The Ultimate Football Excursion – Day 5 to Day 7

Day 5: No game – Eurostar to Paris

With the development of the very fast trains and the channel tunnel it is possible to visit Paris as a day excursion from London. We caught the 8AM train for the 2 hour 15 minute run. Unfortuately due to time zones upon arrival it was 11:15 in Paris. As we had another long day planned for the next day we did not have much time in Paris. We decided to go to the Louvre first. LOOOONG QUEUES. We “wasted” two hours waiting to get in (should have headed my pre-reading and used one of the other enterances rather than through the pyramids). Once inside we decided only to look at the Italian paintings section only due to lack of time. In a word IMPRESSIVE! Even Sam was taken aback with some stunning works of art (yes we saw the Mona Lisa, Venus De Milo etc).

The Lourve

After the short visit (could spend a week ) we moved onto the Eiffel Tower taking a ride on the river bus. Just as we started to have an open air lunch we were greeted with short but heavy shower – soggy lunch.

The ET (on the side)

Next stop – Musee D’Orsay. This was for my benefit as it houses the largest collection of impressionist paintings. Again we only restricted ourselves to this section. I was suitably impressed with such a large collection of originals from Renoir, Monet and Van Gogh. Sam I think preferred the Italian masters.

Our return to London however was not smooth. There was some issues with immigration with some people ahead of us with the end result that we missed our 7:15PM train. We were not the only ones! The staff were very accommodating and found two seats on the 8:15PM train. This did however mean that we returned to hotel much later than expected with an another early start awaiting the next day.

Day 6: Tour of old Trafford and Scenic rail trip to Carlisle.

We took the fast 8AM service from London to Manchester arriving by 10:10. Then via the local metro to Old Trafford for our tour of the ground. We were surprised at some of the places we were allowed to visit such as the manager’s box and player rooms etc.

Old Trafford

After the our we headed back to Manchester for a train to Leeds and from there we transferred onto the Leeds to Carlisle via Settle service (very popular – essentially full). The journey from Settle to Carlisle is reportedly among the most scenic in the UK.

The journey is indeed quite beautiful with rolling green hills punctuated with small villages with very old stone buildings. Some villages being situated along  shallow low bank rivers and streams. Our journey ended in Carlisle at 5:30. Following a nice Indian dinner we hit the sack early.

Day 7 – Manchester + Manchester United  V Tottenham.

Before leaving Carlisle we strolled to Carlisle Castle for a quick photo before boarding our train back to Manchester.  

Carlisle Castle

After checking into our hotel we made our way to the ground to take in some of the pre-game atmosphere. Our seats (which included a nice post match 3 course dinner) were high on the 2^nd tier of the Alex Ferguson stand offering a nice view of the game. Unfortunately, the game did not go our way with Tottenham coming out on top 3-2.

Football Tally:

Matches : 4

Stadia: 4

                White Hart Lane, Stamford Bridge, Emirates, Old Trafford

Competitions:

                Premier League 2

                League cup 2