Wembley Way

Sorry I have not posted in a few days, but hey, vacation is a pretty busy thing. Switching back and forth between going places and eating food. Before you know it, it's time for bed!!! No time to write your blog, but oh well, here I am. About to serve my hungry army of readers or maybe just my hungry family of readers, but anyways.....

My last day in London was awesome! We did some cool things like the London Eye, but of course the main event was the England vs Ireland International Friendly Football Match (Soccer Game)! Wembley is as amazing as you here! It's a big stadium but it feels better than the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, if you know what that feels like. The atmosphere, even for a friendly, was pretty cool. 80,200 or around there was the attendance to the match, I believe Wembley holds 90,000-100,000, but I don't know for sure! The speed of play is totally different from the MLS games I've been too. On TV the play looks kind of the same (between the MLS and Premier League). You can tell there's a difference in quality, but the overall speed looks mostly the same! In real life, the speed is so much faster. Even though Ireland is not known as a really good International side, even there passes are quick and 1 or 2 touch also. Seeing Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott up close was amazing!! Ashley Cole received his 100th Cap for England (100 National Team starts, maybe apparences). 5 rows away from the pitch was awesome!!!! In the second half Walcott, an Arsenal player (my favorite team), was pretty close to us. Making his runs down the right wing!! The game ended 1-1. Although just a friendly, the draw was big for Ireland since England are their rivals and they're such a small National team. Overall the game was probably my best experience in London. 

The next day, Thursday, we travelled up to Bourton On The Water in the Cotswold region. It's a major change from a big city. It's a small little village in the country side. I'm not the kind of guy who's all country side-ish, but if I had to be at a place like this, this would be the one. There are tons of small little towns all in walking distance, some are a little far away though. Today we took a long walk to Lower and Upper Slaughter or the Slaughters. Sounds like a great place doesn't, "hey mom we are going to slaughter." Well the name is totally opposite the place. Lower Slaughter is the more touristy town with shops and an Inn. Upper Slaughter is nice too, but it's all homes or Bed and Breafasts. Tonight, my stomach ache did not let me engage my dinner the way I wanted it too, but the place we ate at in Stow was amazing!! And the service was wonderful too!! 

Thanks for reading today, hope you come back in the future. Don't forget to check out my other blog: justplainfootball.blogspot.com I haven't updated it in a while, but the popular posts are on the right hand side on the Computer version. 

I Love London!

These past 2 days in London have been amazing. I'm not near done with my Europe journey and it's  already super amazing!! Yesterday was pretty cool as we started off by visiting a famous church/museum attraction. Along with going to my #1 thing I wanted to do in London, Emirates Stadium!! 

Westminster Abbey was way, way better than I ever thought it would be. Although it was still not my favorite thing, it was fun. It's a church/graveyard/cool artifact place. Famous people like Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin are buried there!

Along with many kings,queens, and other types of royalty. The building as a whole is pretty cool and full of history. The abbey is very old and the architecture looks amazing. The coronations of all Kings and Queens have taken place here since sometime in the 1100s (I think). Overall you should visit it when you're in London. For me it wasn't an absolutely needed stop, but in the future I'll probably be glad I went. Yes, Emirates Stadium was my favorite part of yesterday. Arsenals home looks great in person. The tour I took was a group tour because they had canceled all audio-self guided tours for the day. The stadium had a concert the night before we went and the pitch was all ripped out and all you could see was concrete. Anyway the tour started with a bunch of Bayern Munich fans. We were taken through the press conference room and to the most expensive seats in the stadium. We got to look at the players tunnel that they walk through before a game. Usually the people on the tour get to walk through the tunnel and on the side of the pitch, but we've already been over that. The home locker room was cool and our tour guide told us some cool facts.

The food in London has been great to me. I love eating at the little bakeries and having a cup of coffee. Yesterday I finally got taste of a macaroon!! It was super delicious and exceeded my expectations. Yesterday, after our great adventures, we went to China Town! There we dined at a Malaysian like restaurant! The food was really, really tasty!!! I hope my food stays great through Europe.

This morning we accidentally slept in till 11:30. So our day was almost cut in half. Instead of going to both The British Gallery and The Tower of London, the tower of London was the one stop. It was like a castle/city behind giant walls. Although at the end I was a little grumpy, the place was pretty awesome. Especially hearing about the prisoners and executions. After that we went to Harrods. This place is a mall buffed up by a hundred times. The place has every luxurious item you can think of. From the billion food options to a whole section dealing with watches, you could spend 2 days here and not see everything doing a thorough search. The items are a bit pricey though.

Hope you come back and read!! The wifi is harder to find than I imagined in London!!

Missing Macaroons

Although at the end of the day, no macaroons were in my stomach, the first day of my Europe journey was a success. The flights to London, only 2, almost messed it all up. Luckily we made it to our destination just a few hours later than expected.

The day started off at our local National airport. Our flight to Dallas was supposed to be a short one then we would get on our 9 hour connecting flight to London. Well of course with air travel these days, the trip is never that smooth. The rain in Dallas caused our flight to detour to Tulsa, Oklahoma where we refueled and then got back in the air. It was obvious we would not make our connecting flight at 7:45, since we would only land at Dallas at a late 8:40. There was however another flight to London at 9:55 which we made it on. After the turtle of a flight, we landed at Heathrow and got past all the checkpoints pretty easy.

After we settled in the hotel I was as hungry as a bear. I don't eat on planes because I get motion sick. We ended up at the Royal Albert performing hall, or something close to that name. There I had the classic afternoon tea with scones and salmon sandwiches. It was amazing and being super duper hungry made the snack taste even better. Since its Sunday in London many of the attractions closed early,but we did make it to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The museum was huge and full of interesting artifacts from all over the world. The stained glass was one of my favorite things. Some of the glass dated back to the 1100's!!!!

After that I really wanted some macaroons to eat but the only ones we found were small and cost 8 pounds a bag. So, while walking through Hyde Park and Kengsinton Gardens, I was macaroonless. Dinner was amazing though and it really had a British feel. The chicken and mushroom pie was amazing!!

Tomorrow I will hopefully be touring the home of Arsenal, Emirates Stadium!

Going on Vacation!

Some of you may have read my other blog, "Just Plain Football". As I go on vacation to Europe I will be writing this blog to inform my fabulous readers about my travels. I'll watch the Ireland vs England friendly and tour Emirates Stadium. When I go to Germany I'll see the Allianz Arena. Do not worry as this blog will not just be about soccer. The food, culture, historic landmarks, and many other places will be explained. Hope you tune in and read my blog! I will be boarding the plane to London on Friday, May 25th. Since summers almost here I will resume writing my Soccer (Football) blog too!