For the second time this year, our domestic flight was delayed out of Austin on Friday afternoon, which was putting us too close for comfort in terms of making our international flight connection in Atlanta. What started out as a lengthy connection in Atlanta turned into a sprint through the airport to get to our gate with literally minutes to spare before the flight departure time only to find, thankfully, that they hadn’t started boarding yet. Whew! Surprisingly, there were multiple passengers coming from our flight in Austin to this late-night flight to London, and we were the only ones on the flight with a chance to make our connection (all of the other flight connections had come and gone due to the long delay getting out of Austin). Believe me, I was ready for a glass of wine once we were safely aboard the plane after the stress of the past few hours!
We arrived at London Heathrow around 1:30pm-2pm on Saturday, which was nice so that we could check into our hotel compared to the more typical schedule of flights from the U.S. arriving in the morning. We took the train from the airport to Ashburn Hotel in Kensington. Having already visited London multiple times, including earlier this year for the London Marathon, the key criteria for choosing a hotel was ease of access to the train to Wimbledon on Sunday morning.
We quickly showered, and then we walked over to the Natural History Museum (free admission) located nearby. We didn’t have nearly enough time to fully take in everything that the museum has to offer (open until 5:50pm with last entry at 5:30pm), but we were able to see some of the key highlights (such as the dinosaur exhibit) and it helped us stave off the jet lag. The museum was quite crowded for this late in the day, but I imagine it is even more so earlier in the day based on the barriers outside to queue to enter.
After the museum closed, we stopped for dinner on our walk back to the hotel at Ask Italian (gluten-free pizza available) and bought a few groceries at Waitrose supermarket (good selection of gluten-free foods available). Then, it was off to bed ahead of the big day tomorrow!
On Sunday morning, donned in green, we took the District line train to Southfields station from Earls Court. It was clear that we were at the right placed based on all of the Wimbledon signage and everyone in their best dress for Championship Sunday at The Championships! We arrived shortly before the gates opened at 10am. Since we had been here for a tour of the grounds last April, we were familiar with the area and able to bypass some things, such as the museum and retail shops (I had ordered souvenirs online ahead of time anyway and had them shipped to our house so that I wouldn’t have to lug them around Europe for a month).
This allowed us to head over to get front-row seats behind the player’s bench at Court 12 for the Final of the Ladies’ Invitation Doubles (aka Legends) at 11am featuring former No. 1 players Kim Clijsters (Belgium) and Martina Hingis (Switzerland) vs. Aussies, Ash Barty and Casey Dellacqua. This was a non-ticketed match, so seating at this outer court filled up as the match progressed (with some folks even standing at the top seats of Court 2 located next door in order to look down into Court 12). We stayed for the trophy presentation and player interviews after the match, as Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis successfully defended their title (6-3, 6-2).
Then, we headed over to The Hill to stake out our spot on the lawn to watch the main event, the Gentlemen’s Singles Final at 2pm on Centre Court featuring Carlos Alcaraz (Spain) vs. Novak Djokovic (Serbia). While we waited for the action to start, we enjoyed the traditional fare of Wimbledon, a Pimm’s Cup and Strawberries & Cream (strawberries are picked fresh in the morning each day!) with our picnic lunch on The Hill.
When the first game lasted 14 minutes, it gave us the impression that we were in for a long afternoon of competitive tennis. But, unfortunately, the match quickly shifted to a more one-sided affair with Alcaraz dominating Djokovic and winning in straight sets (6-2, 6-2, 7-6). That Novak made it to the finals here just weeks after having surgery for a torn right meniscus that took him out of the French Open was astounding.
We had opted to watch the men’s final from The Hill instead of watching the matches on Court 1 that we actually had seats inside for (Gentlemen’s Wheelchair Singles Final, Boys’ Singles Final, and Girls’ Singles Final). Back in mid-March, I received the following email from the AELTC:
Dear Melissa,
We have now concluded the traditional balloting of our tickets for The Championships 2024.
However, as part of the next phase of our ballot cycle, we are delighted to let you know that you have been selected to purchase tickets through our online ticket shop. Please be aware ticket availability is not guaranteed as tickets are sold on a first come first served basis.
I was shocked to receive the email notification that morning, and I was even more shocked to find that tickets were still available to purchase for Championship Sunday, albeit not for the Centre Court matches. I couldn’t believe our luck, given that we were in the midst of planning a summer trip to Europe where we could easily slot in a stop in London for this!
As the crowds started to thin out after the main match was over, we took advantage of the shorter lines to check out the various American Express activations located around the grounds for cardholders (there was a wait to get in them earlier in the day). This is where we learned just how slow Kurt’s reaction time is – ha, ha!
In an effort to let the crowds die down to catch a train back into the city, we walked to Wimbledon village to catch the train from there. We stopped at Rosa’s Thai for dinner before hopping on the train to Leicester Square because Kurt wanted to take in the atmosphere with the locals watching Spain vs. England play in the EURO Final in Berlin (Alcaraz did his part for Spain earlier!).
Not surprisingly, everywhere was packed, but we eventually found a pub with a crowd amassed outside watching the game on the televisions inside (conveniently located across from Donutelier – no gluten-free options didn’t stop me from enjoying one!). The crowd outside continued to grow as the evening wore on, and so did the tension as Spain scored the first goal. The crowd erupted when England finally responded with a goal, but it didn’t last for too long because Spain eventually scored the game-winning goal. Sadly for the Brits, “It’s not coming home.”
And, with that, our first country of this trip is done and dusted. What an amazing day of sports to kick off our month-long travel in Europe!