Day 02

Saturday 24 September 2016

At 6.50am the Cultural tour group will arrive at Manchester International Airport in the United Kingdom at Terminal 2. The Sporting tour group will arrive at London Heathrow airport – Terminal 3 at 6.20am. Once through the UK Immigrations and Customs, the groups will be greeted by their coach drivers who will be with them until they return to London on October 2 (Cultural tour) and October 3 (Sporting tour). Cultural students will transfer to York, one of England’s most historic cities and walk the Shambles and visit York Minster. They will then transfer to York YHA where they will stay for one night. The Sporting students will transfer to Manchester and visit the iconic Imperial War Museum. Here they will be immersed in the conflicts that Britain and the Commonwealth have been involved in since the First World War. They will then transfer to Manchester YHA where they will stay for two nights.
Sporting:

The day began as we coasted into Heathrow as the sun was rising over the city of London. This was a surprisingly pleasant experience as we were able to catch a glimpse of Big Ben, the London Eye and many other monuments that we would enjoy in the coming weeks. This was followed by the 4 hour bus ride up to Bury from London, not particularly ideal after such a long plane journey but the group was in high spirits and took the voyage into their stride. The coach pulled up to Gigg Lane, the home of Bury FC for our first sporting experience of the tour. We were kindly invited into the clubs supporters lounge prior to the game for a traditional bite to eat, chicken & potato pie, served with an enormous helping of mushy peas. We hurried around the club shop to acquire the colours of our newly founded favourite League 1 team and moved into the stadium for kick-off. The game was played with a great intensity and we were lucky enough to see Bury score a winner in the last 3 minutes of the game. This was to the delight of Bury’s new cheer squad who creatively changed the “MAAAAN-LYYYY” chant to fit our new side “BUUU – RRRY”. The group was then allowed onto the field after the game to take some photos and it was mentioned by the club CEO that the players had heard their new fans during the game and loved the support. We then climbed onto the bus, jetlagged, ready for bed and headed directly to Manchester YHA. The tourists enjoyed a hard earned shower and some dinner before heading to bed, ready for the upcoming days.