London Diary – Wimbledon is Fun

Jul 7, 2018

London is best in summer and Pimms never tastes better. Yesterday we visited the famous Wimbledon Championship for the first time. It is one of a kind experience, lively atmosphere and great fun even if you are not mad about tennis (or rather Lawn Tennis as it should be properly called). To better experience it, prepare to make it a full day event. In fact, you can be there literally sun up to sun down.

Here are the multiple ways to get into Wimbledon Championship: buy reasonably priced tickets through pubic ballots the year before, or pay loads for debenture, ie the right to buy best seats in Center Court or Court No. 1, or vie for limited number of seats during the tournament for upwards £1000 each, or join the majority of visitors and do the queue on the day. See the official website for details, http://www.wimbledon.com/index.html.

I might try the ballots for next year’s tournament but this time around, the queue is the opted option. The ground opens at 10:30am, the official queue guide recommends visitors to arrive a few hours before, but some start camping the night before. We arrived fashionably late around 12:30pm, not knowing we’d be able to get in or not, but just about an hour and half later, we entered the complex, having paid £25 each for ground admission.

The interesting thing is, although Center Court and Court No. 1 to 3 require tickets, other courts are first come first serve. The most popular watching area seems to be Aorangi Terrace on Henmen Hill. Crowd gathers to watch on large TV screen match live that plays out at Center Court close by, enjoying fabulous view of London’s skyline in the distance, picnic and bubblies.

We joined in the fun, soaking in the joviality and witnessing a few corks popped into the air. Shortly after, the match between Britain’s Kyle Edmund and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic started and we stayed for the entire game. Since the match coincided with soccer world cup game between England and Sweden, there in between the tennis match cheers and updates for the soccer game spread around. We didn’t leave until almost 9pm.