This is awesome!

I went in to see the manager at Cloud 23, the Skyline Bar in Manchester landmark, Hilton Manchester Deansgate about the Charity Auction yesterday evening, following up on a visit the day before and was blown away when he donated ‘A Night for 2 in Cloud 23’ to the charity auction!

The actual donation in full:

A Night for 2 in Cloud 23:

Complimentary bottle of champagne on arrival with a table reserved in the West Lounge (pictured above).

Wow!

From the West Lounge you can see spectacular views of Manchester including The Wheel of Manchester, Urbis and more.   It needs to be seen to be believed.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Cameron, Brian and all at Cloud 23!

I actually went to Cloud 23 for the first time a couple of weeks ago and whilst there one of the people I was with, Adrian Slatcher (@adrianslatcher on Twitter) suggested that I asked them about a donation.  Photo credit: Erin Maguire (@beyongolia on Twitter).

I’m so pleased I took your advice, Adrian!

One lucky person will be walking away with this very special experience at Manchester’s top destination bar at the Charity Auction later today.

Cloud 23 is in Manchester’s tallest building, Beetham Hilton Tower and serves some very delectable cocktails, many Manc-themed.  I’ve tried a couple and they were very nice.   Read more about it on the Time Out website.

The Auction list for the Charity Auction so far is as follows.  There should be more to add to the list, will know by end of play today:

• Signed children’s novel, A Hat Full of Sky donated by the author, Sir Terry Pratchett OBE
• A hamper with assorted bags of coffee, mugs, CDs and more donated by Starbucks Manchester Arndale
• ‘A Night for 2 at Cloud 23’ donated by Cloud 23, Skyline Bar, Hilton Manchester Deansgate
• New! 2 vouchers for 3 Course Meal for Two donated by Tampopo restaurant, Triangle Shopping Centre, Manchester City Centre

Update – 12:16pm: I’ve just spoken to Jane Moriarty, general manager of Tampopo Manchester and she has donated 2 vouchers for a ‘3 Course Meal for Two’ to the Charity Auction!  Thank you Jane!  Was lovely speaking to you.  Hopefully see you later today.

Tampopo is an Oriental mini-restaurant group based in the North West.  According to their website:

“Our menu is composed from the best street food and signature dishes from across East Asia, faithful reproductions of classics free from gimmickry and interpretation.”  -Tampopo website

There’s a review of the Manchester City Centre restaurant on the Manchester Confidential website.

I ate there last week for the first time and really enjoyed it. Their customer service  was excellent so I decided to ask them to donate to the charity auction!

Yesterday was a whirlwind of activity.  At lunch time I had a meeting with the irrepressible Kathryn Gregory, World Travel expert at Thomas Cook Manchester.

She’s been incredibly thorough with helping plan the 7 Wonders in 7 Days travel itinerary and I’m very grateful for her patience in dealing with all the minute details.

We are not quite there yet with the itinerary; there’ve been a couple of changes to it, mostly due to the fact it is being input onto new systems at Thomas Cook.

I should know where we stand with timings by mid next week.

Our discussions today did lead me to ask for advice on Twitter.   Thomas Cook cannot sort out internal travel arrangements within each destination unless they have an authorised agent there.

This means I will have to find out how to get to the 7 Wonders destinations from the airport in some cases.  It also means I may have to sort out my accommodation in Jordan, something I’ve already started arranging via Twitter.

I posted a question on Twitter about getting to Machu Picchu from Cuzco, both in Peru and Dubai resident, Sarah Hepburn (@Sarah3112 on Twitter),  a fellow 7 Wonders ‘tourist’ replied with some really helpful information.

My question:

How long does it take to get from Cuzco airport to Machu Picchu, both in Peru? Pls state method of transport & duration. Thank you! #90909

Sarah answers:

@7wondersin7days For Machu Picchu, the train from Cuzco is about 4hrs to Aguas Calientes, then bus from Aguas Calientes up the 8km to MP.

It’s looking like we need to allow for an additional 4 hours at least on that leg of the journey and this might make things difficult for squeezing the 7 destinations into 7 days.

It’s still very much possible though as by this stage I’ll only have one more destination to see, Chichen Itza in Mexico, according to our itinerary so far.

Sarah also tweeted some useful info on watching out for altitude sickness in Machu Picchu:

@7wondersin7days Machu Picchu lies @ about 2500m above sea-level & it’s likely 2b affected by alt sick from 2500m & higher. Small chance tho

Thanks again Sarah, that was really helpful.

I am planning to post the full travel itinerary on here when it’s ready as it still needs tweaks, especially for the internal transport within each of the 7 countries.

I’m also looking forward to being given an estimate of the total air miles for the trip so I can get on with arranging for that to be offset.

I intend to talk to a couple of companies about sponsoring this as suggested by Dan Donald aka @hereinthehive a while back, will keep you posted.

Speaking of Dan, he has spruced up the 7 Wonders in 7 Days MySpace page, something he offered to do as part of Team 7 Wonders.  It’s looking a lot nicer than my first effort.  Thanks again Dan.

I’ll try and spend more time cross posting blog posts and videos on there, it does look a bit bare at the moment.

I’m also really looking forward to being interviewed by Anna-Louise Gilhooley, editor of WorkLife, Manchester’s first business and lifestyle magazine at the charity auction later today.

WorkLife is a bi-monthly, free title distributed across Manchester City Centre, including hot spots and exclusive venues, boutique hotels and high end apartment blocks. The magazine has two halves, business, and lifestyle with two corresponding front covers.

The magazine will be featuring me in the August/September issue, out in August.

Can’t wait!

I’ll be adding the videos I promised on Twitter in a follow-up post, this one is already too long and I’ve been up way too long!

See you at the Charity auction, hopefully.  There’s still time to get your tickets.

Comments, queries, questions, you know  where to post them.   Right below in the Comments box )