Chelsea FC

I have been asked to return as a guest writer for "Worldly Adventures" and in keeping with the theme of my first blog entry, soccer, I can't think of a better topic to have the pleasure of blogging on than our experience visiting Stamford Bridge, the home of Chelsea Football Club.

A little history first...

When we moved to London, it was shortly after the 2010 World Cup and Team USA had an exciting run which captivated our nation, and unfortunately ended in disappointment against Ghana in the knock-out stage.  The video of the World reacting to Landon Donovan's goal against Algeria in the 2010 WC still gives me chills.  Prior to the 2010 WC, I was not a soccer follower, outside of my every so often check of the MLS standings to see how the Kansas City team was doing.  After the World Cup, I was really jazzed about soccer and wanted to start following the game more closely.  What better place to do that than in the home of soccer, England. 

As mentioned in a previous post, England is home to one of the most successful soccer leagues in the World, the Barclay's Premier League.  One of my first soccer objectives was to find the Premier League team that the Woods family was going to follow for the year we were in London and maybe for many years to come.  How I chose to determine which team we'd follow was to discuss with co-workers about their alliances, history of how they became a fan, consider their knowledge and passion for their team, then we'd join the team that best sold their case.  As a Hawkeye Football fan, I can fully appreciate the dedication and passion it takes to be a "fan".  In the sport of soccer, their fans take it to another level.

After my initial conversations, I had met people that didn't really follow any team, a few followed Manchester United, Arsenal, mainly because popular culture, but after various conversations with co-workers over the course of about 3 weeks, I had found our team and there was no debate about passion or dedication.  We had been in the office about 10 days when the Security Specialist (Building Security) for Cerner took Kari and I on a tour of the buildings, pointing out the fire exits, extinguishers, alarms, where to go once you've exited the building, etc.  After the tour I gave this man the regular sch'peal asking who we should be cheering for this season which I had given many others before, fully expecting to get some casual response; boy was I wrong.  The conversation went on for another 15-20 minutes, with him rattling off years of history, how he worked crowd security for 10 years at Stamford Bridge.  How he had been through the highs and lows of Chelsea Football, jumping for joy and crying in his tissues.  The conversation ended with him rolling up his sleeve of his dress shirt and revealing a Chelsea tattoo that ran from shoulder to elbow.  There it was, I had finally found the team we would cheer for.  I shook his hand and wished him a good day and said, Chelsea just gained a few more fans from America.  The weekly conversations still continue between him and I about Chelsea football.  This is exactly what I was hoping to find and to have some passion to follow one of the greatest Football leagues in the World.  We've found our team to cheer for, thank you Mr. Security Specialist.

Going to Stamford Bridge was added to the Cory list of "Things we must do in London" before we return.  We never got an opportunity to attend a game there due to timing and ticket availability, so the next best thing was a tour.  It was a beautiful Saturday morning and we are starting to run out of weekends, so we booked it.  There is a ton of history to read about the Club and a lot of it is not real interesting for most, but have a look if you are. 

Stamford Bridge is a football stadium in Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, West London, and is the home of Chelsea Football Club.  The interesting thing to note here is that there is a Borough of Chelsea, but yet their stadium is in Fulham and there is another Premier League team named Fulham.  The capacity is 41,841, making it the eighth largest ground in the Premier League, quite small compared to American stadiums.  Opened in 1877, the stadium was used by the London Athletics Club until 1905, when the new owner founded Chelsea Football Club to occupy the ground; Chelsea have played their home games there ever since which makes it the oldest stadium in the Premier League.  It has undergone numerous major changes over the years, most recently in the 1990's when it was renovated into a modern stadium.

Our tour guide, again, another life long Chelsea fan:

London does not get a lot of sun, especially in the winter.  The long white thing on the edge of the grass has artificial lights on it which run 24 hours a day, sometimes 7 days a week and they slowly move across the grass to provide it light to keep it lush and green.  At this point in the tour Brady kept asking, "when are the players coming out?" and "when is the game going to start?" We'll have to take him to a proper soccer game soon to make up for this.

Visitors locker room:

Chelsea locker room:

Brady and I giving our first Chelsea press conference:

Brady running out of the players tunnel on to the pitch, hard to tell, but he has his Chelsea outfit on.  I am the proud owner of a Chelsea shirt, which he was incredibly disappointed I didn't wear, almost to the point of tears before we left the flat "daddy, put on your Go Chelsea shirt" but I didn't want to be "that guy" on the tour:

Something that would be incredibly dangerous for me and for most other Americans, especially a few from the KC Crew, they offer in-game betting on the game which means you can wager on the outcome of the game, both before it starts and at halftime.  Wow, that sure would make some of the games I've been to much more exciting!  Notice the strategic placement, no, not by the Women's restroom...

One last fun fact for the day, we walked home from the stadium.  This is almost a laugh out loud moment, even as I type this because the stadium is almost 5 miles from our house.  In London, it is no big thing to walk 3, 4 even 5 miles, although most locals use public transport.  I can't imagine ever walking 5 miles anywhere in Kansas City.  On the walk home we stopped at a couple parks, got Kari's b-day present (9 days late, but still in the Month of July) and found an incredible Whole Foods grocery store.  Glad we didn't find this sooner as our grocery bill would easily be 3 times what it is today.

We are off to Geneva, Switzerland and Chamonix, France next weekend where I'll let Kari resume her role as blog author.  She does a much better job anyway.  I have enjoyed my 2nd guest appearance and maybe next time I can blog on something other than sports.  GO CHELSEA!!!

Stockholm, Sweden

This will be the last post of the Woods Baltic Cruise series.   Stockholm is a beautiful and very clean city.  We had a full day & night in Stockholm, but we could have easily spent another couple of days in the area.  It was overcast the entire day, but fortunately it only sprinkled for about 30 minutes.

Stockholm Palace

City Sites

 

Boat Cruise – We got on the hop on/hop off boat tour thinking that it was a ‘tour’ since that’s how it was advertised.  Come to find out it was really just a water taxi with about 1 minute of recorded talking between each stop.  I was a little irritated because you could hardly hear over the noise and commotion.  I can’t complain too much though as it was fairly inexpensive and it took us to a couple of areas we otherwise would probably not have seen.

I don’t have a picture of it, but one of the things we did was tour a icebreaker boat.   Pretty interesting to learn about the process of navigating an icy sea.

Brady deciding he wanted to play with a stick in the dirt more than he wanted to site-see.

Another thing we learned while in Stockholm the hard way is that stroller are not allowed in the Arlanda airport.  Funny thing is we checked in, took it through security with no one mentioning a thing.  First we heard of the no stroller rule was when we went to pick up the stroller tag at the check-in desk.  It was a bit of an issue, but finally they agreed to gate check the stroller.  I’m not sure that there were any alternatives, but apparently the gate check agent thought we should figure something out.   I think this rule is directly related to the fact that this particular stroller is cursed.  If something can go wrong, it will .  Stuck wheels, folding issues, you name it we’ve had the issue.  Come to find out my theory that Brady’s stroller is cursed was further validated as we got the stroller back with the basket being ripped and the cup holder damaged.   We have since purchased a  WONDERFUL new Maclaren so this will be the first and last mention of the cursed stroller. 

Airport stroller usage has been interesting for us while in Europe.  Brady is quite capable of walking and can do so for miles as long as we take it at his pace.  However, when navigating airports with luggage etc. it is much easier for him to ride in his stroller.  In the US, every airport we have travelled to has no issues with taking strollers through security and every airport has gate checked and brought the stroller back up to the entrance of the plane.  Well, for some reason hardly any European airports operate in this fashion.  Most will let you bring the stroller through security no problem, but you pick the stroller up at baggage claim with all the other luggage.  Why they do this I have no clue.  But I will tell you that managing your carry-on luggage, either carrying or keeping track of a 2 year old, plus walking a long ways and waiting in long lines to get through customs, immigration is less than desirable.  It is enough of a challenge with one child so I can’t imagine traveling with 2 or 3 little ones. 

Anyways, a majority of you probably could have done without my stroller rambling, but thought I would share. 

This wraps up our Baltic vacation. 

Helsinki, Finland

Helsinki was our next stop.  It was raining when we reached the port.  At this point, I was pretty happy I wasn’t going on the bicycle tour with my mom and Leonard.  They still had a good time, but were soaking wet by the end of the tour.  We didn’t have much of an agenda for the day.  Shortly after we got to the city center we saw an Apple store.  Cory and I pounced on the computers and took advantage of the free internet.  The apple guys were quite friendly despite the fact that we were clearly using them for the free internet time.

The rain slowed down so we were able to enjoy the walk around town a little more.  Helsinki was extremely clean and nice, but wasn’t as exciting as some of our other stops.  My mom & Leonard were impressed by how bike friendly the city is.  We took in a couple of churches, relaxed in a café and just enjoyed the city.

Grandma Janet, this church is for you.  I figured it would make you proud to see your granddaughter and great grandson poising in front of the Lutheran Cathedral.

Back to the boat for our last night.  Brady went with my mom to the show tonight and had a great time watching the unicyclist.  Cory and I opted out of this particular show.

St. Petersburg, Russia

Next stop on our itinerary was St. Petersburg, Russia.  Out of all the stops, Cory and I were looking forward to this one the most.  I mainly was anticipating the intricate, colorful churches and architecture.  What I hadn't really expected were the emotions I felt seeing the aftermath of the communist era.  What's even crazier is to think that Russia was part of the communist Soviet Union only 20 years ago.

I feel extremely fortunate to be an American.  I have never lived in poverty.  I am able to vote for the leaders of my country.  I have freedom of religion.  I am accountable for my successes and failures. 

While Russia is no longer a communist nation people my age had lived through the experience. It wasn't something of the distant past, but something that most of the population had lived through.  The rows and rows of tall, dilapidated housing that was provided by the government during the Communist era was a sad reminder of Russia's history.  What made me even more sad is it looks like a majority of people still live in those apartments.  No green space, no parks, no conveniences, just miles and miles of concrete.

On a more positive note, we did get to see the Church of the Sacred Blood and the Hermitage museum.   Amazing sites and feel so lucky to get to experience these sites with my family.

Here are some other photos from the city.

Another random highlight of the day was my mom found a man with a baby brown bear.  She thought this was the coolest thing and paid the man $5 to hold the bear.  I told her she was absolutely nuts and reminded her about the lady with the pet monkey.  I didn't get a picture of her on my camera, but I did get a shot of the man and the bear.  I insisted that she use lots of Purell when she was done.

We were also able to pick up some matryoshka dolls.