We were all excited about the trip to New York, ever since we first found out about it. It seemed to take so long to get to the point where it was actually time to go! Finally, the day came. Our bags were packed and we were ready to leave. We met at Manchester Airport at 8.00am on Saturday 24th October and soon enough we were all on board and on our way to Heathrow, London and our final destination, JFK, New York.
Eight long, but exciting, hours later we arrived at JFK, tired and hungry. We were driven to our hotel, then went to eat at Mel’s Burger Bar We returned to the hotel to sleep. We were really, really tired.
It was an early start on Sunday morning and after breakfast we set off for our first fixture of the tour. Three teams played and we all did well. Later we went to a football match – New England vs New York FC. We then travelled back to Times Square to The Hard Rock Café for tea.
On Monday morning we walked through Central Park to the American Museum of Natural History, where we had a few hours to look around. We all had lunch at the museum before setting off to Central Park Zoo. The zoo was brilliant and the weather was gorgeous, really sunny. At the subway we caught a metro tube back to our hotel. Later, each of our 3 teams played another match. Then it was back to our hotel where we ordered pizza and chilled out.
The next day we visited the Red Bull Arena. We had a personal tour and went inside the VIP boxes and the changing rooms. We met Matt Miazga, a defender for New York Red Bulls and asked him some questions. He also signed some of our bags and shirts. A visit to the club shop was a perfect ending to our tour. Later we took part in a training session with the Red Bull coaches and then travelled by coach back to our hotel where we got ready before going to the ‘Top of the Rock’. It was absolutely fantastic! The New York skyline at night time is stunning and we all took lots of really good photos. To top off a perfect day we went shopping in Times Square before going to Planet Hollywood for tea. We all collapsed into our beds, exhausted, when we got back that night!
After a good night’s sleep we woke up refreshed and after breakfast set off for The Yankee Stadium, where we had a private tour and a good look around the Yankee Museum. We visited the stadium shop, where a few purchases were made!
On our last full day, Thursday, we caught the metro to the nearest boat station. We queued to get on the boat tour which took us to Staten Island where we had an audio tour of the museum. We then visited the 9/11 Memorial. It was absolutely beautiful and very moving. The two waterfalls which stand in place of the towers are surrounded by the name of each person who lost their life. Individual roses are placed daily next to the names of those whose birthday is on that day. It was very touching.
After a walk back to the subway, we travelled back to our hotel where we loaded our cases on to the coach and travelled to the airport to catch our plane home.
I can only speak for myself but I honestly thoroughly enjoyed every second of our trip to New York. It was very tiring but absolutely brilliant. We managed to fit it so many things in our week away. I will remember this trip always. Thank you Mr Hutchinson, Miss Sutcliffe, Mrs Winstanley, Dr Clarke and Mrs Hunter. Without you all this trip would not have been possible. Thank you for arranging it and for spending half term with us. We all really appreciate it.
Amelia Bolton
Year 9
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