Thursday, November 20, 2025 (Chelsea vs. Barcelona)
I landed at London Heathrow at 11:15am. I took Piccadilly line from Heathrow Airport to Piccadilly Circus. It was too early to check into my hotel, so I figured I would use the time to stroll through London. Eventually I made my way to Victoria Station and checked into the easyHotel Victoria. It is hard to beat a $100 a night hotel in central London. If I would have had company, the room would have been way too small. Traveling alone, however, the room was only uncomfortably small. After checking in, I took the District/Circle line from Victoria Station to Monument Station. I had reserved a free ticket for 4:30pm for Sky Garden. Some comments if you are going to visit Sky Garden during the winter. The queue will be outside, and you can only join the queue once your time slot arrives. Sky Garden was great, aside from the unseasonable cold temperature. London, I believe, is usually warmer than Omaha during the winter. This was not the case on November 20th. I had originally planned to walk around London, but due to the length of the queue, I had to move on to my evening plans. I had a ticket to the 8:00pm UEFA Women's Champions League game between Chelsea Woman and FC Barcelona at Stamford Bridge. This was the main event of the first day of the trip, and in fact, I had originally googled to see if there was a Chelsea game where I can watch Alyssa Thompson in person on this weekend. When I discovered they were playing Barcelona, I booked the flight. Thompson gave Barcelona problems on the left wing as expected, but it was right back and Australian national Ellie Carpenter who opened the scoresheet for Chelsea. From my view in the seventh row, I saw immediately that Carpenter had struck in cleanly and was headed for the upper 90. Barcelona would level the game ten minutes later, and it would end in a draw. The evening was great though. The crisp, unseasonably cold weather provided the perfect backdrop for the evening. Unlike Sky Garden, I had planned to be outside for an extended amount of time, so I had dressed more appropriately. The whole atmosphere is amazing. I think the closest comparison would be maybe an SEC college football game at night, but only if you are a student living on campus. It's still not the same, but that is the best comparison. You go to the subway station and there is a queue simply to get to the platform. Everyone is going to the game and you are packed into each car. When you get off the train, you join the stream of people walking to the stadium in the festive spirit. The first night was why I had booked the trip. It was great. But the two nights to come were even better...
Friday, November 21, 2025 (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
When I had booked my free tickets to the observatories in London, it made sense that I only had time to go to Sky Garden in the evening on Thursday, that I would book Horizon 22 for the morning to get a daytime view of London as well. Both were great. After my visit to Horizon 22, I took the District/Circle line back to South Kensington. I had reserved a free ticket for 11:30am for Natural History Museum. Turns out you do not need to book a ticket in advance: you just walk in with no need for a ticket. Turns out it is just a scam to collect donations -- which I was happy to oblige. Of course, London has a ton of museum. So why did we choose the Natural History Museum? Cause it has dinosaurs, of course. I also enjoy the huge space when you walk in. After the natural history museum, I went to a restaurant by my hotel: Seafresh. The point was obvious, we should eat fish and chips when we are in London. It was fine, but I did remind myself that I would equally prefer McDonald's. After the late lunch, I took the District/Circle line from Victoria to Blackfriars. From there, I walked across Millennium Bridge and then down the Thames to Tower Bridge. Crossing Tower Bridge, I took the District/Circle line back to Embankment. From Embankment, I walked back across the Thames, past the London Eye, and then to Westminster and Big Ben. Then I walked up to Trafalgar's Square. From there, I took a city bus, sitting on the 2nd level, of course, back to my hotel. Which brings us to the main purpose of the day. After booking my flight for the soccer game, I checked to see what shows I could see. When I checked, I found there was a production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe Theater. Specifically, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, an intimate, candle-lit theater built according to Shakespeare's design. While this was not the main purpose of the trip, I have found that I do really love live theater. We saw Hamilton in Chicago and it was amazing. We saw Miss Saigon at the Sydney Opera House and I enjoyed it. Live theater just simply does not miss, and A Midsummer Night's Dream was amazing. If this was the only thing I did in London, the trip would have been worth it. If I packed my bags and left after the show, I would come home and tell everyone that it was my favorite part of the trip... but I did not pack my bags that night.
Saturday, November 22, 2025 (Seven Sisters)
I took a train departing at 7:24am from London Victoria to Seaford (with a transfer in Lewes), arriving at 8:48am. From what I had read on the internet, the 13.91 mile hike from Seaford to Eastbourne takes from four to seven hours. I had booked my train back from Eastbourne to London for 4:05pm giving myself the 7 hours, if necessary. Just like the Shakespeare performance, I just started researching what else I could do in England after I had booked the flight. When I found this hike, I knew we had found the real purpose of this trip. We did not come to England to watch Alyssa Thompson play soccer. We did not come to England to see Shakespeare be performed at the Globe Theater. We came to England to take this epic hike along the southern coast.
England was amazing. London, for its part, is now up there with Sydney and Tokyo, as my favorite places in the world. I love the public infrastructure. I love the public spaces. We return to Europe in exactly six months, and we return to London in the future.