Saturday was a rather unplanned day. We were going to the home of 'Lawn Tennis' in the morning at 11:00 in the morning for a tour that would end at about 12:30 and then we would be able to get the best view in London by riding the London Eye, which was scheduled for 5:00 in the evening. Between these and after the London Eye, however, we weren't doing anything.
After the morning routine, we took a metro to Wimbledon Park and walked to Wimbledon, reaching half an hour early. We entered, got a band from a receptionist showing we were part of the tour we had booked, and was told to look through the museum for a while till the tour started. We found a room with the original Wimbledon cups for singles and doubles (the winners were awarded with replicas). Then we went out for the tour.
The man guiding us on the tour started with introducing himself and then describing the history of Wimbledon. A Major Wingfield had made a grass hourglass shaped tennis court in the late 1800s and had patented the court making rules for the new type of Tennis that he had invented. The AELTC (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club) was at that time called the All-England Croquet Club. It set aside a court for the game and the first Gentlemen's Singles Championship was held in 1877. The name eventually changed to AELTC because Lawn tennis had become its main activity.
We also found out about how tickets were given out for Wimbledon. If you were trying to get a ticket, you would have to camp for a few days outside the Wimbledon in a queue of a thousand people.
We passed through the Court No. 1 and Centre Court Stands, which still had the score from the last Wimbledon's final. We learnt about the sponsors for the Wimbledon which included Jaguar, Rolex and Slazenger and saw the media rooms. The man guiding us on the tour told us about memberships in the club, including the cost and benefits.
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| At Wimbledon |
We had a good time at Wimbledon and went for lunch at a streetside restaurant where I had fish n' chips for the first time. We walked around for some time and then took a metro to Waterloo for the London Eye.
We got through the giant queue for the London eye, finally getting into the giant Ferris wheel. The views we saw from the London Eye were amazing. The wheel took us up really high up and we took a lot of pics.
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| The amazing views from London Eye |
The ride took about half an hour totally. After the London Eye we had nothing to do. We stopped at a restaurant and had apple pie with ice cream, along with a couple of drinks. A man was singing a couple of songs on the roadside. So, we sat with the crowd and watched for some time.
We picked up some food from a store, went back to Wembley and had dinner while we finished the King's Speech. And that's how our fifth day in London ended.
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