To England: London Town, Part Five. WIMBLEDON.

Tuesday was the best day of my life, period, hands down, end of story, every other day can go home now. I entered the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon!

I woke up around 4:50 and caught one of the first trains of the day from near my hostel to Edgware. However, the first train going to Wimbledon wasn't until 40+ minutes later--so check on that if you go. Make it to Southfields which is, ironically, the proper station for Wimbledon. Then walked quickly in a light crowd, trying not to rudely brush past people. Almost cried for the first time that day, thinking about childhood dreams and how many years I've centered two weeks of my summer around watching it and it being UNBELIEVABLE that I was there.

Only a very small bit of the queue. Imagine several football fields filled like this.

You get to this field and there's just rows and rows of people. I felt a bit cattle'ish after awhile because every so often they'd move up the queues and you'd just follow forward but not really know if anything was happening yet or not.

The staff were all very knowledgeable and friendly.

At some point early on they hand out your queue card (and your guide) and you guard it with your life.

Sat/walked in the field until about 10 or 10:25. Almost four hours, all told, but it went by in a flash. I think I listened to my ipod, read, just sat there and marveled about where I was. I was worried that I'd get really bored (or tired) and throw my whole day off but, like I said, it sped by.

Finally my bit of the queue started really moving, but we still had a long way to wend through a woods and to security. Security had metal detectors AND a bag search. Lots of lines and very efficient though. You could take any food and drinks you wanted, including certain quantities of alcohol which I thought was sweet--but technically only one bag.

More walking to the actual ticket counters after that, kind of reminded me of Kennywood lines, but there was no more queue after security so I went up and handed over my 20 pounds and suddenly....I WAS IN.

And now I did cry. A lot, actually.

I just barely made it in by the time the matches started at 11 so I settled in to watch Marcel Granollers straight away.

 Me watching Marc Lopez watching Marcel. The weirdo in the bug-eyed blue horrible sunglasses.

I had food in the middle, but it took Marcel 3.5 hours to win his match in four sets, and I stayed until the end.

Then I went to find Feliciano Lopez. There was a weird/terrible queueing system for getting into that court. Feli was hilarious--he was in full-on Feli meltdown mode even though he really wasn't playing badly and he won, I think in only three but it may have been four.

How obviously FELI he is here. Hahaha.

Had some spare time so I wandered around and found Henman Hill and gobbled down my second strawberries and cream of the day. Worth it.

The view from the Hill. Actually a super nice spot, though quite busy this time of day.

I went to watch Tommy Robredo's match. He just managed to finish in four sets, it would've been called for darkness if it had gone on much longer.

I stretched out leaving for as long as I could, trying not to cry again. I thought to myself "Can I sleep here and do it again tomorrow?" Which, yes, actually, they encourage that--if only I had a sleeping bag and a tarp!

The day went SO FAST. From waking up at 4:50am to getting back to my hostel after 10, I felt like maybe two hours had passed. I thought I'd be exhausted by lunch but I wasn't.

I REALLY wish I had gone back on Wednesday. I try not to live with regrets, and I really try not to travel with regrets, but this is one regret I still have. If I'd thought of it, seriously, a bit earlier in the evening, then I could've booked it home after Tommy instead of lingering, and gotten my things re-settled and packed for the next day. I really wish I had.

It was weird after spending so many years at Cincinnati to be somewhere new. It was weird to be somewhere where I didn't know every corner of the grounds and all the tricks for getting around. It was SUPER weird that the men's games were so long, I felt like I got to watch a lot less things because the matches were so much longer.

I think I enjoy Cincy as a whole more, but....this was WIMBLEDON. Nothing compares.

To England: London Town, Part Four. A side pilgrimage to Canterbury and Dover

On Monday, I decided to head out of London for Canterbury and Dover. Next time, I'd leave London on the weekend when the crowds were just terrible. I think I was worried the crowds would be just as bad anywhere but I would take those chances to have London be less awful.

Anyway. Canterbury Cathedral was underwhelming. Imagining Chaucer and Pilgrims helped. But I prefer Santiago de Compostela in terms of European pilgrimage sites.

IDK some dead king? An early Henry? VII?

Tomb lion.

Cloister. 

I got lost because Canterbury, although containing many tourists, had poor signage. I found St Augustine's Abbey eventually and enjoyed its ruinous ruins. I dunno if it would've been worth the entrance, but it was free with my English Heritage pass.

The top, brick part is when Henry VIII seized all the abbeys and then rebuilt a palace on top of it because he was pious like that.

Some sweet old tiles. I love tiles. There was a floor made out of these at some famous cathedral I went to--Westminster?--and it was like STAY OFF and all roped off. I felt pretty awesome visiting these "in the wilderness" as practically the only visitor at the site.

The inner tower you can see is a Norman tower much like the White Tower at the Tower of London.

Then I went off to Dover Castle. I took a 5-pound taxi ride up to the castle which was super worth it because it was a hike.

The ruined tower to the right is Roman, and I can't remember when the church is from but probably several eras, let's be honest.

The castle had been in continuous use from like 1200 so there were lots of different eras and building projects. And some Roman ruins, too. I went into the war tunnels which were interesting and made me feel like Don Wildman.

I went to bed early because the next day was.....WIMBLEDON DAY.