Living in Wimbledon DURING Wimbledon

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The days of the semi-quiet area of London that I live ended last Friday. The Wimbledon Tennis Championships have begun!

Luke and I went into town (just a half mile away) to go get a delicious sushi dinner. We noticed quite a few more people than usual and remembered that Wimbledon was starting Monday. At dinner, our waitress asked where we were from. Correct answer: "The States", not thinking that we should have given a bit more of an explanation, but she didn't ask for specifics. Then she said, "Oh its brave of you to come all the way over for tennis." <insert womp womp sound effect here> She got totally embarrassed when we said we lived here. Ooops! After dinner, we headed away from Wimbledon to Putney for some drinks. As we entered the tube station, we saw the Wimbledon welcome sign being placed just in front of the station, along with railings to be used to wait for cabs. That was experience number one of Living in Wimbledon DURING Wimbledon.

On Sunday, I decided to go for a jog, and the BEST place to go for a jog in Wimbledon is the common. And the WORST place to go for a jog is TO the common. In order to get to the giant park, you either a.) go through Wimbledon Village, which is the original town center of Wimbledon, where people are always walking on the pavement (British word for sidewalk) and in.my.way. OR b.) go up one of the smaller streets near my flat which is a 100ft climb in about a quarter of a mile which is so.not.fun. I usually take the Village route because I would rather dodge people than climb a steep hill. As I went through the Village on Sunday, I almost ran into a pram (British word for stroller) because a lady thought she could take up the whole pavement. I also got poked in the too-close-to-my-lady-parts area because someone decided to move their umbrella in front of me as I was jogging by. <seriously big sigh> That was experience number two of Living in Wimbledon DURING Wimbledon.

On Monday, I went for a short jog and tried to stay away from anything centered around tennis. I should have know that that was going to be impossible. I jogged along the street that follows the tube line. I expected no one to be on this street because from the station to the All England tennis grounds, it is about 1-1.5 miles. I figured these people would not walk that far of a distance. And I was totally right about that, but what I saw was an extremely long line of cabs waiting down on street. The line was about a quarter of a mile long... maybe longer? That was experience number three of Living in Wimbledon DURING Wimbledon.

On Tuesday (yesterday), I decided to brave it out, and jog by the grounds to see everything. I put on my jogging shoes and my patient pants and headed up the hill. Going over to Wimbledon Park is never fun because you have to go up the hill, then down the hill, then up the hill again... that's two ups in one jog. I jogged by the practice grounds which just so happens to be directly in front of a set of apartments that we looked at when we house hunted (yep, pretty cool, but not cool enough to choose as our home).

The "home" in the center of the picture is the apartment building we looked at.

I jogged along Church Road which is the road between the All England Tennis Club and Wimbledon Park. This is where I needed my patient pants. I dodged and swerved and jogged on the grass and street at times, but I did not get poked by an umbrella this time. I was not the only crazy one... there were a few other joggers here too.

Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum building

Then I turned around to go back into the park. The park has a really long line for "non-ticket holders". There was an area that had some food and drink stands, and also some family friendly games. The center of the park was for parking and also had a big crowd of people... possibly The Queue? That was experience number four of Living in Wimbledon DURING Wimbledon.

"The Queue" wrapped around this area.

On my way back home, I jogged by that giant line of cabs again, which did not seem to moving, despite the fact that there was a long taxi line at the station.

All of those people are waiting for a taxi.

We have many days left until Wimbledon is over. Do we plan to go to a match this year? We haven't "planned" to, but if tickets appear in our hands, then sure! Why not? Have we seen any celebrities? Not as of yet, but to be honest, I probably wouldn't even notice them. I have never played tennis, but I have always wanted to. I can't decide if Wimbledon is a good place to begin or a bad place to begin... great lessons vs. expensive lessons. I might just stick to dodging tennis-watchers on my jogs, and watching the tennis on the telly.

Have you ever lived in an area where a big event took place (for example: Super Bowl, Olympics, movie filming, etc.)? What was your experience like?

RANDOM FACT:
Wimbledon is the only Major still played on grass. It is the oldest tennis tournament in the world as it began in 1877. There are no advertisements around the courts, and a retractable roof was added to Centre Court in 2009.