Wimbledon

Tuesday night I was meeting with Beth and Walter at King Cross station. They just got married in Paris several days prior coming to London. They were sightseeing in London while I worked. We were going to go to Wimbledon on Friday but according to the forecast, the weather was going to be bad, so I canceled taking a day off and decided to work on Friday. On Wednesday night, Beth mentioned about the evening tickets at Wimbledon. I found out from her that they let people in again at 5PM. This may work well. I could take a half day off from work, met them at Wimbledon at lunch, and queue to get in, so that's what we did.

I went to Wahaca before and had their salad. This time around, I shared a couple of tapas with Walter and dessert with Beth. It was good. After we ate, we walked to the lawn. It wasn't far, around a mile, but we walked farther up because the queue for the tickets didn't start from the entrance. We had to walk to another car park. I was a little nervous because the line in front of us was really long but the volunteer assured us that we would get in since they let 15,000 people in yesterday afternoon and we were number 10,000 something.

Had lunch at Wahaca, Mexican tapas style.

In front of Wahaca

They even had a couch covered in AstroTurf

You can see Center Court from the street

After a long walk from the town to the lawn and 2 hours of queuing, we got a number.

Honorary Volunteer. Beth told him that I went to Ascot the weekend prior. He asked me if I got in to Royal Enclosure thinking that there was no way I was in that class. He was surprised to find out.

Cute topiary

Killing time while queuing

Finally, got the ticket to the ground.

The outer courts are free to watch. We saw some doubles.

 The ground was just pretty. They planted flowers in hanging baskets.

After we watched some games, we sat in front of the Jumbo tron that broadcast the games at the Center Court. You had to have tickets to get in. Not long after we were there, there were two older ladies that offered us their tickets since they were leaving. We took them.

 Center Court. After they closed the roof, they had to wait for 10-20 minutes before they started the match again.

Watched Federer v. Muller played. Federer won.

After the match was over, they tore everything down and water the grass.

London: Family Visit I

Like I said in the previous post, my sister (Grace) and nephew (Kyle) came to visit me in London. I couldn't wait for them to get here. It was a bit nerve wrecking because they just got their UK visa a week before they left. The processing time was 15 business days and they could only process visa in Bangkok but the biometric was done in Jakarta. I was so relieved when Grace told me that they got their visa approved when I was at the airport waiting to take off to Edinburgh.

I was going to let them sleep in a little bit but my sister got up around 6AM. We were ready to go by 8AM. I already bought some tickets to the places that we were going to go. The first stop was London Eye. The earliest we could pick up the ticket was 10AM. Since we had plenty of time, we walked from my flat. It was a nice walk. We walked through Hyde Park, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament.

Green Park. Kyle doesn't smile in any pictures. Quite annoying but these are boy's teenage years, I guess.

In front of Wellington Arch

Big Ben

While in London, must have a picture with a double decker in the background.

London Eye from Westminster Bridge

The line at London Eye wasn't too bad. We had a perfect weather. I told Grace, don't be fooled. London isn't normally this nice.

Buckingham Palace

Queen Victoria statue

This is my favorite picture of us in London

The Parliament from London Eye

Shard in the background

London bridges from the top

 After London Eye, we crossed Westminster Bridge again to go to Winston Churchill War Rooms. Of course, we had to take more pictures of the parliament and Big Ben.

 

 Churchill War Room was very cool. They still kept the meeting rooms where many of important decisions during WWII were made. Churchill's bedroom, other staff's bedrooms, kitchen, bathrooms were preserved well. I wish we spent more time there because there were tons of information about his life and the war time line but we had to eat lunch and catch the cruise ferry that was already booked in advance. 

Cruising on Thames

London Bridge

Tower of London was the next and final stop. We got there an hour and a half before it closed. The line to see the crown jewels was super long. The sign says it would take 45 minutes to queue, so we skipped it and went to other towers and buildings that didn't have lines. I was disappointed because the crown jewels were the highlight of the tower.I went to Tower of London before but I just realized that I didn't go to many of the places there. 15 minutes before it closes, we walked down and passed the crown jewels, and this time, there was nobody on the line and it was still opened. We got in!

One of the nine ravens at the tower

We got back to the flat around 6PM. I think we were all so wiped out after a day full of walking. They left for Paris the next morning and I went to work. I got the flat ready for visitors number 2 that came the following night. Read the next post!

Royal Ascot

For the next 3 weeks I had really busy weeks, it started with Royal Ascot on June 21. I had no idea that Royal Ascot existed until Jessica told me about it a few months ago. It's a horse race that the Queen and the royal family like to attend. Royal Ascot runs from Tuesday to Saturday. There were three classes of tickets. The highest and most posh is Royal Enclosure. To be able to get in, you must be invited or be a member. Not sure what it takes to be a member. It sounds very expensive. If you're not a member, you have to be sponsored by a member, somebody that has gone to Royal Ascot 4 times, or for foreign nationals, you can apply through your embassy. This is what we did. after sending my application and a nice written letter signed by my boss (basically you need to get a letter from somebody who has known you for at least 5 years and can attest that you are a good responsible citizen. Since you can potentially be 5 feet away from the Queen, they want to make sure you're not crazy and won't jeopardize her safety).

After lots of planning, the plan was to meet at my flat and got picked up by a car service to Royal Ascot. On the way there, we picked up Roseanne who lived on the south side of London.

At home

 The traffic to Ascot race horse was horrible. It took us 2 hours to get there from London. at this point, we were questioning our decisions, probably taking a train from Waterloo was a better idea.

At the car park, after we picked up our hats.

Cheers!

 The store which we rent our hats from was awesome. They provided a pick-up and drop off service from a car park across the street from the race course. They brought mirrors, hairspray and also champagne.

They helped us put our hats on.

From the left, Roseanne, Jessica, Anna and Amy.

Grand Entrance as soon as you enter the Royal Enclosure area.

When we got there, it was already around 1.15PM, the Queen would be at the parade ring at 2PM. We got some food and drink and went straight to the parade ring. After having a glass of white wine at home and champagne at the car park, I could only handle water and Diet Coke for the rest of the day. The weather couldn't be better. Sunny, not so windy and not a single drop of rain.

At the parade ring.

Marching band before the Queen arrived from Windsor Castle

She wears pink! Every thing was a bet, including the Queen's outfit for the day.

They are the race course's owners

The Queen finally arrives

Jessica took this picture. It was hard to take pictures of her from where we stood because we were on the left side of the ring and they were circling counter clock wise.

The rest of Royal family but I don't recognize any of them.

They were coming towards us but the Queen already got off the carriage in the middle of the ring to go to her box.

 After leaving the parade ring, we went inside to get some drinks and rest our feet.

 This is a horse race after all, so we went to watch the horses in action.

Part of Royal Enclosure area.

 

The first race we watched. They had a race every half an hour from 2.30PM to 5.30PM.

I got home around 7.30PM, changed and straight to Paddington Station to meet with my sister and nephew. So excited to see them! I had a blast at Ascot. I didn't know what to expect but it turned out to be a really fun day. Part of it is because I'm here for a short time, so I have to make the most of it. This event is definitely one of the highlights.