LONDON: Family, Chelsea FC, Tube

After I was approached to submit my previous entry for a Pulitzer in 2017, Allison asked that I finish writing the blog for the rest of the trip. While not even remotely close to being the truth, I am back because London was an extremely special part of the trip for me. For those that did not enjoy my last entry, the time to leave is now.

Our departure from Venice was pretty spectacular. We booked a water taxi to the airport and essentially pulled up to the terminal on the water. Below is the view from the plane on our climb out of Venice. The picture puts into perspective the amount of effort it took to build a city within the lagoon.

In addition to the amazing views, the airline took the opportunity to provide us a gift for our honeymoon. British Airways went out of their way, and provided us with two small bottles of sparkling wine for the flight. Even though airlines get a bad reputation, it was really nice and made the turbulence a lot more bearable.

Our trip to London was centered around Sunday, October 23rd. For those that are not familiar, my father, mother, Allie (a recent addition), and myself are huge Chelsea FC fans. Chelsea FC is a soccer team from London. They play in the top English league and we won the trophy 2 years ago. On Sunday, October 23rd, Chelsea would play Manchester United, a fierce league rival. Additionally, the new Manchester United coach, was the former coach for Chelsea. Drama and heartbreak were expected. To say I was excited to land, was an understatement. Not only had I secured tickets for the game, my family was flying out to see it with Allie and I. After collecting our bags, we hopped on the Tube to go pick up one of the tickets for Sunday’s game. Walking out of the station, Allie and I both immediately fell in love with London.

We picked up the ticket and made our way to Islington, the neighborhood where we booked our AirBnB. To get there from the ticket location, we hopped on the Tube and connected through one of the many train stations. Walking through Islington, we knew that we had made a great choice on the neighborhood. There were multiple shops, restaurants and bars. Fortunately, our AirBnB was located a few blocks off the main drag, and was much quieter. My family had already arrived and greeted the both of us with open arms. Allie and I were both excited to see my parents, Cathy and Fernando, as well as my sister, Lauren, and her boyfriend, Robbie. After catching up for a few hours, we decided it was time for dinner. Lauren and Robbie had found a restaurant on their walk in and we all made our way over to The Angelic. We called it an early night as we had a big day ahead of us.

The next morning we all woke up early and prepared ourselves for the free walking tour. As Allie has mentioned, we have done a few of these on our trip, and thought it would be great to do together as a family. We met up with the Sandeman tour guide, and began our 3 hour walking tour across London. Our guide provided a very detailed background to the reigns of the various monarchs and the influences that each had on the history of London.

Where our tour started – Covent Garden

Big Ben behind Allie & Lauren; Westminster Abbey on the right

Buckingham Palace

We got some great tips on restaurants and sights to follow up on. Additionally, the tour guide provided information on the best place to see the changing of The Guard. If you are traveling to London, we highly recommend taking Sandeman’s free walking tour.

Diagon Alley (Harry Potter reference – Allie understood, I didn’t)

The rest of the afternoon was spent planning some of the logistics for the game on Sunday as well as picking up some of the tickets. Allie took advantage of no one yet at the stadium to capture some shots at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea FC’s home stadium.

The whole team was pretty tired, so we decided to make dinner at the house. Allie made an amazing meat and cheese plate to start off the meal. My sister and mother made chicken pot pie while my dad, Robbie and I provided comic relief. It was great to have a home cooked meal with family.

We started Saturday with a trip back to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of The Guard. Our tour guide from the previous day had provided a great tip, so we walked a bit down from Buckingham Palace, and made our way to St. James’ Palace.

The changing of The Guard ends here, and you still get to see them drum, march and move through their formations. Just make sure you show up at about 11:45AM and stand across the street.

We then made our way to Hyde Park to enjoy the lunch we had packed earlier that morning. Hyde Park is huge, and located right in the middle of London. For those familiar, it slightly resembles Central Park.

After enjoying sandwiches, and watching Allie chase around the pigeons and geese, we jumped on the Tube and made our way across town to check out the Tower of London.

The Tower of London is the oldest standing fortress in the city and was used as a prison up until the mid-20th century. The men who occupy the current tower are known as Beefeaters, Yeomen Warders, and they all still currently live in the tower with their families, which is locked at 10PM every night.

Our Beefeater tour guide

The tower serves as the current home of the Crown Jewels. As the tower is an official residence of the royal family, the location is guarded by the Queen’s guard. These are the individuals with the interesting hats and red coats. While on duty the guards are not supposed to interact with other individuals. However, Lauren actually got one of the guards to smile.

From the Tower of London, we made our way to the London Eye, a large Ferris Wheel sitting on the River Thames.

View of Big Ben from the London Eye

Riding the Ferris Wheel provided an amazing view of the city, and is a great way to provide a different perspective to what you see on the ground. We left the Eye and made our way over to Almeida for dinner. Despite a mix up at check-in, we were finally seated and had a great meal. As the game was the next day, we headed back to the house.

To say I was excited Sunday morning would be an understatement. I felt like a kid on Christmas who just received the gift he had always been asking for. We started the morning off by heading over to Abbey Road. After blocking the road, and taking the iconic picture, we made our way over to the stadium.

Abbey Road Studios on the left; Abbey House on the right

While the whole family came to see the game, it was my dad and I that were particularly excited. We decided that it would be great to try and catch the players before the game. Joining a few hundred people on the eastern end of the stadium, we waited for the player buses to show up.

Credit to Allie and my mom who waited with my dad and I for almost 2 hours. Finally, at 3PM, the player buses showed up. We got to see all the players get off the bus and walk on to the field.

Left: John Terry (Chelsea FC captain); Right: Antonio Conte (Chelsea FC coach)

After taking lots of pictures, we made our way into the stadium. All of my hard work to get tickets had paid off. Sitting at about mid field and 6 rows up from the field, we were able to watch the players warm up before the start of the game.

The atmosphere was electrifying. The whole stadium chanted in unison at the start of the game. 36 seconds into the game, the whole stadium erupted. Everybody was cheering, people were hugging, and I am sure friends back home were crying. Chelsea had scored the first goal of the game. For those that do not watch soccer, a goal that early in the game is very rare. We would go on to thrash Manchester United.

The final score was 4-0. After taking pictures, and soaking in the atmosphere, we left the stadium and met up with a soccer friend from back home. We stopped by a Teppanyaki restaurant for dinner. The chef had previously worked at Benihana, next to the Chelsea stadium, and provided a number of great stories for dinner. After dinner it was back to the house to pack and get ready for our departure.

While my family left early in the morning, Allie and I did not leave until 8PM. We stored our luggage for the day at the Kings Cross station, where Platform 9 3/4 is, another Harry Potter reference that Allie knew, I did not. We took the opportunity to also check out the London Bridge and Covent Garden.