'I can see your house from here'

Talk about having ones head in the clouds! Last night I joined a few colleagues in Manchester at the sky bar in the Deansgate Hilton. The bar is on the 23rd floor of the Bechtel tower and for some reason we got out of the lift and turned right into the executive section. Everything was free, as well as the view.

You could not quite see Liverpool but I bet it was not by much.The hostess let us into the plebs bit so we could do the 360 degree vista thing, and although it was a pay bar, a view is a view.....the eye candy was definitely better though, as was the selection of ales. Definitely a place to try another night.

Now it got me thinking then about a few sky bars I have visited previously. The Empire State and the World Trade centre certainly had the views, but sadly no bar, and I remember a bar in San Fransisco at the top of a financial institution which was pretty spectacular. Plymouth has a good bar on the top of the Holiday Inn on the Hoe, which has great views over Plymouth Sound.

I also once went to the Top of the Tower restaurant in the old BT Tower in London prior to the IRA blowing it up. The restaurant subsequently shut. Unfortunately we went when the miners strike was on in the early seventies, so London was pretty much blacked out!! The Peak restaurant in Hong Kong was also pretty spectacular although I think HK looks better from the sea than from above.

Final place of note was an Indian restaurant in New York which looked over Central Park but much like London in the blackout, there is not much to see in Central Park at night!! So, for the moment I think the Manchester Hilton takes the biscuit. After all you can actually look down on Granada Studios and the set of Coronation Street!!