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From Liverpool to Nottingham via sunny Manchester!First stop was the amazing Old Trafford Stadium, home to Manchester United.Our tour guide Wayne showed us around for an hour, indulging us in all the photo opportunities!The stadium is absolutely massive, holding 76,000 people, and really is impressive even if you're not into football.
Extra special care is taken of the grass there, keeping it watered and giving it plenty of light.With a general lack of sunshine in Manchester they use ultra violet light to keep the grass looking super green.
We also learnt about the Munich air crash which claimed 7 players lives back in 1958.The stadium has dedicated an area to those who lost their lives and there's an eerie photograph of the team.In the black and white photo those who died have had their shirts coloured red, which takes up only the right hand side of the team photo.
Fletch and Vaughan were super keen to see the Coronation Street studio and we'd heard that there was a restaurant overlooking the set so we set off to find out.Sadly the restaurant was closed for a conference so instead they chatted to some fans who were camped out waiting for their fave stars.We were in luck when out drove Peter Barlow played and rushed over for pics.The six or so paparazzi who were camped out at the gate didn't seem too fussed by him though!
Lunch in the sun followed our brush with fame - yellow deck chairs were set up in one of the main squares with grass and a TV screen so we settled there with our sammies.
Onwards to Nottingham in our trusty orange Spaceships, a two and a half hour journey where we kept entertained by our British playlist (thanks to winner Tom for the fine selection!).Now and then we'd been passing fields full of nothing but yellow flowers and later discovered they were to make canola oil.Interesting!
Checked into the Premier Inn and then head off on our tour of the city by none other than Robin Hood himself (played by Ade Andrews).He was quite a character!He managed to pack a heap of history into our two hour tour - from the market square history, to the slim lined version of the Robin Hood legend and plenty more.Nottingham residents loved him as well (apparently they don't see many people dressed in full Robin Hood get-up complete with bows and arrow, sword and horn!) and he posed for quite a few pics on our wander.
We discovered that 'Robin Hood' was actually the name given to the outlaws opposing the Kings rule back in the day.When the King declared Sherwood Forest as his own there was an uprising from the people who were living off it.Robin Hood eventually became known as one man and wove in the other characters such as Maid Marion, Frair Tuck and Little John that we know today.
The premier of the movie starring Russell Crowe is this week right here in Nottingham, we're hopeful we can walk the red carpet with Russ being fellow kiwis!Ha…
Dinner at the Malt Cross introduced our musical palates to an awesome live band called Ellen and the Escapades, four of us bought their CD (with two songs) for only 2 quid.And they're playing on the main stage at Glastonbury this year as an emerging act!
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