy Frenchman of Folkestone Blog fame. Who knows what the week will hold but provided I can get my netbook to work I’ll let you know.

The pubs of both cities are well known to Graham and I so I expect we will be visiting a few old friends and maybe discovering some new ones. The Oxford Bar in Edinburgh will no doubt be on the agenda plus the Halfway House – although all those bleeding steps always put me off. In Manchester it will be the old favourites, Marble Arch, Smithfield, City Arms etc., plus I also want to visit the ‘refurbished’ Castle Hotel. On the Sunday we’ll probably be looking to get out of the City Centre, given that it’s the day of the Man U v Liverpool game at Old Trafford, so if anyone has any ideas for a day trip with some decent real ale pubs let me know.