Day 14 London

We started the day having to lug our suitcase up and down stairs on the underground to transfer to a different hotel.  Unfortunately this was necessary as the only way to get football tickets was to buy a very expensive Thomas Cook package that included a hotel room for the night. The street outside our hotel was closed for traffic and there were lots of buses and caravans parked there for a film crew.  As we walked to the station we were joined by actors done up in their Victorian finery walking a block over to where filming was happening. According to Twitter they were filming the Christmas special for "Sherlock" starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

The new hotel was near Gloucester Station and relatively easy to find. Cam is not only getting fit with all the walking but also building up muscle carrying the suitcase upstairs. I'm glad we left the other case at Nicks apartment and are travelling relatively light with one suitcase between us.  Have been wearing the same clothes for days now, but they don't seem to get smelly as too cold to sweat!

After checking in we went down the road and had coffee and croque Monsieur (a cheese and ham type toastie with the cheese on top). It was a bit dry but very filling to keep us going. We then caught the tube to Seven Sisters and followed the crowd of men to change to a train to White Hart Lane.

Didn't take long and we were at the stadium and collected our tickets very easily.  Lots of shifty men were asking if anyone had spare tickets but we ignored them. There was a significant police presence including some on horses

...and lots of marshals directing people. The atmosphere outside the ground was incredible...there were sooo many people and a ridiculous amount of merchandise stalls

and shops all doing very good business with long queues to buy.

Everything imaginable was for sale with the Spurs logo on it. There are different entrances for the various sections of the stadium so people were going in all directions. White Hart Lane itself is not the most attractive of areas but we enjoyed seeing somewhere different & there were some unusual stores!

 Lots of the men were piling into the pubs before the game but there wasn't any booze being consumed at the stadium...which made a nice change compared to at home.

We saw people standing outside a major gate to the ground which looked official so we stood with them for a while to see who passed.

All manner of very flash vehicles drove in...mainly Landrovers, Porsche & big black shiny vehicles. Cam spotted Roy Hodgson (England manager) in one of the cars.

Then the bus with the Arsenal team drove in...but the windows were all tinted so we couldn't see the players.

We decided we'd better buy supporters scarves....to look the part and help keep us warm.  We then tried to find our entrance to the ground, and of course it was the most obscure difficult to find entrance of them all....we ended up circling the whole stadium before we had to ask someone. Our entrance appeared somewhat exclusive, but in reality it wasn't....just next to where all the VIPs entered, so we needed to show our tickets to get into our entry area.  Oh well, we got there eventually.

Our seats were in the upper west stand, only a few rows back from the front of the upper area. Very very good view of the whole ground and particularly close to one of the goals. The seats are pretty tightly packed in and no room to get out to the aisle.

Not far from us was the Arsenal supporters area.

They only had a small section of the stadium but they were very loud....lots of singing and chanting which we mostly enjoyed.  There was plenty of good hearted chanting and gesticulating between the supporters....nothing too agro.  When we were down 1-0 and missed a few attempts at goals, the Arsenal supporters were singing various songs.  When the ref made an unpopular call then came "you don't know what you're doing" over and over again.  Spurs seemed to have most of the possession and the game was mainly in front of us for the first half, but they just didn't seem to score.  There was a lot of swearing and use of the "f-word" in strong English accents behind us....but it all seemed good humoured.  They are just passionate about their game. We didn't really get to sit still for long as the crowd kept jumping up every time something moderately good happened....guess jumping up and down helps keep them warm.

Once Spurs got going they seemed really fired up though and were unlucky to not score more.  When they finally got their 2nd goal the place just exploded....lots of long hugs, fists in the air and much excitement.

 It was really exciting to be amongst it and we felt like winners too.  Cam definitely had a smile on his face and was very pleased for the experience.

Lots of singing re "the Spurs go marching in" after this.  About 5 minutes before the game ended some of the Arsenal supporters started leaving and men in our area had fun waving goodbye to them with smug looks on their faces.  

It was so amusing to see so many waving them off.

After sitting for a couple of hours we were freezing cold despite the multiple layers, long-johns and 2 scarves each.

We joined long queues back to the train and headed back to our hotel.  

It was getting near 5pm by the time we got back there.

Our arrangement from here was that Cam would stay in the room and watch football on TV as this hotel had the sports channels, and I would head into Oxford Circus area to browse some shops.  It seems really strange heading out at this time on a Saturday night to go shopping but everything is open until 9 or 10 pm.  I enjoyed going to Oxford Circus as that was where I worked at CSFB for my 1st job in London. Lots of shops have changed, but there were plenty still familiar to me: Marks & Spencer, Liberty, Top Shop & Debenhams.  When I arrived at Oxford Circus the crowd was ridiculous and could hardly move.

I figured there must be something on as there was virtually no space on the pavement, but turns out it is just a normal night of shopping. Don't think I was ever in the area at night much when we lived in London.

 

The shops are so huge that walking around them took a lot of time and before I knew it they started closing. There were so many things I wanted to buy if luggage space wasn't an issue....and in some cases cost!  Bought a couple of small things and headed back to the hotel exhausted....Walked over 18km today!

Throughout this trip I've been surprised that the photos don't look as good as what we are actually experiencing, and the boys phones seem to taker brighter pictures.....tonight I discovered the reason. Most of my photos are on the "fade" setting, and if I change the setting to normal they are way more vibrant. So annoyed with myself! All the photos can be corrected but have to do them individually....and the pictures uploaded on my blog are the faded versions. As a result you probably haven't realised how lucky we have been with clear blue skies. From now on things should look brighter 😃