After booking my hotels, I decided I needed some exercise plus I wanted to check ticket status for the Manchester City game I was planning to attend Monday night. I was in Manchester in February 2007 and remembered that the walk from the Manchester train station to the City of Manchester Stadium is 1.5 miles. I decided to run to the box office.
Obtaining Tickets to Manchester CityI arrived at the City of Manchester Stadium’s ticketing center and tickets were available for the night’s game. Also, since I …

My entire day was planned for Sunday. I was taking a morning train from Edinburgh to Newcastle, taking the metro over to Sunderland, attending the Wolverhampton at Sunderland game at 4 pm, heading back to the Newcastle train station where I was taking the train to Manchester Sunday evening. The best part of the journey was that the train would only cost me one day on my BritRail pass. The worst part was that I was not sure if the conductor on the train would accept my rail pass from …

As I thought, I would not be able to check into my hostel until later in the afternoon. This meant I would not “actually” check in until after the Edinburgh rugby match I planned to attend Saturday night.
Since the Hearts match versus Hamilton kicked off at 3 pm and I could not check into my hostel until 1 pm there was no time to wait until 1 pm and then head off to Tynecastle Stadium. I wanted to hang out in a pub before the match.
The guy at the front …

One of the difficulties with planning a sports trip is trying to determine all of the possible sporting events that one could attend. This is why I always buy a local newspaper when I arrive in the country I am visiting.
My original plan for today was to attend the Premier League match between Hull City and Liverpool at Anfield. However, last night as I was sitting at The Hiding Place, I pulled out my fixtures for the week. While reviewing the league schedules, I realized there were …

After visiting British Mick, I took the same bus (#295) I had on Sunday afternoon back to Stamford Bridge for Chelsea’s Carling Cup match against Queens Park Rangers (QPR). This time I left earlier so I would not be late for the match which probably meant I would need to pay for my ticket.
Obtaining TicketsAt first I thought I would check to see if tickets were available for the match at the main ticket office. However, when I approached the security guards at the box office they said the match …

After booking my rooms for the next week, it was time to eat lunch as I had a few hours until the Arsenal Carling Cup match at Emirates Stadium. I walked a few blocks from Big Chris’ house and ended up at The Three Stags. I ordered the hamburger and a couple of pints before walking over to the Imperial War Museum located on Lambeth Road. To my surprise the admission was free so I spent a couple of hours catching up on my World War I, World Cup II …

After spending the afternoon at British Mick’s (who will now be referred to as London Mick) house, I left for the Chelsea match around 3:20 pm without a ticket (the match started at 4 pm). Of course, my bus was late and it took longer than I expected to get to Stamford Bridge. As was the case last time I would be late. However, last time I was concerned about whether I could get a ticket so I bought from a scalper early. This time I …

After spending a few weeks in Spain it was time for a weekend in London with the wife. If you are traveling to London and want to see a couple of soccer games then be sure to make the wife happy first – then attend the events. I booked two nights at the Andaz Liverpool Street that I found by going to tablethotels.com. Tablethotels.com recommends stylish hotels that the wife will love and will hopefully not cost a fortune.
The Andaz was about five hotels listed that were …

For the second time in a week, I attended a soccer match at Villareal. Last Sunday was for a La Liga match. Last night was for Villareal’s opening match in the Europa League versus Levski Sofia.
Parking at VillarealWith the Ultimate Sports Wife with me and torrential rains falling, I dropped off Nicole at the box office before I parked on the street. As was the case Sunday, I parked a few blocks from the stadium.
Obtaining TicketsOnce again, I bought tickets in the visitors section for the match – 30 euros …

After taking a weekend off for World Cup qualifying matches, Spain’s first division was back in action this weekend. The closest match to where we are staying was in Villareal last night – a 2.5 hour drive from Benimassot.
Parking in VillarealAs with the other Spanish soccer matches I have attended, cars appeared to park anywhere around the stadium. However, this time there was not enough room on the street for cars to double park or enough room on the sidewalk for cars to park there. I parked …