Swinging Low in London

A bit delayed, but another glorious weekend in London recap up next....

 

I took the 7AM flight from Schiphol on Friday to London City....that is one early flight my friends.  I have to be on the train at 5AM to make the flight and there are no trams running that early, so it's a 20 minute walk from my apartment to train station (cue...ah muffin, life's rough).  I took BA this time.  Given my Hamburg experience is so fresh in my mind, it will be a while before I choose KLM again.  Generally, I think they are a good airline if conditions are right, but need some space before I try again.

 

The benefits of a 7AM flight from Schiphol is that it puts me in London at 7AM, which means that the commute to drop my bag at hotel was fairly simple.  Commuting doesn't get into full swing until the 8AM hour, so I tried a different route on the DLR through Stratford to the Central line.  That's my new route of choice as there is only one escalator and NO stairs to get to the correct tube.  Success!

 

After dropping my bag, I headed to work and had a series of long meetings all day.  After all the meetings, we headed to the Bullfrog for pints:

 

Me and friend D. 

 

Super fun night - I really love the pub culture in London and the fact that you can meet so many new people just standing with friends.  Had a great time.

 

I was over in London for work, but the secondary purpose was tickets to Rugby on Saturday!  I've become quite the Euro sports fan, picking up rugby and cricket (and to a  lesser degree, football).  England played Argentina in a friendly at Twickenham, the home of rugby, so it only made sense to go.

 

I spent the morning shopping and walking around a quiet London.  I had a nice cooked breakfast...bacon and eggs.  It's the little things in life.  After that, it was off to meet friends for the match.  It was super cold - I layered as much as I could, but winter has come in a big way to Europe.

 

I had to navigate a whole new set of tubes, which made me a slightly late, but we made it to the stadium in time for "God Save the Queen", which just gives me chills.

 

 

The Argentinian National Anthem was not nearly as moving, but I suspect that had something to do with the lack of Argentinian fans.  This was definitely an English crowd.  I also happened to be back in London for Remembrance Sunday, which meant that they had a 2 minute silence before the game which also gave me chills.  I didn't get a poppy and go to the Cenotaph this time, but the whole weekend was still very moving.  Even at work on the 11th, we paused for 2 minutes of silence in a huge conference.  I know V-day is big in the US, but I really think it pales in comparison to the Remembrance day in the Commonwealth. 

 

I also learned that there is an official National Anthem singer for England.  She's paid to go from event to event and sing the National Anthem.  She was pretty good, however, the crowd was so loud, you couldn't hear her.  I also learned that the song of choice for English Rugby is "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot".  No idea why - very random.  But amazingly, sounded great in the stadium with 80K people singing it. Didn't get a video but sounded like:

"SWWWWINNNNNNGGGG LOOOOOOOOOWWWWW SWEEEEETTTTT CHARRRRIIOOOOOOOOOOTTTTT, COMMMMINNNNNGGGG FOOOOOOOOORRRR TO CARRRRRRRRRRRRRY MMMMEEEEEEEEEE HOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMEEEEE".  Brilliant.

Anyways, pictures from Rugby:

 

 

Pre match

 

England players coming on the pitch

Celebratory fireworks beforehand

Sold out crowd - 80K people for a friendly!

Rugby starting - going to be a lot of pictures of men wrestling.

 

 

 

 

 

The first half was very lively.  England scored 3 tries on our side of the pitch, so it made for some very good crowd watching as the English who are typically reserved go bat crazy when they score.  Lots of dancing and singing.  The second half wasn't nearly as good - the Rugby got very disorganised and just sat in the middle of the field.  To be honest, I was bored for about 20 minutes.  But then, they flashed David Beckham's picture up on the screen from his box at the stadium and everyone (women) seemed to perk up a bit.  Funny how that works.  Anyways, England won handily and probably should have won by more had the second half not been so awful. 

 

After that, it was off to meet friends for dinner and drinks.  Great Saturday! 

 

On Sunday, I found a Lutheran church...Luther-Tyndale Memorial Church.  Great church, felt like ULC.  And wouldn't you know it, they served a pot luck lunch after the service.  Definitely Lutheran!  I felt at home.  Interesting place - the pastor is from Brazil and the runs Portugese services in the afternoon.  The mornings are in English.  They also did a special remembrance day service, complete with trumpet call and special music.  Lutherans are so great at special music - even for a small service (less than 100), there was a trumpet, violin, organ, girls choir, etc.  Impressive.  Everyone was very nice and the service was wonderfully directed to the grace and mercy of Christ. What a fabulous way to begin my Sunday.

 

I ended up wandering around central London after that doing some shopping and then calling it an early night.  Monday and Tuesday were jammed with work, so much so that I almost missed my flight back on Tuesday.  What a weekend!