Amy and Sarah stay in London while Kevin, Hunter and I
head north to watch the match between Arsenal and DeAndre Yedlin and the rest
of the men from Newcastle United.
We rise early. I head to Ladbroke Grove Stations to meet up with Kevin & Hunter. We then head to King’s Cross for the 3-hour
train ride. A slight catch: a section of the Circle line is closed today, so we have to get
to King’s Cross some other way. We get off the underground at Paddington and
take a cab from there. While waiting for the train to open for boarding, we
grab some coffee and pastries.
We board the train and find our table. Kevin and
Hunter are going to give me some lessons at Wizard. (This will be the only bad/hard part
of the trip.) We are in first class and drinks and food are included. Very
Nice. Soon after the train takes off, we pass the Emirates Stadium; we will be
here for the Europa League match Thursday night.
The train ride is most interesting. There is a group
of Arsenal fans in the next seats forward. One of this group is rather drunk.
We’ve never heard the terms tosser and geezer in the same sentence before.
Other than the chatter from this group (and the Wizard
lesson I suffer through), the ride is most pleasant through beautiful country.
We debark at the Newcastle Station and head toward St. Mary’s Stadium. We are looking
for a bar that has the early match playing. We find the Shark Club. It’s crowded,
but we find some standing room with a good view of a screen. Liverpool are the
stronger side today, and prevail over Tottenham 2 – 1.
We leave the Shark Club and march to St. Mary’s for our first in-person EPL experience.
The Stadium is grand, as are our seats.
 |
| At the Match |
 |
| Pre-Match Walkout |
(If you look closely, you can see Yedlin in the middle of the handshake line.)
Interesting difference from the USA: Beer must be
consumed outside the viewing area! You can’t take a pint to your seat! Even
worse for Hunter, several of the locals we have met have suggested strongly
that in the seats we have, he should keep his jacket closed to hide the Arsenal
jersey he is wearing. (Don’t rile the locals?) The away fans are in their own
section and it just isn’t done that away fans outside this area are vocal.
Newcastle is the better team for most of the first
half, but they can’t break through and the half ends 0 – 0. Early in the second
half, Arsenal win a free kick from a dangerous spot and Granit Xhaka sends the
ball straight into the goal. Newcastle then lose their spirit and Arsenal scores
another through a header by Mesut Ozil. In 2nd half added time, Newcastle
gets one back, but it is too late, Arsenal win 2 – 1.
It has been an interesting and exciting game. We exit
with the crowd and go in search of a post-match nosh. While looking, we stumble
upon the remnants of the New Castle that this town is named for:
 |
| Newcastle Keep |
We find “The Herb Farm” and have pizza. Very tasty.
We head back to the train station and enter a pub for
a pint. We have an enjoyable conversation with some other travelling Arsenal
fans, then board the train for the ride south and another painful Wizard lesson
for me.
On the train, we have some more food so that we have
no need for a meal when we arrive after 9:00. We quietly head home, a nice day
concluded.
Meanwhile, Amy and Sarah have had High Tea in London.
They have also seen the musical “Aladdin”. We have all enjoyed the day.
Tomorrow, Eliot joins us.
No comments:
Post a Comment