Tuesday, June 3- London Sports Scene

First full day in London! We started the day off early as most of us woke up around 7am for a full English breakfast buffet, while others recovered from yesterday’s travel by sleeping through all their alarms. At 8:15 we headed to the station where we boarded the tube towards Stamford Bridge.

Upon arrival to the Chelsea Soccer Club, we met our tour guide Billy who greeted us with enough enthusiasm to distract us from the typical, dreary London weather outside. Our tour began with a rundown of their business affairs as we learned that most of their income comes from broadcasting. Billy also shared that Reece James, the captain, earns 250,000 pounds a week!

Our first glimpse of the pitch emphasized the historic, intimate feel of the stadium that Chelsea fans are known to love. The name of the club was chosen by flipping coin at pub across the street from the stadium. The tour also included access to the press room where our group promptly roll played player and reporter.

According to reporter Matt, star striker Julia Flynn was heard to have thrown a temper tantrum earlier in today’s match. We then headed to the changing room where we enjoyed taking pictures with our favorite players jerseys. Suddenly, we were all being lined up as the Chelsea hype song, “Liquidator,” rang out and we filed out onto the field in game-day fashion.

After the tour, we took some free time to walk through the museum and buy gear at the gift shop! Our next stop was lunch at Nandos, a popular food chain that blends Portuguese and British culture. We all enjoyed delicious wings, chicken, burgers, and an array of side dishes.

A tour of Wimbledon followed lunch as our tour guide Steven led us through the historic grounds. We first viewed the ground courts which have a capacity of 42,000. We immediately were struck by the perfection of the grass which measures 8 millimeters and is one of the most expensive and coveted elements of the facility.

Another highlight was court 18 where the longest tennis match ever played was held for a total of 11 hours and 5 minutes. We got incredible views and picture opportunities at both the number one and center courts which hold the matches of the highest ranked players.

After viewing the courts we got to enter the newly renovated press room where we viewed footage from previous Wimbledon matches. Our Wimbledon tour ended with a walk through the museum.

Some of us then left Wimbledon to explore the neighborhood of Brixton. The streets were lined with colorful vendors and we explored shops in Brixton village. Let’s just say our group will unfortunately be sticking to the constant freestyling of Matt, Enzo, and Ben rather than the rappers of Brixton.

Our night ended with dinner at a sports pub called Sports at the Court where we were able to watch the Tommy Paul and Carlos Alcarez match.

My dinner, Shephard's Pie

Norah Clary