We arrived Monday, July 22nd, to Heathrow at 8:30 am. My biggest job of the day was to keep
everyone awakes for the whole day, so they could get a full night's rest before our first full day of practice
on Tuesday.
After picking up the Vans (two 9 passenger Vans), we drove to the beautiful village of Windsor to visit the famous Windsor Castle.
Although we did not get the chance to see the Queen, we were told she was in the Castle at the moment, hence the flag on top of the tower.
We then drove to the hotel near Huntingdon -> checked in at 6:30 pm and by 7 pm we drove to Cambridge to find dinner.
Cambridge is a beautiful college village. After walking through town, we ate at “The Mitre” founded in 1754.
About our Hotel – Ramada Cambridge:
I thought the hotel was excellent for our purposes! It had the minimum needed but clean and excellent service. And the location could not have been better with convenient stores nearby which had everything you could need from food to small items.
Next day -> Leave for gym at 9:20 am.
We arrived at the gym -Huntingdon Gymnastics Club- at 9:45 am, coaches Ben Howells (England) and Sergei Simakov (Russia) welcomed us.
The next 3 days of practice consisted of 3 hours in the morning, followed by 90 minutes lunch-break, and 3 hours final training in the afternoon.
However, we only had a morning session for Wednesday practice. That afternoon we went swimming at the Jesus Green outdoor pool in Cambridge after practice. This pool opened its doors to the public in 1923 and is the biggest outdoor pool in England.
After finishing our workout on Thursday, we drove immediately to London in the hope to get to London before nightfall. This was an excellent decision, because driving on the opposite side of the road was not as challenging as it was a battle. Not only were the streets of London very small, but its drivers were quite aggressive as well!
While in London, we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express London City, a much more luxurious hotel than the Ramada. And although the rooms itself are much smaller than the ones at the Ramada Hotel, these rooms are designed for comfort. The hotel was in a great location with access to public transportation within a couple hundred feet from the hotel in every direction.
Friday, 7/26/19 – Day 1 in London - places we saw in order:
We started our tour walking through the famous and luxurious Oxford street, to later walk through Hyde Park. We then visited the Wellington Arch, Green Park, Buckingham Palace and its changing guard, St, Jame's Park, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Westminster Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Soho, and China Town. Towards the end of the day we rode the Underground -London's subway train system- to King's Cross train Station to admired Harry Potter's famous 9 3/4 platform.
Saturday, 7/27/19 – Day 2 in London - places we saw in order:
This time we started at the Royal Air Force Museum, then the British Museum, followed by the Tower Bridge, Tower of London -see main picture- City Hall, and finished our day 2 in London at Leicester Square.
Sunday, 7/28/19 - Drive to the south coast of England
We drove from London to Stonehenge,
from Stonehenge to Durdle Door,
then to Tyneham (abondond WWII town), and then back to London
Monday, 7/29/19
Our flight departed at 11:30 am from LHR London-Heathrow
9 hours and 40 minutes later we arrived in Seattle at 1:10 pm having flown over 9 thousand miles round trip and bringing back lots of great unforgettable memories.
Thank you to every WMGF board member who help make this trip come true, especially to Joel Hennig for booking the hotels for the team, but also booking the direct flights to and from London; to Daniel Luna, who helped smooth every aspect of last-minute hiccups with the travelling credit cards; and of course, to Mark Russo, for continuing making these type of international trips part of our program’s budget.
Visit our instagram page for more pics and videos. Go Dawgs!
Written by Head Coach
Giancarlo Mora