After attending 17 sporting events in 15 days in three countries it was time to go home. Here were my stats:
I attended 12 games in England, 3 in Scotland and 2 in Finland.
I attended 10 soccer matches consisting of 4 English Premier League, 2 Champions League, 1 Europa League, 1 Scottish Premier League and 2 Carling Cup.I attended 2 rugby matches – 1 in the Guinness Premiership and 1 in the Magners League.I attended 2 county cricket matches – both Division I and Division II.I attended 2 NHL games …

Rather than hang around downtown Manchester for a couple of hours before checking into my hostel, I decided to take the bus to Old Trafford to buy my ticket for the evening’s match. Even after seeing extra tickets in Glasgow on Tuesday night I still wanted to be sure I had my ticket for Manchester United.
Obtaining TicketsTickets were available for the match and I bought a ticket in the upper deck for £38. As I walked around the stadium looking for a restaurant to eat, there were a …

Since I went to sleep relatively early Tuesday night, I woke up early Wednesday morning. I was at the hostel’s free breakfast as soon as it opened at 7:00 am and was on the train back to Manchester at 8:00 am.
Once again, I was nervous that I would need to pay a one way fare from Glasgow to Carlisle since I only had an England BritRail pass, but, once again, the conductor glanced at my pass and went onto the next passenger. I had successfully taken the …

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 room at the Britannia Hotel in Manchester was excellent. It was £39 per night and after spending three nights in a hostel sharing a room with others it was great having my own bathroom and privacy. I went to sleep as soon as I checked in on Sunday night.
I still had not booked hotels for Glasgow (where I was traveling to Tuesday morning) and Birmingham (where I was staying Monday, October 5). I saw in my room that the Britannia had a hotel in Birmingham and …