“No, Manchester is not the ‘armpit of England’” with Ilene Dawn Alexander
Ilene Dawn Alexander did a fabulous presentation on April 22, 2026, for the UMRA Armchair Traveler program.
Enjoy her slides and the video recording of the meeting!
All best, Lynn Anderson
“No, Manchester is not the ‘armpit of England’” with Ilene Dawn Alexander
Wed, Apr 22, 2026, 10am
You are invited to join UMRA’s Armchair Traveler program from 10 to 11:30 a.m. via Zoom on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, when Ilene Dawn Alexander will be presenting. Here is her preview of the program:
“Planning my first trip to Manchester in 2009, as a follow up to staying for a time in London and Cardiff in 2008, I searched the England Community Discussion Forum at Rick Steves’ website and found that ‘armpit’ description as the featured comment.
“Across the 15 years from 2008 to 2023, I’ve made at least a dozen visits to England and Wales—some with stops in London, and all with longer sojourns in Manchester and Liverpool as home base. Thanks to a six-month sabbatical at the University of Salford in 2010, I began making journeys to Nottingham, Birmingham, and Southampton as points from which to venture into north and mid-Wales towns: Caersws, Llanidloes, Newtown, Llangurig, Wrexham, Chirk, Rhyl, Llangollen, Llandudno, and border towns including Hay-on-Wye, Welshpool, and Shrewsbury.
“Each journey has disproved the ‘armpit’ assertion for me as a solo traveler relying on public transportation and seeking immersion in art, music, theatre, literature, foodie delights, cultural festivals, and local conversations and friendships. Even as I continue visiting friends in London, we tend to meet up in these outside-of-London cities and towns.
“Please join me in learning what these destinations—none of them featured, and sometimes not even noted, in big-name travel guides—have to offer Midwest travelers looking to visit England and Wales rather than to tour Great Britain.
“At the moment, I’m checking in on all of those places and planning to make a fall 2027 (rather than fall 2026) trip, hoping the world settles a bit by then.”
A Zoom invitation will be emailed to UMRA members a month before the program, and a reminder will be sent a week before. We hope you can join us.
—Lynn C. Anderson, Armchair Traveler Program chair