Monday, July 2, 2012

London, Wimbledon, Harry Potter, Shakespeare!

The beautiful Tower Bridge

London is a fabulous place to visit. Sure, it's crowded. Sure, you have to be careful -- Tom got his wallet stolen (more on that later). But there is so much to see and do, so many shops, so many restaurants, so many pubs -- sigh.

This trip wasn't without problems. At least for our daughter, Kristen. We were supposed to meet up at Heathrow on Saturday morning, June 23. Well, there were massive storms along the east coast of the U.S. Friday night, and her flight from D.C. to Philly ended up getting cancelled. So she missed her connecting flight to London. Lots of flights were cancelled; she waited over three hours trying to get a new flight, USAirways was VERY unhelpful. She ended up flying to Gatwick Sunday night, arriving Monday morning. Plus, she tried to bring us a jar of JIF peanut butter in her carry-on, but dang security took it! How dare they? Anyway, I met her at Gatwick, we dropped her luggage off at the hotel, and we headed straight to Wimbledon.

Centre Court at Wimbledon
We had bought a package deal, which included four nights at the Hilton Doubletree Tower Bridge, breakfast, a daily Travel Card for the Tube, reserved seats for Days 1 and 2 on Court 2 at Wimbledon, a program and best of all, 25 pound coupons to use at one of the Wimbledon shops! We each got a coupon both days, so that was 150 pounds to spend. And believe me, we spent it!

The tennis was fabulous. In addition to the matches on Court 2, we also saw some of our favorite players on other courts.We got to see Venus and Serena Williams, John Isner, Mardy Fish (my favorite player!), James Blake, Radwanska, Cilic, and Tomic, among others. Wimbledon also has a queue set up at 3 p.m. every day in which people leaving turn in their show court tickets (show courts are Centre Court, Court 1 and Court 2), and people can buy them for only 5 pounds each. On Day 2, most of the peole were  lined up to buy tickets to Andy Murray's match on Centre Court, but we wanted to see Andy Roddick on Court 1, and we only waited a short time and got fourth row seats! We also got to see top woman's player Victoria Azarenka's match, but her loud grunting is as unbearable as Maria Sharapova's.

The Globe Theatre
Besides the tennis, we saw as many tourist spots as we could -- we've been to London before, so the usual sightseeing wasn't as important, but we went by Buckingham Palace, toured Kensington Palace to see the new display of Princess Diana gowns, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, Big Ben and Parliament, Trafalgar Square, and Picadilly Circus. Kristen and I saw the Christian Louboutin exhibit at the Design Museum and also toured Warner Brothers Studio in Leavesden, where all eight Harry Potter movies were filmed. That was a great experience, whether or not you are a fan of Harry Potter. Just seeing all the sets, props, drawings, hair and make-up, costumes, and visual effects was terrific.

One of our favorite things was attending a performance at the Globe Theatre. We saw "The Taming of the Shrew," and even though the seating isn't the most comfortable (and the woman behind me poured her juicy drink on my back), and the play clocked in at three hours, it was lots of fun. 

The Harry Potter studio tour
We also met up with one of my oldest friends, Dan Fitz, and his partner, Mario Cescutti for dinner our last evening in London. Dan and I were close friends in both high school and college, and he moved to London after graduating from UNC Law School. 

Now, about Tom's wallet. We consider ourselves to be seasoned travelers. We've been all over Europe, the Caribbean and the U.S. It was funny because Tom was always telling Kristen and me to zip up our purses. Then his wallet gets lifted, even though it was in an inside pocket, which was zipped up. He was carrying his jacket on his arm, and we figure it got swiped on the Tube. Fortunately, he carries cash in a pocket, so the thief got no money. And we cancelled the cards right away. I'm sure those crooks just steal wallets looking for cash and then throw the wallet and cards away. Still, it is such a violation and a pain in the rear.

And poor Kristen had more flight troubles. Her flight from Heathrow to Philly was delayed three hours (which she spent sitting on the plane on the tarmac), while workers were trying to repair the "back-up braking system." Of course, she missed her connection, but at least she got back to D.C. the same evening. She originally was scheduled to fly home Friday, but she changed her return flight to Saturday after the original flight issues. And it turns out it was probably better that she flew home on Saturday -- the Washington, D.C., area was hit with massive storms Friday night, with massive power outages, trees down and travel disruptions. Fortunately, the power as back on in her apartment when she got home.

We already are talking about returning next June to Wimbledon, because it was so much fun. And maybe next time, we'll bump into Wills and Kate.

As always, here's a link to the pictures, if you're interested and have time to waste!

https://plus.google.com/photos/103069509757300719995/albums/5760498783419848081 

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