Exploring Manchester with the Maxi-Cosi Loola
This week's challenge for our Maxi-Cosi Loola was to explore our local town with the pushchair. When we took our Loola out last week the pushchair got to grips with the great outdoors, and the week before it stayed at home as we unboxed the pram. This week the Origiami Rose Loola became an urban pushchair as we headed into Manchester to see Dig the City, an urban gardening festival which is taking place there until 11th August.Our first action, as we are still without a car, was to get the bus into Manchester. The Loola has already been on the bus a few times and caught the train last week too! I love that you can fold the handle down to stop it protruding into the aisle and allow other passengers to pass by easily and safely. This means that, although the stroller seems quite large it doesn't take up a lot of the limited space available on public transport. Another thing to note that really helps is the ease of use of the brake on this pram. You press one lever down to lock and the other to unlock and it really works. Even if the bus jerks or swerves the stroller doesn't move. This is the first I have had like this and I feel really confident in Little Miss' safety in the Loola.
We arrived in Manchester to bright sunshine but the forecast was mixed and we had made sure to stow the rain cover in the shopping basket. The basket also contained changing supplies, coats, Bud's rucksack and everything else we needed for the day. It was unusual for me not to have a bag hanging from the stroller frame. This is particularly helpful when using a pushchair parent facing as I'm always concerned that a changing bag on the handle might fall on to the baby. You can see that our basket was full in some of the photos below but it really didn't have any impact upon how well the pushchair handled. I actually haven't worked out a way to hang my bag from the Loola handles yet, the width of the stroller means my lovely Pink Lining bag straps don't fit. I might have to just get a new bag!
Setting off from Victoria Station we walked across Manchester and were met with a wide range of different paving stones - from the smoothest concrete and paving, through to uneven, old cobblestones. Yet again we found that Little Miss slept sweetly for well over an hour in the Loola. I think that the combination of the flat reclining position, large hood and smooth ride, in addition to the fresh air of course, means that Little Miss is fully relaxed in the pram. You'll see from the photos that the pram is flat in most of them, she managed to miss many of the sights and sounds of the festival because she was sleeping peacefully.
When we got into the festival staging areas, from Exchange Square through New Catherdral Street and into St Ann's Square, I was really pleased with how the pushchair handled. It was adept at weaving around the different displays and the groups of people milling around. I was actually complimented on the Loola on a couple of occasions, as we moved through the festival. People seemed very taken by both the colour of the stroller and the accidental co-ordination of Little Miss' outfit.
Despite the grey skies you can see in my photos we managed to avoid the rain and didn't have to use the rain cover on this walk. We did fit a little shopping in towards the end of our time in Manchester which involved navigating the lifts and aisles of clothing stores, I did struggle a little in some of the tighter spaces, I think this was probably a result of the Loola being that little bit wider than my previous strollers. There were no issues with manoeuvrability or using the lifts and, again, tucking the handle down allowed for extra space when the lifts were really busy. No matter how good the pushchair is, it just doesn't make shopping interesting for little people though!
Our day ended with another bus journey and our being picked up by my Dad in his car. I'm happy to say that the Loola fitted easily into his boot and, as we were met with driving rain when we got off the bus, the speed that I can now fold the Loola with (after lots of practice) was really useful! I was impressed with how well the Loola did on our city walk, serving us just as well as it did in the country park. The Loola is definitely an all rounder!
