Hello and welcome to the Independence Daily Travel podcast. Today I am shivering at a very important junction in Manchester.

No, it's not a motorway, no it's not a railway. It's actually where the Rochdale Canal meets the Bridgewater Canal. I've really wanted to remind you that

the UK has a fine network of canals and actually for a couple of cities, that's Manchester

where I am right now, and also Birmingham, finding your way through by navigating beside these canals,

almost all of which have good towpaths beside them, is a really interesting way of seeing the city.

I've come to this point because it is truly dramatic. I'm across from the

lockkeeper's cottage, but over to my right there's the railway which runs from here to Liverpool.

Indeed the Liverpool to Manchester Railway was one of the very first in the world.

That's a tram rising high above the city streets.

But out here, I'm right down at water level.

There's a whole flight of locks.

I've just passed one and we're just looking down into the Bridgewater Canal, one of the very first in Europe.

And of course, the canals predated the railways in industrialising the north of England and beyond.

It's a lovely crisp winter's day and the great thing is that actually we've done pretty well as a nation and

certainly Manchester has done very well as a city to

resurrect the canal network thanks to the canal and river trust another tram soaring above me there

and with some very deftly imposed foot bridges you can travel really long distances

around Manchester and see a side of the city that would otherwise escape you. Of course, it's not entirely without problems.

You wouldn't necessarily want to be here after dark,

not because of any danger from other people,

but simply because, well, it's a tricky old network

and there's understandably no barriers between the

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