The scheduling Gods shined upon me when creating the Europa League schedule. Originally I debated whether to leave for Finland on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning since the Europa League schedule was not out at the time. I did not know whether Fulham or Everton would play Thursday night. My preference was Fulham since I could take the train to London Thursday morning and attend the match. If Everton had been home I would have to take either a late train Thursday night or an early …

After visiting British Mick, I took the same bus (#295) I had on Sunday afternoon back to Stamford Bridge for Chelsea’s Carling Cup match against Queens Park Rangers (QPR). This time I left earlier so I would not be late for the match which probably meant I would need to pay for my ticket.
Obtaining TicketsAt first I thought I would check to see if tickets were available for the match at the main ticket office. However, when I approached the security guards at the box office they said the match …

I woke up at 9:45 am and immediately started getting ready for my day at The Brit Oval. I was not too concerned with arriving on time at 10:30 am as a day of county cricket lasts for around seven hours.
After getting ready, I had an English muffin with Big Chris and started walking to the cricket ground at 10:30 am. I had walked this same path as I had walked on August 12, 2007. I was interviewing over that weekend in London and was staying near Waterloo Station just …

After booking my rooms for the next week, it was time to eat lunch as I had a few hours until the Arsenal Carling Cup match at Emirates Stadium. I walked a few blocks from Big Chris’ house and ended up at The Three Stags. I ordered the hamburger and a couple of pints before walking over to the Imperial War Museum located on Lambeth Road. To my surprise the admission was free so I spent a couple of hours catching up on my World War I, World Cup II …

There I was hugging and kissing Nicole good-bye at London Heathrow’s Terminal 5. Nicole was flying back to Chicago after our weekend in London and four weeks in Spain. I was staying in England for over two weeks in order to attend as many sporting events as possible within that time frame. I had booked this additional part of the trip back in July when I booked our plane tickets for Spain and England. Originally it was only supposed to be one extra week, but when …

After spending the afternoon at British Mick’s (who will now be referred to as London Mick) house, I left for the Chelsea match around 3:20 pm without a ticket (the match started at 4 pm). Of course, my bus was late and it took longer than I expected to get to Stamford Bridge. As was the case last time I would be late. However, last time I was concerned about whether I could get a ticket so I bought from a scalper early. This time I …

After spending a few weeks in Spain it was time for a weekend in London with the wife. If you are traveling to London and want to see a couple of soccer games then be sure to make the wife happy first – then attend the events. I booked two nights at the Andaz Liverpool Street that I found by going to tablethotels.com. Tablethotels.com recommends stylish hotels that the wife will love and will hopefully not cost a fortune.
The Andaz was about five hotels listed that were …

When we decided to plan a trip for Europe, the wife checked U2’s tour schedule and realized they were playing in the United Kingdom the week we would be in London. She immediately wanted to attend a show. There were four shows to choose from – Friday, August 14 or Saturday, August 15 at Wembley Stadium in London, Tuesday, August 18 in Glasgow, Scotland or Thursday, August 20 in Sheffield, England. Ideally, we would have attended a show in London so we would not have to travel …

After spending Saturday night in Misterton, the plan was to drive back to London Sunday afternoon. We left the house at 11:30 am for the 3 hour drive back to London. With Nicole and British Caroline planning to spend Sunday afternoon shopping in London, I had 3 matches in London to choose between (in order of preference):
1) Arsenal at Chelsea – kickoff at 4 pm.Commentary: I thought tickets might be difficult to find or expensive since it was the local derby, but the match was close to where we were …

In the first Champions League match I have attended since 2001, Arsenal defeated Dynamo Kyiv 1-0 on a late goal by Nicklas Bendtner. Once again, I attended the match with “Hospitality Jim” who started to think I was an Arsenal jinx since Arsenal had played 177 minutes without scoring a goal with me in attendance. Instead, with a free kick from beyond the mid field line, Cesc Fabregas launched a pass to Nicklas Bendtner who put the ball in the net for the only goal of the game.
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