Best of 2019 (5)

Winter Gardens

Sports travel is the category for this award.

2019 brought several sports travel trips, mostly linked to my son’s ice hockey team’s games.

Those took me to Sheffield three times, and to Nottingham, Manchester and Dundee.

Downtown, Chinatown

My visits to Sheffield now have a pattern - I stay at the Novotel. I take the train, although I did fly to Manchester once and take the train from there.

I went to Krefeld via Brussels and Köln on a sentimental journey to see ERC Ingolstadt play ice hockey. It was fun and they won. It was another journey combining plane and train.

DB Bahn ICE

Belfast hit my itinerary twice - also for ice hockey. In March it was to watch the home team play Dundee Stars, and in August to see them take on Augsburg.

Pub Life

As with previous years, I was looking for an opportunity for trip to watch rugby or horse racing, but nothing suitable ever came up. I did go to see Glasgow Warriors play in the final of the Pro 14 (rugby), but the game was in Glasgow and that hardly qualifies as travel.

My visit to Yerevan was a sports trip in a sense, as climbing Mt Aragats was a key part of it. I would have gone anyway, so the climb was not the only purpose in going.

Mt Ararat (Turkey) in Background

This category produces an easy winner. It is my trip to Sheffield in April to watch my son playing ice hockey. The match was the playoff for the British Universities Division 1 Championship. Edinburgh (his team) as winners of the North group played against Cambridge as winners of the South pool. Edinburgh won.

Winners!

It was the biggest achievement in his ice hockey “career” and it was wonderful for me to be able to be there to see it.