Stadium Tours - Premiership Football Clubs (North) with Leo & Jackie

 Stadium Tours - Premiership Football Clubs (North)

We're football crazy, we're football mad! Our avid fans couldn't wait to kick off their tour of the most iconic Northern stadiums. The first stop was at the Theatre of Dreams - Old Trafford. Our tour started with a photo stop in front of the statue of Sir Bobby Charlton, George Best and Dennis Law which was a pretty memorable moment. Then, we were led out onto the pitch to take in the view of the vast stadium and the pristinely kept pitch which is constantly maintained by groundsmen. 

The next leg of the tour took us under the stadium and into the changing rooms of the players where all their shirts were hanging up neatly on their lockers. This was a great photo opportunity for us to sit under our favourite players shirt and have our photo taken. Obviously, Rashford was proving to be the most popular shirt. 

This was followed by a visit to the press room where pre- and post-match interviews were conducted.

Our second stop of our football tour was at Anfield, home to Liverpool FC. We couldn’t wait to have our photos taken with the statue of John Houlding, who was the Lord Mayor of Liverpool and founder of the club. In 2017 Houlding was commemorated with a bronze bust outside the club to mark the 125th anniversary. We walked around the outside of the football ground and past the memorial dedicated to those that died in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 and then we stood against the Champions Wall commemorating all the cups and leagues that have been won by the team. 

We decided to visit the club’s interactive museum.  It told us about the Liverpool football club story, with the six European cups and the boot room exhibition. We saw the golden boot, an award given to the top goal scorer in the season. In Premier League history, several Liverpool players have won or contended for this award. These include Salah who scored 32 goals and set a new record for the most goals in a league season and Mane who shared the golden boot with Salah and Aubameyang in the 2018-2019 season with 22 goals. We also saw the letter from Celtic football club signing Kenny Dalglish over to Liverpool for the sum of £400,000. He went on to become one of Liverpool's most iconic figures, both as a player and a manager. 

Next we learnt about the history of the club, and we headed to the top floor of the stadium which overlooked the pitch and what a sight that was. We visited the players' dressing room, and we all sat in front of our favourite players' shirts and had a sneaky look inside their lockers. 

This was followed by us heading off to the famous tunnel to walk down with cheers all around. We all touched the shield before walking out onto the pitch as this is what all the players do before a game to bring them luck. We visited the Kop which is one of the most famous stands in world football and is where the most passionate fans gather. Being then able to sit in the managers dugout was a memorable experience. This is where the club's coaches, managers, substitutes, and other staff sit during matches. Next, we headed into the press room where we all had our pictures taken behind the media desk. 

we set off for our final football tour of the holiday. The Etihad Stadium is one of the newest stadiums we had visited and was built to host the 2002 commonwealth games, the stadium was designed primarily as an athletics venue.

 We then immersed ourselves in the tour starting at the view of the pitch from the stands. We saw where they sat the visiting team's fans and were amazed at what a small seating area they had. The guide then told us what happens on match days in the home team dressing room and why it was shaped in a semi-circle so that Pep Guardiola can see every team player. We were also told that the football club gets through 3,000 shirts per season for the football players as they use 2 shirts per match.

 Next, we passed through the hospitality suite before we got the feel of what it's like to walk down the famous glass tunnel to the sounds of people clapping and cheering. Pitch side was another great experience as we got to sit in the dugout and experience what views the managers had. From here also we could see the £300 million development taking place including a museum and increasing the capacity of the stadium to 60,000 fans making it one of the largest in the Premier League. Finally, we got to interact with a hologram of Pep Guardiola in the press room and pretend to ask him questions. 

We decided to spend the day at the infamous Blackpool Zoo. As we entered, we had timed it perfectly as the giant tortoises were just being fed…and they really were giant! We then moved onto the camels who were shedding their fur and then onto the meerkat enclosure walking through to lemur woods. Leo managed to get some very closeup pictures with all of us in the background. 

Next, we watched the sea lion show who are known for their playful behaviour and intelligence and we watched them perform tricks such as balancing balls, collecting hoops over their heads and clapping and bowing to the audience to put on a funny show; all for a treat! It was then on the petting area where we got up close to the lama, geese and donkeys. 

After that we headed to the almighty gorilla enclosure and were in time for the daily talk and feeding. The trainer then went into the enclosure and put fruit and vegetables around the rocks before opening the gate. Like a scene from Kong the silver back gorillas rushed out to find their favourite food. As we passed the lions and tigers, we noticed that they had just been fed and they were all fast asleep, soaking up the sunshine! The keeper informed us that they will be starved tomorrow as this happens in their normal habitat and then fed the following day. Next were the giraffes where Leo almost lost his camera to a giraffe that came up to him and licked his phone! It did make us laugh! Did you know that the legs of a giraffe can be over 2 metres long and they can run as fast as 30mph and only sleeps from 10 minutes to 2 hours in 24 hours. We all agreed that we were glad we were not giraffes as we all enjoyed our sleep too much. Finally, we visited the Asian elephants at project elephant base camp. We watched the elephants socializing, foraging and playing with the large objects in their enclosure.

It was off tot he infamous Blackpool aquarium. Our underwater adventure took us straight to the rockpool area where we were able to touch the starfish and crabs. We then passed through the glass tunnel where sharks and other giant fish swam over the top of us. They looked massive above our heads. We managed to catch the feeding time of the giant sea turtle who was munching on some kale and lettuce and seemed to be enjoying this. As we passed the lobsters and fish, some with very strange looking faces, we finally came to the statue of the deep-sea diver where we all stopped to have our picture taken. 

We set off for the bright lights of Blackpool with our first stop was at the Blackpool Tower. The tower is one of the most iconic landmarks in England and was opened to the public on May 14^th, 1894, inspired by the Eiffel tower in Paris. It stands 518 feet tall and is the symbol of Blackpool’s popularity as a holiday destination since the Victorian era. As we all braved the lift, it began to climb higher and higher and once at the top we were very brave to look at the views across Blackpool and the surrounding areas. As the weather was so sunny we could see for miles across the landscape. Some of us were brave enough to walk across the glass floor known as the Sky Walk and we were amazed to see the promenade, cars and people that looked so small in the distance. As dusk drew in, we boarded the bus and set off to see the bright lights of Blackpool's illuminations. The 6 mile stretch of some of the brightest lights we had ever seen was magnificent. They were on buildings, fairground rides, lamp posts and trams. The tower itself looked even more amazing lit up in a kaleidoscope of colours.