My trip to watch Arsenal [R]

Well since Dan had asked me previously and I had forgotten and he just posted about it and I have some free time at work since it's slow I'll post about my trip to England in March. Suckafree (Daric) can add his thoughts on the experience as he also went.

We arrived in London on Sunday March 8th. The plan was to watch the Arsenal/Roma CL game on Tuesday and then on Friday head up to Blackburn to watch the Arsenal/Blackburn game on Saturday.

So Monday was tourist day, but with great anticipation for the Champions League game. Tuesday we got up and met with our friend Brian (Captain Splarg on BS), had some drinks and a bite to eat. Then it was off to Highbury.

Daric and I got there about two hours before the match. Tons of people already out and about. We kept running into quite alot of Roma supporters. After walking around a while, buying some stuff from the Arsenal store and taking in the atmosphere we headed to the Arsenal Pub for some Guinness before the game. After that it was into the stadium for a good game, but a not so good result of 1-1. After that we were a bit tired from being on our feet the previous three days so we got a bite to eat and headed back to the hotel to find out what happened with the other CL games played that day.

Wednesday was more site seeing and watching of CL games with Brian.

We decided since we were going to be in London that we may as well take a quick side trip to Paris. So Thursday morning we flew to Paris, did a bunch of site seeing on Thursday. Ate a Royale with Cheese and crashed. Friday we got up early, saw the whole Louvre, Picasso Museum and some other stuff. Paris is a cool city, but I wished we had not gone and instead spent more time in England. Paris was just too rushed and deserved more time.

After seeing the museums on Friday we caught a plane from Paris to Manchester. We caught a cab at the airport and got a ride to Brad Friedel's house. In a very posh area outside of Manchester.

Quick side story on how we were going to be able to stay with Brad and Tracy (his wife). I work with his mother-in-law. Tracy used to work in my office also and was good friends with Big Ed (some of you will know who I'm talking about). They met here in Denver and the rest is history. But his ML knew I'm big into soccer and he sent me one of his t-shirt jerseys before the WC. When we made the plans to go to England we figured we could catch two Arsenal games plus see Friedel play. I asked his ML if we might be able to meet him after the game and she said that wouldn't be a problem at all. The next day she told me Brad said he would get us tickets to the game. The day after that she called me up again and said we're staying with Brad and Tracy.

Now, back to their house outside of Manchester. They were both there waiting for us and we stayed up a while talking (Tracy cooked up some pancakes) and finally crashed.

Saturday we all got up and had some omelettes and Brad drove us all to the game. We got to the stadium right before Dwight Yorke and his girlfriend Jordan. Since Tracy was keeping Jordan company we got to ride the elevator with her to the suites. We checked out the cool box, but Daric and I were going to sit in Brad's personal seats about 10 rows back at the half line.

After checking out the box, Tracy, Daric and I went to the Blackburn store (much bigger than Arsenal's), picked up some Blackburn gear and watched some EPL action on the huge TVs they have in there.

Then Tracy took us to the player's lounge where family and friends can hang out before and after the game with the players. I had a beer there and we saw David Dunn there as he was serving a suspension. Daric and I watched some more EPL action and Tracy headed back to the box. Then it was off to our seats. Well we all know the 2-0 loss was dissappointing, but there's no way Daric and I could root against Brad at this point. But I was wearing an Arsenal t-shirt under my collar shirt.

After the game it was back to the player's lounge to wait for Brad. Saw Sounness, got my picture taken with Yorke and once Brad was done with what seemed like a million interviews we headed out. Even got to walk on the pitch.

That night Brad had plans for us to all eat with his Italian teammate, Ciccio Grabbi, his wife and a couple of their Italian friends who were in town. But since we had some time to kill until then we headed back to the house where Brad, Daric and I watched some Primera Liga games, shot the shit and ate some jelly beans.

Then it was off to a nice and fun dinner with some beer and wine.

The next morning Daric and I were to fly out of Manchester back to the US. Brad and Tracy were flying to London also so they gave us a ride. When we were driving through a little town we saw SAF (unfortunately we didn't have enough time to yell at him). At the airport there were some goodbye thanks and hugs. And also a few tears on Daric's part.

The end.

Here are some pics:

http://www.tristateelec.com/daric.htm

 

The only other photos I have are from the game and I can't put them on-line. Daric used the digital camera and I believe he took some of Friedel at the game, but I don't think he has them on-line yet.