Arsenal Football

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First Day in London

I started the day with a run around Earl's Court at 7am. I couldn't figrure out which way London was, so I just ran down one road until I got to the Thames. It was actually a little difficult running down this road without getting lost because it kept turning into another road, or splitting several ways at an intersection or just twisting left or right.

When I got back, Alex was ready, so I put myself together for breakfast quickly. After a long walk throught the maze which was our hotel, we found the breakfast room. There was an espresso machine, juice, tea (naturally), bread, hard boiled eggs, and little packets of cheese. I think we both ate 5 or 6 packets of cheese!

The game was not until later that afternoon, so we decided to start the day with a walk through Hyde Park. We walked through here a while, and they were setting up for a small carnival. Although, for a small carnival, they were setting up a gigantic ferris wheel. The lake here is called the Serpintene. When we came out the other side of the park we found ourselves right near a really cool part of town with designer stores all around. Harrod's was also close by, and we walked through it for a while. There was a really posh grocery area where I suspect no one buys food, but they do sign up for a grocery delivery service. Over the next few days I think we stopped in Harrod's everday. It seems like they always played Michael Jackson!

Later on we stopped by a nice little public house for lunch. We watched a football game on the TV there as all the locals and regulars rolled in. We then started our way up to the Arsenal stadium.

Arsenal has a brand new stadium sponsored by Emirates Airlines. I believe it seats about 60,000. We had awesome seats, and, after a few pictures around the stadium, we went to enjoy a pre-game beer. I purchased an Arsenal scarf, which was of the old style - meaning that it was burgundy rather than regular red. The game was awesome!

London has video cameras everywhere. At one point during the game, there was a group of younger kids (teenagers/low 20s) making a lot of noise and constanly standing. One kid threw his sheperd's pie into the field at one of the refs. No one did anything. After halftime, a group of six security guards came down and walked down his row of seats. They picked him out and took him out of the stands. They must have looked at the video and picked out exactly the kid that through the pie!

No one scored any goals! The score was 0-0.

That night we went back to the Picadilly Circus area and looked for a nice restaurant for dinner. Most required reservations. Eventually I said to Alex, how about that place - The Club? He didn't think we would get a table. Turns out that we did. We ate lightly because one pound buys 2.12 dollars! We did get desert though. Alex had ice cream and I had rice pudding with raspberry sauce.

We must have had a drink someplace, but I don't recall where. We wondered into the hotel around 2am.

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