Across the English Channel

Good morning dear blog viewers! In a few short hours, Renee and I will board the Eurostar train, which will take us across the southern English countryside, underneath the English Channel, and approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes later into Paris. Once we arrive in Paris, at the Gare du Nord train station in the northeast portion of the city, we'll travel by metro to our hotel located in the 15th arrondissment in far southwest Paris (phonetically: ah-rohn-diss-say-mah) (arrondissment eventually means district, and Paris is broken down into 20 of them). As the crow flies, the Eiffel Tour will sit 1.5 to 2 miles to our NNW. Supposedly the 15th arrondissment is one of the least touristy and most representative of true Paris, and given our personalities and traveling styles, we appreciate what really makes up a city, as opposed to just following the path of a million other tourists.

To briely recap the past day or two, on Friday afternoon we completed a guided tour of the Emirates Stadium courtesy of local boy, and former Arsenal legend, Charlie George. Check out some of Charlie's finest goals here: Charlie George's best goals. The tour led us through a great many parts of the stadium that the average fan will never see. We traveled into the upper-crust director's box area, into the team dressing rooms, through the team tunnel, where the teams walk out onto the pitch (field), and into the area where the players and managers sit during the game. All in all, it was an incredible experience, and really brought to life the stadium we've watched on television so many times. After leaving the stadium, we headed to El Molino, a fantastic Spanish restaurant nearby the stadium, where we dined on spanish classics: chorizo, crusty bread, and paella, followed up by a spectacular artisan chocolate cake and cream catalan. Least I also forget the incredible cafe con leche that I was served, which certainly made a strong case for my "top 10 cup of coffees" of all time list. Yesterday was the London pinnacle, and a trip to the Emirates Stadium to watch Arsenal play west London rivals Chelsea. Before the match, we ventured to the nearby Gunners Pub, a rendezvous point for home supporters during the match for a pre-match pint or two. The atmosphere was raucous in the back garden of the pub where we sat, with a particularly rowdy Scottish bloke (bearing an Arsenal tattoo on his calf) putting on quite a show. Every preconceived notion and stereotype you have about the Scottish was confirmed by this man, quite amusing really. Departing the pub, we walked the 0.8 miles to the stadium, collected our tickets, and headed to the seats. Arsenal America did us proud on this one, as the seats were fantastic, at almost the lowest portion of the upper tier of seats, directly behind and to the left (if viewing from midfield) of the goal which Arsenal attacked in the second half. The atmosphere during the match was what I could describe as "reserved raucousness", many fans were relatively quiet, but would join in on cheers and chants, whereas a fair number of fans were the quintessential English football fan. Let's just say that a fair number of the chants heard during the match would not often be heard at an American sporting event. The banter back and forth between the traveling Chelsea fans and the Arsenal fans was quite amusing, with both sets of supporters taking turns mocking the others. Additionally, Arsenal fans also made it clear several times during the match what they thought of fierce local rivals Tottenham Hotspur, "what do you think of Tottenham?", a portion of the crowd would bellow, another section then replies "Sh**!" (this rivalry would be the English equivalent of Duke vs. North Carolina in basketball, Virginia vs. Virginia Tech, Yankees vs. Red Sox). The match unfortunately finished in a scoreless draw, 0-0, one of Arsenal's only results of the sort this season. That being said, Arsenal hit the goalpost twice, both shots nearly finding the back of the net, and the Chelsea goalkeeper also made several fine saves. It was a slight disappointment not to be able to celebrate a goal, but the actual result of the match was good for Arsenal, as it helped them stay in 3rd place, 7 points above Chelsea, with 3-4 matches to play, and 6 pts above fierce rivals Tottenham (teams receive 3 points for a win, and 1 point for a draw).

The remainder of the day consisted of a brisk 3.25 mile walk through the boroughs of Islington and Camden to Ye Olde Chesire Cheese, a pub in operation for nearly 400 years! We then returned back to our West London base, and had an unbelievable dinner at La Piccola Pizzeria, a local pizza shop operated by a Naples, Italy born-man (he came to London 43 years ago, and now has an English/Italian mixed accent). The pizza served to us may have been the first "real" pizza Renee and I have ever had, and boy oh boy, did the taste live up the visual appeal that it had. I may often be one to embellish slightly, and perhaps use a bit of hyperbole, but this pizza ranked up there in the top 2 or 3 best I've ever had, simply stunning. The meal concluded with a delightful Tiramisu and Hot Chocolate.

Enough for now, must get ready to depart for Paris! Pictures later!