Manchester United Stadium Tour

Even kids have bucket lists and I'm confident that today we checked an item off a list. Football fan or not (but we are), the Old Trafford Stadium tour was, as I've heard the British say, cracking, and highly recommended.

This stadium tour was booked in advance before we left on our travels. Besides Wicked the musical on the West End (where we checked something off S's bucket list), this was the only other activity we booked, it was high on our priority list.

Our tour was informative, inspiring, and fun! We started it in the museum, where we saw the many men's and women's cups that have been won by Man U, read about the history of the club, and the club legends (such as Bobby Charlton and Alex Ferguson). B had the opportunity to pose with the women's FA cup. We then met up with our tour guide. I wish I remembered his name, he was fantastic. He took us out into the stadium, where we sat in the VIP seats and went right down to the pitch (but not on the pitch). Two experiences topped the tour though: cheering the kids on the tour as they came out of the player's entrance onto the pitch (the tunnel which the players come out of at the start of a game) and walking into the players' change room. We were assured it was the real change room, not a replica, which some other stadiums create for tours. At the end of the tour we were of course exited through the gift shop (that's an international feature), where a very happy B bought a Garnacho jersey with his allowance money.

We went to the tour with one of B's soccer balls so he could pose with it in the stadium and maybe do some skills in front of the stadium. He fully immersed himself in the experience and did just that, wearing his new Garnacho jersey!

There's not really much more to say, because writing about this is not the same as being here. It's all about the feeling you get when you're a football fan, and about seeing your kid who lives, eats and breathes football experience a couple of hours that approximate their brand of magic experiences.