Wimbledon

On Monday morning, Mary Frances and I decided to queue at Wimbledon for tickets...queue meaning "line up." Queuing in this country is a serious thing, and some say a sport. If it is a sport then the queue at Wimbledon is the Olympics. We arrived around 10 a.m. and received queue cards numbered 8,657 and 8,658. Meaning there were 8,656 people in front of us! Look below for a view of this colossal queue. After speaking to the Honorary Stewards (who were so nice...absolutely the best "customer service" I've ever had in this country!) as well as my sweet husband, we decided to leave and come back the next day.

When we came back on Tuesday, we woke up at 5:15, left the house by 6, and were at Wimbledon at 7 a.m. There was hardly any queue and within 15 minutes were were snaking our way towards Wimbledon (a mile and a half away). Our queue card numbers were 897 and 896...much better prospects. When it started raining, we were surprised but the fact that we could see the front of the queue and were dreaming of centre court kept us happy. A Metro paper was an umbrella for me and MF's fedora hat kept her dry...sorta.

We persevered through the rain and around 9:30/10 we got our wristbands for our court, went through security, picked up our tickets, and were in to the legendary All England Lawn and Tennis Club.

Oh, and we got Centre Court tickets. 3 rows back. For the women's quarterfinals.

In front of our court, enjoying Dutchees (like a hot dog) and one of us enjoying a Pimm's.

Kim Clijsters playing Vera Zvonareva. Vera upset Kim and is now in the finals!

And then we saw Serena Williams play Na Li. Serena was much more emotional than any of the other players we saw that day. I also think her dress should be a bit longer. Girl can hit that ball though. I always assumed that men hit the ball really hard, duh, but never really thought that the girls hit it that hard. Well they do.

Bye Serena!

After Serena, the Bryan brothers from the States came on and beat their opponent. Doubles was so much fun to watch especially since the points went so much faster! Towards the end of that match, Wiley and Wil came in! They didn't have any line (it was around 6) and paid a lot less. I gave Wil my ticket, and took Wiley around to the side courts where juniors were playing. We returned to Centre Court, hoping to convince the guards to let us in without tickets and with one underage for the show courts. Luckily, it was a lot quieter, and he let us in!

The next match was a women's invitational doubles match with Martina Navratilova, Jana Novotna, Conchita Martinez, and Nathalie Tauziat! It was so much more relaxed and Martina was really pretty funny.

Mary Frances and Wiley during the changeover of the doubles match!

Wiley did fantastic in Centre Court! He was quiet during play, and he only yelled "Go Martina!" once...unfortunately it was slightly delayed and a bit after everyone else did it! A ground crew worker even gave Wiley one of the balls from the match !

Wimbledon was absolutely amazing. To see such legendary players play at such a legendary place was a huge treat. We were surprised at how much smaller it is in person, too. On TV Centre Court looks huge, but in real life, it isn't as big as you think it is. Wimbledon was such a well run event that is truly open to anyone willing to stand in line and pay as little as 17 GBP to simply be on the grounds. If ever in London in late June, Wimbledon is a must. Just be prepared to queue! However, the strawberries and cream...not so much. Unless you like your strawberries swimming (and getting mushy) in thick milk. Pimm's on the other hand...that is a whole 'nother story!