Art trails: Bee in the City Manchester
I love a sculpture trail. Anything that distracts children from the boredom that can be a walk (in the countryside or towns), is welcomed by me. In the past we’ve done a small Gromit trail, but this holiday was able to do some of the Bee in the City trail in Manchester while visiting my best friend.
We started off at the central library where you can pick up a Bee in the City leaflet. There is an app you can use as well, but I hate having to add more apps to my phone, plus it just eats up my battery. A leaflet is good for marking them off and teaching children how to map read.
We aimed for the 2 areas of the city with clusters of bees in them, enough to keep the children interested without having to get on and off the tram or walk for miles. The trail has large bees designed by artists, and smaller bees (mostly inside buildings around the city) which were designed by community groups and schools. It’s lovely to see the variety and look at the detail some of the bees have.
There were plenty of other people doing the trail too, so we did find it hard later on in the day to get photos without others in them. Surprisingly N was happy to have his photo taken lots – generally doing silly poses – it makes such a difference having a friend who also wanted pictures taking.
I find a sculpture trail is a great way to see a city. And giving N something to do and entertain him while we walk takes his mind off the distance. And gives me a chance to take photos of the architecture.
We decided to grab a lunch from a sandwich shop then have a bit of a picnic in the cathedral garden area. There was my favourite bee, the Mr Bee’nn here, and the water features kept the boys playing nicely and running around while we were able to eat and chat.
A few more bees were spotted on the way back to the tram stop. We think we saw about 25 of them, so not a bad number for a few hours on the bee trail. Hopefully more trails will come back to Oxford and other cities nearer us in future so we can enjoy more of them.
If you want to do a trail this summer, my art and sculpture trails post provides all the UK trails happening this year and into next.
Have you been looking for any of the trails over the holiday?
Why not take a look at these related posts.