Today we began the day by taking the walking tour of the 2012 Olympic Site under construction. The day has been beautiful and cool. We walked out to the site of the Olympic Stadium that was finished this month -- the final piece of turf has been laid on the field of play and they are ready for the games to begin there. The other venues are in various stages of completion -- the Olympic Torch is under construction -- about 50 percent complete. Next summer when the boys are viewing the Olympics on TV -- the guys will have a firsthand knowledge of the venue. (site: http://www.london2012.com/) After the tour of the 2012 Olympic Games site construction – our next stop was the Camden Market. The Camden Market is a large open-air and covered festival of shops, food, and pubs that cater primarily to the under-25 set, punk rockers, hippies, musicians, and artisans. (I am sure that most of the revenue derived from Camden Market comes from tourists.) The Camden area of London is known as the birth place of punk rock. Jon, George, and I dined on Indian food and pizza for lunch. The food was tasty and cheap (I hope that I do not regret this choice tomorrow). I could have spent hours people watching at the Camden Markets – all genre and type of people were milling about and engaged in the sale and purchase of goods and services (e.g., clothes, tattoos, pub grub) -- punkers with crazy hair and clothing, bohemians with flowing clothes, grandma and grandpa, families, tourists from the four corners of the world, locals, and pets. I am sure that anything a person could need or think of (even if you did not need it) could be found at the Camden Market. There is so much junk that it is overwhelming - trying to find the nuggets of value is work - a lot of work..
Our next stop was Emirates Stadium – where the group got to watch two matches. Paris Saint-Germain defeated the BOCA Juniors 3 to nil and the New York Red Bulls tied the Arsenal to win the Emirates Cup. The high point of the afternoon was the Arsenal crowd’s warm and enthusiastic embrace of Henry Thierry. A sellout crowd of 60,011 turned out to see the Arsenal’s former striker perform. When his name was mentioned on the loud speakers before the game, the crowd gave him a standing ovation showing just how popular Henry still is in London (North London at least). The stadium was great – it is by far the best venue for soccer that I have ever been to. Even though we were in the upper deck it was easy to get to (you had to walk up stairs -- no escalators or ramps) and the view was grand. There are no food or drink vendors roaming the stadium seating. If you want something to eat -- you need to get up and go buy at the concessions stands. Also, patrons are not allowed to consume alcohol in stadium seating -- there are designated spaces in the concession area for alcohol consumption. This is so different from the customs of the American game or any professional sporting event in America. The Arsenal crowd is a loud one and some of the songs and chants coming from the die hard fans are enough to make a sailor blush. The good news is that you have to listen carefully and think about what they are saying before you really hear it and that takes effort. The crowd also participated in an impressive wave which made its way around the stadium three times.
Our driver has been fantastic. He can maneuver the coach in the tightest of spaces. He has been doubly busy dealing with the local authorities. Last night the buses' fuel tank was emptied and the local authorities were tied up with another matter and did not get around to responding to him until today. Sometimes we forget how efficient our police are. It never occurred to me that you could call the local authorities with a major issue (missing bus fuel is big money) and that the police could not or would not be able to investigate the matter until the next day. I guess that a little perspective is a good thing.
The boys have a late afternoon game tomorrow. There is a change of plans - tomorrow the group will not be going to Stonehenge. We will have an additional day to tour London. We did the driving math for the trip and realized that it would be almost three hours up and three hours back, all spent in the coach, leaving very little time for actually touring the site. The group discussed our options and the group has decided that we would like to use our time taking in the country and interacting with the people rather then sitting on a bus.
That is all from me tonight.
Regards,
Kathleen
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