All this summer, there’s been a buzz in the City of Manchester and very soon, it will come to an end. While we were visiting my parents a few weeks back, we went on the Bee in the City trail to see what we could find.

The big golden Bee was at the start of the Bee in the City trail at Piccadilly Station, from there we set off our our Bee quest to see as many bees as we possibly could…

The Urban Jungle Bee (above: top left) was a particular favourite is mine…

We saw some (but not all) of the bees in the Northern Quarter:

Before heading towards the Arndale Centre where this lovely homage to Salford artist LS Lowry was …

… then on to the Printworks and this Bee celebrating the Manchester music scene:

Before taking on the Bee in the City trail, I downloaded the app to my phone. Every Bee has a code on it which you can enter into the app to say you’ve found it. Some of the Bees offer rewards, and this one gave money off on meals at restaurants in the Printworks. That seemed like the perfect time to stop and grab some lunch Rock and Roll style 😉

After lunch we headed towards the main shopping area and found not only the Bee in the City shop, but also Liam Gallagher (of Oasis)’s Rock and Roll Bee…

We wandered around town spotting a few more before heading to Manchester Cathedral…

Manchester Cathedral:

Manchester Cathedral hosted a whole swarm of the smaller, community created bees. Among them were bees made by local schools and youth groups;

Market Street:

In Manchester art gallery, we found ‘Crown Jewels’.

Outside the Bridgewater Hall there was Buzz-wig van Bee-thoven …

…and across the road at (what was once known as) GMEX was this gloriously shiny bee called Bling Bee!

Albert Square / St Peter’s Square:

In front of Manchester’s currently empty Town Hall were two bees, This is Manchester…

It came complete with its own version of a Gib Rock…

The Birds and the Bees bee, no less!

Beside the Library theatre we spotted this worker bee…

A botanicals gin bee…

…and even a virtual bee called ‘Buzzi’ who only appears on your phone! Now you see him…

Now you don’t…

This rather elegant bee stood inside part of the library…

With the St Peter’s Square bees ticked off the list, we jumped onto a tram and left the City Centre behind. We spotted another bee through the tram window:

Next stop: Media City, home of the BBC, ITV and lots of television programmes.

Media City UK

Children’s BBC programmes are made here and it’s now home to the relocated Blue Peter garden.

And, Blue Bee-ter!

He even has a Blue Peter badge!

Between Media City and the Lowry theatre we had a close encounter with a space bee:

In the Lowry we found a little swarm of five small bees… including (on the right) the ‘Sewing Bee’!

Upstairs, by the L.S. Lowry exhibition space, there were three more:

By this point, we had clocked up 61 bees and some rather tired legs, so we decided to call it a day and head home. We really enjoyed our day with the Bees in the City!

That evening, my Dad went to Old Trafford to watch Manchester United play, and whilst he was there, he sought out this Bee too…

The Bees are being sold off for charity next month so if you would like to see them yourself, you’ve not got long – it’s the last day tomorrow!

For more information about the Bees, check out their website.