I just finished my trip report on Ireland and Rome, but felt that our time in London deserved its own post, especially if anyone is looking for advice on how to see Wimbledon. It is one of my favorite travel memories to date. After our time in Ireland and Rome, we had two nights planned for London, since that is where our flight to Seattle departed from. I had visited London once before, though my husband had never been. As we were planning our trip, we realized that we would be in London during Wimbledon. My husband grew up a big tennis fan and in a family that played a lot of tennis, so we thought it might be fun to see if we could do a day at Wimbledon.
We arrived in London around 2 in the afternoon, after experiencing long lines leaving Rome and arriving at Gatwick. We took the London Overground to get to our Airbnb in Chelsea. We chose Chelsea since it was fairly close to Wimbledon, and centrally located if we decided to skip tennis and see the sights. The weather was beautiful, sunny and in the eighties. After settling in to our flat and having an early dinner, we made our Wimbledon plan. We figured we could always come back and see more of London, and that we might not get the chance to do Wimbledon again.
Thanks to the Wimbledon website, The Queue guide, and Twitter, we were able to come up with a good plan. Wimbledon releases tickets to the general public each day, which is amazing to me for it being such a major event. We decided our best bet would be to get up early and join the The Queue, especially if we could make it to Wimbledon before the Tube started running.
We woke up at 4:00 on July 7 and quickly packed up water, sunscreen, and snacks. The weather was supposed to be sunny and hot that day. We took a cab to Wimbledon, and followed signs to the Queue. We arrived around 4:50, and we were numbers 2608 and 2609 in The Queue. Everyone who joins the line gets their own card, and there is no saving places for people. Many people had camped out overnight, and there were rows and rows of colorful tents stretched out in the grass. Around 6, food vendors opened for the day so we had our coffee, took in the sights and sound of the Queue, and read to pass the time. After a few hours, the Queue started to gradually move, and we made the long, slow walk toward the entrance.
After going through security, which was understandably tight, we made our way to the ticket gate, excited to buy grounds passes and feeling lucky that we'd be inside by the time the matches started. Upon reaching the booth, the ticket seller told us that he had still had some Court 1 tickets available, were we interested in them? We both froze (with shock and excitement), while he detailed who would be playing that day. "Yes, we will take them!"
We were inside with plenty of time to make it to buy a program and go to one of the courts to watch a doubles match before play started on Court 1 at 1:00. There were three matches scheduled for Court 1, and all were fantastic. For me, the highlight was watching Venus Williams (who went on to play in the finals). It was very hot that day, nearly 90 at one point, so I could not imagine how hot it must have felt on the courts.
Aside from watching tennis, it was an experience just to walk around the grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis Club and take in the sights and sounds. I was very impressed by how beautiful the grounds were, and with how organized the whole event was. After we watched our three matches, we each had Pimm’s Cups (when in London!) and watched some of the Murray match from Henman Hill. By this point, it was after 8:00 at night and we were worn out from an early morning and a long day in the sun. We headed back to our flat to reminisce about the experience of the day, have a cold beer, and relax on the deck. We flew LGW back to Seattle (direct) the next afternoon. Though we did not see the big sights in London, our day at Wimbledon is one I will never forget.