Wimbledon-The Championships

Queueing up to get into the grounds about an hour and a half before the gates open. I was 3,464 in line. Luckily, they let in 6,000 people to the ground each day. Now if I had wanted to get a ticket to Centre Court or Courts No. 1 or 2, I would have had to camp overnight in my tent for the slightest possibility. Maybe next time.

Still queueing, but moving! It was actually all planned out nicely so queueing wasn't unpleasant (I forgot to mention-the British call waiting in line "queuing". I even got "A Guide to Queueing for The Championships". It's different to waiting in other lines. They have a code of conduct for "queuing" here.)

All the matches which would have been helpful to actually look at...

It was too tiny to read 3 feet away from it too. Perhaps they should have made it 15 feet instead of 10 feet tall.

Referee outfits--I actually think they're called judges, not referees maybe. Too much football. I mean soccer. ugh.

First match I watched on Court 5- Junior Girls-Not much of a match I'm afraid. The British girl lost badly...

At least the sun came out!

Junior Boys-Court 8

An-Sophie Mestach of Belguim (pictured) vs. Laura Robson-Great Britain's big new hopeful for Wimbledon-Junior Girls Match on Court 5 (only Court 5, 12, and 18 had proper stadium seating, not park benches, so I stayed on Court 5 mostly). Great match to watch unlike the first one!

Centre Court (with all the vines on it)

The Hill-showing quarter-finals Federer vs. Berdych match-in which Federer lost....

Court 18- Junior Boys Match that you could see from up on the Hill. Neat court set-up they have at Wimbledon! Someone really thought it through!

So many freaking people on the Hill (now I know it was because Federer was about to lose in the quarter-finals for the first time in 8 years or so, but at the time, I couldn't find a place to sit, so I didn't stay or know what was going on).

Just walking through Wimbledon in between courts! I wonder how many people were there. Thousands and thousands...

The signature Wimbledon flowers hanging everywhere. They made everything look so regal and pretty!

See! Everywhere!

Centre Court was definitely noticably prettier than the other courts with all the flowers, vines, and balconies where the posh, high-paying people in suits could look down at the peons in shorts and tank-tops!

Where history was being made (but I did not stay for)...

Lonnnng road I had to walk down to get to Wimbledon. And to distinguish, the signs that say Wimbledon are for the place Wimbledon. Not Wimbledon Tennis. About a 45 minutes walk in between. Good to know (um, like people would just look for the place Wimbledon...)

So yesterday, I decided to head over to Wimbledon to watch some tennis (well I actually decided the night before I would do this). There were a few things that were made clear to me during this event. 1. Wimbledon is foremost a place, and just saying I need to figure out how to get to Wimbledon, doesn't actually mean Wimbledon Tennis (And oddly enough, for Wimbledon tennis, you do not get off at the Wimbledon or even South Wimbledon tube stop). 2. Most people referring to Wimbledon, actually call it the Championships, not Wimbledon. I never realized that this is what the tournament is actually called (even thought it's pictured on all the memorabilia)... 3. The tournament is not held at Wimbledon Tennis club as I would have just assumed. It's held at the All England Club.

All this aside, I left Bob's house around 7:30 a.m., and after riding the most crowded tube I've been on yet (morning rush hour), for about an hour and 15 minutes, I came to a cross roads. I hadn't found anything online that told me what tube stop to get off at, but I just figured it would be the one on the end of the District line called "Wimbledon". Two girls on the tube wearing "The Championship" neck passes got off at Southfields (two stops before Wimbledon), and I got a little panicky, but still decided to stay on. Another tip off should have been that at Southfields I noticed as the tube was leaving the station, the platform (outside trains at this point on the line) was done up in fake-grass with tennis-like chalk lines on it. hmmm. I ended up getting off at Wimbledon Park, the next stop, because I thought for sure I should have gotten off at Southfields. This actually worked out in my favor as the queue to get in (and where all the tents are for the overnight campers waiting for Court tickets) is held in Wimbledon Park and just a short walk from the station. I got to line about 9, and made my way into the gates right after 10:30, so it wasn't too bad.

The pictures above kind of show my events throughout the day. Mainly I stayed on Court 5 as I had gotten a seat there. I started heading back to Bob's about 3:30. This time, I decided to walk to the Southfields station since that was supposedly where I should have come in at. I passed the optional bus ride up thinking it couldn't be that far. Unfortunately, it was like a 30 minute walk to that station, and I was already exhausted at this point! I got on the tube (stepping off the grass platform) and it got fairly crowded as we got closer into town because of school letting out. So I had the bright idea to get off at Sloane Square and take the 137 Bus back to Bob's so I didn't have to walk from the tube station (the bus drops me at the end of his street and spares me the 15 minute walk from the station). I remember thinking-this is what real Londoners do-take the tube and buses knowlingly to make their commutes shorter-I really got the hang of this down!Well, the bus had some issues and instead of going the rest of the journey, dropped everyone off at Clapham Common much to everyone's dismay. Instead of a 30 minute ride to Bob's, it took an hour to get to Clapham Common because of traffic at Chelsea Bridge. So from there, I walked down the street and caught the 50 Bus back to Bob's, and it took me overall about 2 and a half hours to get from Wimbledon (Tennis) back to Bob's front door. Exhausted, I went to bed early and stayed in today to pack and map my way to the airport tomorrow. I'll be in Italy this time tomorrow evening with Tiffany! I can't wait!