Day 1
Game 1: Arsenal 0, West Ham 1 (Emirates Stadium, in north London)
We’ve survived our first looooong day in England.
We always knew we were going to have a tight window in London. Our plane was scheduled to arrive at 10:05 and we had to be to our hotel by 12:45 to meet up with our group.
But our flight left Detroit about an hour late, so we didn’t get into Gatwick until 10:45. Still, we were able to clear customs quickly and grab the 11:30 train into London. We grabbed a cab ride (past Buckingham Palace) to our hotel and arrived about 12:40. Unfortunately, our room wasn’t ready set, so Amy quickly changed clothes in the bathroom.
We also got to meet half our group (the other half was off at the Chelsea-Tottenham game.) It seems like its going to be a good group. Everyone seemed very laid back. People came from New Hampshire, California, Atlanta and even Montana. It should be a fun week.
With little rest from out long flight, we marched off to the tube stop to head off to Emirates Stadium, the home of mighty Arsenal.
Emirates proved to be a monsterous, beautiful stadium — more closesly resembling an NFL stadium than most of the other soccer grounds we’ve seen in Europe.
One thing we noticed: There are no trash bins around or in the stadium. We couldn’t find anywhere to dump the water bottles we’d been drinking. A member of our group, Tim from Montana, told us that most stadiums ditched trash bins during the troubles in Northern Ireland. The IRA would drop bombs in garbage cans. So, they got rid of them. Trash just ended up in neat piles around the stadium.
Once in the stadium, we grabbed a couple of beers, a hot dog for me and a slice of some pizza-like substance for Amy. We headed off to our seats. We were surpised to learn that you can’t take beer to your seats. With only minutes until the game, we had to guzzle our beers. Not a problem.
Our seats were great. 13 rows up behind one of the goals. The game was fast and furious. Arsenal attacked the goal in front of to begin the game. They had chance after chance. Missing high. Missing left. A shot just blocked. They did everything but hit the back of the net.
Just before halftime, West Ham nicked a shot a long, looping shot over the head of Arsenal’s keeper Jans Lehman (the German national team goalkeeper Amy calls hot.) The visiting West Ham fans, sitting just two sections away from us (and surrounded by security) exploded into a giant celebration. I don’t think many of them left their seats at halftime. They just danced and sang.
In the second half, Arsenal continued their relentless surge. But again, they just couldn’t score. And as the last remaining seconds ticked away (Interestingly, the Emirates clock counted down, not up), the West Ham fans cheered and taunted their rivals.`
After the game, we headed down to the massive Arsenal store (The Armoury) to find a shirt for the husband of a friend of ours.
Our hotel is great. It sits right beside the Tower of London, basically under the Tower Bridge. It has the biggest rooms I’ve seen in a European hotel.
That night, we walked along the Thames River and watch the sunset near Tower Bridge. We ate at this cute three-story restaurant, called Dicken’s Inn. The first floor was a pub, the second was a pizza joint on a balcony overlooking the marina. And the third floor was an elegant restaurant. Amy, or course, chose pizza.
Our waiter (a West Ham fan) was suprised the Americans had come all this way to watch football. We had a bottle of wine and incredibly good pizza.
We miss everyone. Wish you all were here with us. We go to Fulham (and Craven Cottage) on Monday.
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