Winning London: Day 2

 June 26th

We slept in once again and didn't have breakfast till 10am. Once we were dressed and ready to go we spent a good hour and a half surfing the internet and making calls trying to figure out how to get tickets to Wimbelton for the next day. The people on the phone were little help and the ticket master site said they had tickets but we couldn't get any seats to pull up. Finally we just accepted the fact that it was to hard of an event to get tickets to and that we wouldn't be able to go. If you want tickets in advance you have to put your name in a lottery in December! You can get tickets the day before online, they release a small amount of tickets at 9am on ticketmaster but we weren't able to get any. Finally there is the queue. People camp out overnight to get tickets for the next day to the center court matches. We weren't about to camp out (plus people were already there at 1pm for the next day..... crazy. You can get ground tickets that give you access to courts 4-19 were the lesser known players have matches but the queue for that is very long as well and people are only let in on a "one-in-one-out" policy so you have to wait for people to leave if you want tickets. We were told on the phone that we wouldn't be able to get in that way for the matches today either. Poor Mike, being the tennis player he is was sad to know he was so close to the action but wouldn't be able to go. But at least we tried our hardest to research getting tickets and we did what we could. 

So finally at 1pm we left the hotel to go see some sites. We figures out have to navigate the tube pretty easily. It is so much cleaners than NYC (I guess that isn't hard.) The seats are cushioned and a voice comes on at every stop to tell you what stop it is and what other lines connect to that stop. I was pretty impressed. The system runs on a North, South, East, West grid so if you have your directions down you can figure it out pretty easily!

We went to the Tower of London first. There was a show I watch as a little kid that took place at the tower of london (back in medieval times) and I have always wanted to go there ever since. Once you enter the Tower area they have free guided tours by the Beefeaters, the guardians of the tower. Our Beefeater was really funny and told us a lot about the history of the tower and some of the "stories" (not facts) that are told about it. After hearing the stories of all of the beheadings and executions that took place we decided to lighten the mood and went to see the Crown Jewels. I was in shock that diamonds could be so big. They were gorgeous! I wish I had a crown and septor like that :) After the crown jewels we walked all around the inside of the tower and saw the rooms were the kept the prisoners, tortured people, the bedrooms of former kings, and the study of Sir. Walter Raleigh who was held in the tower for over 10 years. I was in heaven with the rich history of the tower.

 (The place where the prisoners were beheaded.)

 (The different torture methods- Yikes!)

Once we finished up at the tower we went on a tour of the Tower Bridge. Most people thing it is the London Bridge, but the London bridge is much smaller and not nearly as pretty. It was a neat walk and we had more great views of the city. The Tower Bridge is a drawl bridge. We were lucky enough to see it be pulled up so that a boat could pass under it. I had never seen anything like that before and was pretty impressed. By the time we were done it was 5pm and everything was pretty much closed.

We decided just to take a train to the Wimbledon area to see if we could get a good picture or something. When we got there we just followed the crowd and found out there might be a chance that we could get in! We were elated! We got our voucher for being in the queue and we waited in line for 10-15 before we were going through security and buying tickets. I was so happy that Mike was living his dream of going to Wimbledon. Our passes were only for the grounds and court 4-19 but we were excited none the less. We were able to see a few players Mike knew of (Tom Haas and Sam Querrey) play on those courts. We were able to watch some of Andy Murrey's match on the big screen on Henman Hill.  

While we were watching one game we started talking to a local who had been to Wimbledon many times. He was really helpful and told us about a returned ticket line where we could probably get tickets to see Andy Rodicks match on Court 1. We were really surprised when we went to the counter and easily got tickets to go see Roddick play on court one. We went right over and watched him play against Jamie Baker. After a while we were hungry so we went to go get dinner, when we got back the match was on a rain delay (it was really just sprinkling but with a grass court you have to call them earlier on. We waited around crossing our fingers that the match would start soon. Unfortunately, since it was getting dark they called the match for the night and the rest was played the next day. We weren't ready to leave yet so we went to the gift shop and looked around. Mike bought a few things (since after all this was his dream to go to Wimbledon.) 

Then we headed back for the train. The station was all decked out to look like  a tennis court which I thought was cute. The olympic tennis matches will be played at these courts in a few weeks. It will be fun to watch them on TV and know where they are taking place.