I guess
that talking only about my favorite football club could not be interesting
enough for each of you. That’s the reason why I won’t tell you about Manchester
United’s history, success and all that stuff which you can easily find on
Wikipedia etc. Today I’m going to take you on Manchester United Tour. Let’s
begin!
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Image 1 Old Trafford - Copyright to me
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Tickets
The most
important thing in our journey are tickets. Tickets for the game and of course a flight ticket. Both of them
you have to buy in advance. The
cheapest flight tickets are offered by Ryanair and WizzAir:
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| Image 2 Boeing 737 - (Wikipedia) |
http://wizzair.com/
Accommodation
Game
Day
Museum
and Stadium Tour
Summary
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| Image 3 Airbus A320-200 - (Wikipedia) |
There is a
small trick. Flights to Liverpool are sometimes much cheaper than to
Manchester. Here comes terravision – a well
known shuttle! For only 8 pounds (which is max price) we can easily and for a low price get to Manchester from the Liverpool’s
Airport. It’s a common way which I travel.
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| Image 4 Terravision shuttle - (Terravision) |
Tickets for
the game are a more complex thing to organize.
Firstly, we have to buy Official Membership on the Manchester United’s
website:
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| Image 5 Membership Card - Copyright to me |
Now it’s
time to pick the game. Remember to do it in
advance. Almost during each game
there is 100% attendance.
Accommodation
When the
game is over we need some place to sleep. There are plenty
of ways to find something interesting. I recommend these
two sites:
If you
don’t mind to stay in a youth hostel here is one
which I use very often:
Next to the Hilton Chambers (the location of the above hostel) is a very nice place serving breakfast - Koffee Pot. Every day before the opening time there is a huge queue! The quality of food is excellent. But the most important is the atmosphere of the place - so English!
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| Image 6 Full English Breakfast at Koffee Pot - Copyright to me |
Game
Day
Don’t go to
Megastore (The Official Manchester United Store located at the stadium) on the game
day! The number of people there is enormous! Do
it the other day.
If you have
time and some luck here is the chance of seeing
players! The coach with them comes to stadium 2h before the game starts. The only thing you have to do is go to the West Stand and you
will find the place - there will be a lot of people.
Unfortunately
The Manchester United Red Café is not open on the
game day. But (as with Megastore) you can visit it the other day. It is located
on the third floor of the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand.
If you want to see the players’ warm-up you should be at your seat at least 30
minutes before the game starts.
Atmosphere
during the game is absolutely amazing… it’s hard to describe… but I’ll try by
sharing my own short movies:
Museum
and Stadium Tour
Since we
have the Membership we can go to the Museum and the Stadium
Tour with a discount.
There is a great opportunity to go behind the scenes at Old Trafford and see
the stadium from the inside. You can visit a conference
room,a dressing room and of course the museum full of trophies.
During the
tour you come across a small store - where prices are much lower than in
Megastore (because Megastore is under the Nike’s
brand), but not all items are available.
Summary
In a big
shortcut this is it. I hope you enjoyed it and maybe for some of you it will be
helpful.
Questions:
- Have you ever been abroad on a football match?
- Do you have any experience with airbnb? (it’s quite a new way of finding accommodation for me)
Glad, there is a topic this week I can write something more about. Each year I'm visiting at least one football stadium. By far I have visited Camp Nou, Santiago Bernabeu, Amsterdam ArenA, Stadio Olimpico, Stamford Bridge, Vincente Calderon, Parc des Princes, Emirates Stadium, Etihad Stadium, Stade de France and Old Trafford as well and I’m hoping to see all the biggest stadiums in Europe. As for The Theatre of Dreams (how Old Trafford is called) I was quite disappointed, because the tour was really poor compared to the one, which I and my friends have for example on Stamford Bridge or The Emirates Stadium (by far the best we attended to). Museum is decent, you can’t see much, there are many restrictions and the this REALLY industrial part of Manchester is not very appealing (I’ve highlighted “really”, because Manchester in some way is very similar to Łódź – not very beautiful, because of many manufactures and the district, where the stadium is, is the essence of that vision).
ReplyDeleteAlso, the pages, you have mentioned, have very high prices. I would recommend budgetplaces.com, hostelworld.com or even look for comments on tripadvisor.com. Booking.com gave us higher prices for the same places, which we was able to find on other pages.
As for the flights – I must agree that RyanAir and WizzAir are the cheapest way to travel to England from Poland, combined with Terravision shuttles from Liverpool makes it the best solution to travel. We had to use VirginTrains, because we were staying in London, and Manchester was a one-day-trip in our schedule. And to answer your second question:
http://pl.tinypic.com/view.php?pic=jr70iq&s=8
(We're not PSG fans - Juventus, Internazionale and Real Madrid)
I must say... you have a lot of experience! I have seen Emirates Stadium and San Siro except Old Trafford. I haven't been on different tours so I can't say how The Theatre of Dreams is compare to others.
DeleteI haven't known those pages! For sure I'll check it at the earliest chance.
Nie jestem zwolennikiem piłki nożnej, in general, this sport has never interested Me. Would I see the stadium? Probably yes, but more out of curiosity, and more that I have seen for myself if someone asked. It may sound sarcastic, but I would happily went to the English bar for breakfast. I'd love to see their mentality. Besides a pleasure to read the article.
ReplyDeleteTwo things you have to do if you are in England:
Delete- eat English breakfast
- drink Guinness in English pub - but remember! It has to be from the barrel (not from the bottle/can)
Okay, I will remember these advice :)
Delete~Have you ever been abroad on a football match?
ReplyDeleteI'm not interested in football at all so I haven't been on any match.
~Do you have any experience with airbnb? (it’s quite a new way of finding accommodation for me)
No experience with airbnb, but I recommend hostelworld.com
As I said before I'm not a football fun, but presentation is interesting to me.
Very nice that you present your trip and your point of view. It's unusal and something we can't find on wikipedia :) Thanks for it.
I thought that not everybody are interested in football that's the reason why I didn't write about history, squad and all that "boring" (for not interested in) stuff.
DeleteThat is really useful guide for me, because I haven’t ever been abroad on any football match(unfortunately!). If someday I decide that I want to go to Manchester I will definitely use your tips. Your movies look really great and I imagine how awesome it is when you are sitting on the one of seats in Theater of Dreams…
ReplyDeleteDon't hesitate to ask me anything. If you decide to go in current season, I can borrow you my membership - you will save some money ;)
DeleteThanks for your offer, I will definitely think of it! That would be lovely to go there… someday;)
DeleteI've already visited some of the biggest stadiums in Europe and I must say the best tour was at the Wembley Stadium. Good price, good guide and so on.
ReplyDeleteI've seen titles in the guardian: Should MU drop Van Persie?
What's going on with Rooney?
Btw, I've noticed that you have "Mrs." on your ticket? I didn't know you are a woman :) Correct me plz :)
I saw Wembley from some distance when I was visiting London few weeks ago. Nothing special for me. But as you say, tour could be nice one.
DeleteShould MU drop Van Persie? No.. he's still a top class striker.
What's going on with Rooney? Nothing... he's returning to form after suspended (red card few games before)
Mrs... Doh! I thought that nobody notice that (except our teacher). It's my mistake while I was filling up a form. I bought membership for me and for my girlfriend - that's my excuse.
Nice 'guidebook'. I think it might be very useful for someone who plan to go for a Manchester United Tour. I'd like to suggest you a thing. You should have also included few attractions not connected to the football. There are a lot of things to do and see in Manchester except of the stadium. :)
ReplyDeleteGood point. Well than... in Manchester there are not so many things to see like in London. But I would recommend Christmas Market on St Patrick's Square. It stars from the mid of November. There are a lot of stalls with plenty different decorations. You can also buy hot wine or hot chocolate and for extra 2 pounds mug is yours!
DeleteHere are 4 of mine, two on the left are from this year (one for wine, one for chocolate):
http://www.img.pl/fmCg
I've been all around Europe and visited many famous stadiums but I never paid to get inside, as I'm not interested in football that much :p When I was in England I had many opportunities to see different types of places. I sailed up the English coast and visited few smaller seaside cities and they were much more interesting than London for example. When I entered a bar and ordered a beer, a crowd of elderly men sitting close by began voicing their disapproval and then cheered when I picked the right one. That's the side of England that made me want to go back again.
ReplyDeleteI've been in London only once but for me it was to crowded and there weren't "that" climate like in Manchester. Maybe I'm not objective because my favourite team is from there.
DeleteErm... I'm into this kind of topics, really. I hardly watch any football matches, simply because I do not have a time for that and because I do not enjoy them as well. I appreciate other's passions therefore I've read it with interest. I bought a burgee of AC Milan once when I was in official store but honestly I'm not into any football team :) Answering your questions I have never been to any football match personally as well as I have never tried airbnb and that's because when I travel I always try to find accommodation through my connections what explains why I travel to places where my friends live basically. Traveling by bus might be cheap but countless hours of sitting in those tiny, semi-comfortable seats isn't comparable to few hours spent on plane what I consider more safe (probably surprisingly for some of you)
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you about safety of the plane. But it's not a good idea to travel from Manchester to Liverpool by plane... it's only about 55 kilometres. So it would be a little exaggeration :) (like flight from Chopin to Modlin)
DeletePrzemek, the membership titles you as 'Mrs' Przemek - is that a bug, or has its special meaning in England? :) Sadly, I haven't got the opportunity to visit foreign stadiums, but from what i can see on the TV, most English matches do not have as fierce support as in the past (or present in Poland) - you can't hear the crowd chanting for the most of the game, they just stand up when something happens within the penalty area. I suppose that the English government put out football fans' fire in the '80s :)
ReplyDeleteFew comments above you have an answer about title ;)
DeleteHmm... I have to disagree with you in context of support. For example Manchester United has moved their "singing section" to different stand because of acoustic (it was consulted with some of the acoustic specialist)
I watch football only during big tournaments, because of the general atmosphere. It might not be surprising that I don't have a favorite football club. I heard from friends about groundhopping and for football fans it must be very exciting.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, recently, during my stay in Rome, my boyfriend persuaded me into going to a Serie A (Italian premier league) game between Lazio and Torino. It was quite interesting as an experiance, also Lazio has a real live mascot, which is an eagle that is let to fly around the pitch during the club anthem is being played - it's a brilliant thing.
A few days prior to that a game of Champions League took place on the same stadium (Stadio Olimpico) between AS Roma and Bayern Munich - we both regreted we didn't attend it, because the final score was 1-7, the tickets were extremely hard to get though, and their price was enormous.
Today ManU won 3-0 versus Liverpool. Overall Manchester is the one of the best football club in the World, but they had a lot of problem after Sir Ferguson left. It was my first watched ManU match for a months but today I can say – I like it. In Premiere League are very good teams and the high level of football is day-to-day condition. Congrats for your trip and motivation to do that. BTW this year I was on Hajduk Split Stadium of course in Croatia and i must say that every time when visit stadium Is a huge fun for me. Here you have more info about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadion_Poljud . Football is the best and your presentation was really delicious… Let’s keep attention on our national football because I believe next year will be much better than current and we can except some nice results…
ReplyDeleteToday's won was very important. ManU won against the biggest rival and it's next won without Angel Di Maria in squad (he's injured, he was bought last summer for recorded sum of about 75 mln Euro - in Premier League of course).
DeleteImage what happens when he return!
Hi there, it was a very nice tour :)
ReplyDeleteTo be honest with you I was sure that going for this kind of trip would be much more complicated and much more expensive. It is much more easier to be a football fan nowdays ! :)
I've just was watching tv and they said that Manchaster have the best winning streak of the last couple of years. You think it`s just a luck or maybe something changed in their game ?
You're right, it is simple and easy nowadays, you only need to want it :)
DeleteAs for your question... it's hard to answer, because there is no one thing what cause the good performance of the team. Van Gaal (actual boss) said that he need 3 month, after that period team should know the philosophy and should play like he want it. Personally I think that current form is owed to one player: Michael Carrick. After his return (from injury) ManU win every game! He brings calm and balance to the team.
Travel is good thing. Even if the main reason is football game. ;)
ReplyDeleteOn a more serious note I personally would never travel abroad only to visit stadium and watch game. But to each their own.
I agree that in the age of internet travelling is easier than ever. You can arange everything sitting with your laptop.
I just recalled I've been on one stadium tour. It was Boca Juniors stadium and the guide was quite entertaining asking everyone about football teams from their country and teaching us how to cheer when Boca scores a goal. :)
I've never been a huge football fan, but some day I will go to the football match just to feel the atmosphere. About accomodation, when I'm abroad i often check hostels on hostelworld.com, site is really nice, but the amount of spam from them is awful. I highly recommend not using your main email if you plan to register there.
ReplyDeleteDude! a great article ! Really loved this one! :-)) First of all ManU is my favourite football team for many many years and that's the first thing I like about your trip :D But ! also Airbnb is one of the coolest app i've ever seen. I haven't used it yet and yes once I was at the football match abroad but unfortunately it wasn't really a ManU match but it was in Italy. I find Airbnb really inspiring app and I'd love to use it, I am actually waiting for summer to check it out. I can see a typical english meal on your picture :P damn, how many times did I prepare this?... but never tried an original one in UK :-) Since the tickets are really cheap I feel shame that I haven't been to UK yet... Thanks for the good advise about landing in Liverpool instead of ManU tho. Lolz
ReplyDeleteI am not fun of football and thus never planned or went to any matches abroad or even in home. I do sometimes travel for any convents or musical festivals and now a pain of traveling and accommodating (especially if not booked half year before the happening). At first i was using sites like booking or looking straight at hotel pages, but now there is some quite cheap motel brands spread around the world and i use reddit.com threads on some opinions so i can choose better. Or if it is possible i am looking to stay at someone house so it'll cost me almost nothing.
ReplyDelete