My trip to England - with photos.

Ok, so this may be a really lame way to relive the whole trip but I’ll give it a try. A link to photos is at the bottom if you want to skip the boring stuff, go ahead.

I started planning the whole thing on the day the fixture list was released in June. I targeted the holidays because I knew that time off of work wouldn’t be a problem, that the fixtures would be bountiful at this time of year and my kids would be with their mom for the week. Karen wasn’t quite as enthusiastic to spend our time away in cold and rainy London (she’d have preferred a beach somewhere) but was very gracious as she knew how important seeing Highbury was to me. And after all, she’d played football on scholarship through college.

We departed on Thursday 29 December after work and the flight over seemed to last forever. After arriving at Heathrow on Friday morning at around 8:00 gmt, we arrived at the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum at Gloucester Road (a fantastic location for getting around) sometime around 9:30. By the time we’d freshened up and unpacked it was time to meet Rick at the Arsenal tube for fish and chips. After getting off the tube, we noticed more than a few yanks gathering and I wondered aloud if they’d be on the tour with us. Rick arrived and had a nice surprise for us; we’d all be ‘avin’ lunch with Jill Smith from the club. We walked over to Highbury and collected her in the rain before eating at the Arsenal Fish and Chips shop just up from Avenell Road. If you ever get the chance to meet Jill, she’s unassuming but knows her football very very well. She does a lot for us Yanks and deserves your appreciation.

After that, it was off to the club store to purchase few things and then off to the museum. The museum was fascinating and we spent about an hour there. Then it was on to the marble halls where Vic gave us our tour. We saw more trophies than Spurs will ever see and that was just during the first five minutes. Then it was on to the dressing room, the pitch and the directors’ box. The players’ tunnel really is small and it is easy to see how when tensions are high it can be somewhat combustible. Unfortunately it was late in the day and photos inside the stadium were difficult.

That evening, Rick had arranged for Karen and I to have dinner at an exclusive London restaurant/celebrity haunt so we had to move along pretty quick after the tour. I can’t thank him enough for this as it really was Karen’s biggest request to eat there while in London. As such, we missed out on Indian with the rest of the group, but we’d see more of everyone at Villa Park the next day.

The team supporters coach left Highbury at 8:30 and the ride to Villa Park was about 3 hours total with a 40 minute stop just outside Birmingham for food/bathroom as there were no prawn sandwiches on board. Just before arriving at the stadium we got a police escort to the parking lot. We met Rick and headed inside the stadium to our seats just to the side of the touchline. Weather at kickoff was about 40- 45 degrees F and it was quite cold due to some wind. The Villa supporters were often drowned out by the singing in the visiting end and we watched 90 minutes of uninspired football lead to a nil all draw. The team seemed tired, it was obvious that the three fixtures held this week had taken its toll. Faces were pretty long when we arrived back at the coach. On the way home, we listened to the ManU drubbing of Bolton and absolutely countless full time scores from every league all the way from the prem to the conference. Thankfully the tube strike planned for that evening did not close the Arsenal station and we made it home without incident.

Sunday was a day of rest and we had some time to see the London New Years Day parade and a few other things.

Monday evening we met Rick and Moyra, Dave (Przyblinski) and Melissa, Romeo (Bergkamp4ever), Mike (Hiddi), Judy (Red Agave), Ashley (Jatm), Billy (Billyho), Matt (49unbeaten) and his dad for dinner at Rick’s fave Moroccan place for dinner – apologies as I know I must have left someone out just can’t figure out who. If you ever are invited, it really is a treat. After dinner, Moyra ordered sheesha and she and Judy also had a few tequila shots. One by one folks started peeling off and the restaurant staff wanted to go home. We weren’t deterred however and walked across the street to a French place to continue the merriment. Eventually, they kicked the last of us out around 3 am. We were going to take the tube back to our hotel until we found out that we’d outlasted them and had to take a bus - or something. After wandering central London completely rocked we gave up and got a cab at 4 am. A note to the wise here….don’t ever think you can out drink Judy. As you can see in the photos, I’m not small but there is no way I was keeping up with her. I quit counting at 3 shots of tequila.

Tuesday started a LOT later than the rest of our days. After a trip to the Tate Modern, we met the gang at the Arsenal tavern at about 6:15. I finally got to meet Lanesra, The Grimster and Dave_M but sadly didn’t spend much time with them before heading to the ground at 7:15. I was pretty anxious to get inside the stadium. We sat next to Dave_M and the other Yanks in the North Bank. You all know the outcome of the match and how it went, so commentary will be saved for the match thread but the atmosphere was electric and there was no question it was everything I had thought and hoped it would be. We got to call Rooney a ‘fat bastard’ and asked him where his ‘granny’d gone?’. ‘Champions League…you’re havin a laugh’ and all those things.

In the end the football wasn’t what I’d hoped for but seeing The Arsenal in person was better. And even more than that was seeing some very great friends and making new ones.

For photos, click here

 

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Ok...I'm really not this dumb.

For photos, click here.