Wembley Stadium Tour

Consider that I am living in a country for more than 8 years where football is the most popular sport and with countless football stadiums exist all over the country, I have never been to one in my life.

But this doesn't mean I will never step in to a stadium. My company had kindly organised a tour to the very famous Wembely Stadium located at North London sometime in August. This gave me a good opportunity to experience something new. However I was in shock when told that the tour would last for 90 mintues. I wondered what could it be that take such a long time to tour a stadium!



One of the astonishing features about this stadium is the arch which spans 315m from one end to the other, is a very important structure to support the roof hence allowing clear view from every seat without any obstruction scene of structural columns.




The entrance to the tickets office.



After registered ourselves and given the entrance passes we waited for our guide to take us to tour the stadium at 5.30pm.




And finally our tour guide arrived on time and then started briefing us. So let's join me to the inside world of Wembley Stadium.



First's up, the corridors, with some football related paintings/photos hanged on the walls...



Apparently there are as many as 2,618 toilets facilities.



So here we are... Try to guess how many people can fit in this stadium?





There are 90,000 seats, making it one of the largest stadiums in the world. This is not it, all the seats are covered by the retractable roof so no one will get wet. Yeah, it costs £798million to build, the most expensive stadium ever built.


This is our tour guide.

A view of their dining/conference room.

We are now in the press conference room where interviews will take place after the matches. My colleague, Steve (in blue shirt) volunteered to go up there and experienced how it feels like when being interviewed!

This is me in the 'hot' seat then!

The treatment room.

Next to the treatment and restroom is the changing room. Each player will have their designated seat apparently.

I may not know much about football but I still know who David Beckham is. Everybody just waited for their turns to take a shot with his shirt! Including me of course.

This room is equipped with netting ceiling. You probably can guess why.

Yes, it allows the players to practice their football skills.

The tour guide wanted us to queue up in two lines, pretending to be the players ready to meet the crowds. At this time the cheers of the crowds from pre-recorded tape made us feel like we were in a real match.

The grass pitch really is a high quality one.

These are the special leather seats. We were told that unless you are friends with Royal's families else even though you have the money still cannot get to these seats.

We were standing in front of the Corporate boxes level. The tour guide told us David Beckham ownes two of these boxes, but refused to tell us which ones...

Heading up the stair...

for the trophy.

In exchanged of our entrance passes we each got a small souvenir.

It was almost the end of our stadium tour.

We came to Bobby Moore's bronze statue as our last stop, which really ended almost one and half hour later! This statue is in the honour of Bobby Moore for winning the World Cup when England beaten West Germany back in 1966 at the former stadium.

If you ask me would this tour make me want to come back next time to watch a match? I think probably not... I would rather spend the money (and time) on shopping. Well... unless it is another free event, who knows!

I have passed my driving test!

I made it through! Yes... after spending nearly £600 for the whole process and taking 20 hours lessons I finally passed my driving test today.

I am very glad and happy.

Istanbul, Turkey (Part 3) - Taksim, Grand Bazaar, Spice Market, etc.

It was another sunny day in Istanbul and we started the day by visiting Taksim, located at the north side of Golden Horn (European side) and connected by the Galata Bridge.



Across the bridge we headed towards the Funicular (underground station), and took a short trip on the subway tram to Taksim Square.



Coming out of the subway we came to this long street with shops at both sides, and of course we did some shoppings. This is meant to be a pedestrians shopping street but occasionally you would still find cars driving passed.



There is also an old tramway that runs in a single track from the end of the subway towards the Taksim Square.



We went into this shop selling mainly the Turkish delights (like candy shop). See all kind of Turkish delights you could get...

We then spotted a Chinese restaurant, hidden at the side street and immediately decided to have our lunch here.

Very red-ish interior decoration




They served quite basic Chinese food only, more like a takeaway style I would say. Also they charged extra to refill the teapot with hot water, something we didn't expect in a Chinese restaurant!




Walking towards the end of pedestrian street we came to the Taksim Square, which is also the turnaround point of the old tram.



The square was decorated with different type of colourful tulips displays.

Weather at this time was really hot and the best way to go back to the subway was to take a ride on the old tram. We paid 1 Lira each and boarded the tram.

After only 2 minutes of our rides, we suddenly felt that the tram had hit on something and eventually came to a stop. I looked out the window from my seat and opps... an accident had just happened! An idiot's van collided with the tram. Judging from its position I guessed the van must have reversed without looking out for the tram!

We waited and waited and gradually the passengers on board all left and we were then been told to get off the tram as well. How unfortunate we were! And we have already paid for the tickets!!

To cool us down from the unfortunate incident and the hot weather we walked in to this dessert cafe to have some ice-cream.

On the way back to Eminonu district.

The New Mosque (Yeni Cami)

Next to the mosque is the famous Spice market. It was first constructed in 1597 but only completed 67 years later.

As the name suggests, they sell all kind of spices here.

Good if you know how to cook using those spices, but I don't so we didn't get anything here.

Coming out from the other end of the exit was actually another shopping paradise streets after streets. It was more affordable here than the shops in Taksim.

Ah... we spotted a traditional dressed man selling juices. That pair of croc shoes not really traditional eh??

We didn't know our way but just kept on walking and eventually came to another famous bazaar, the Grand Bazaar (also known as the Covered Bazaar).

You won't believe how big it is until you are inside. It is one of the largest covered markets with incredibly more than 6,000 shops in 58 streets!!

Bargain is a must here. We bought a small colourful glass souvenir with asking price of 40Lira, but ended up paying 10Lira! That price probably still not the lowest they could offer!

Back to where we stayed we looked for restaurant to have our dinner.

Ok.. this one then.

Finished the meal with a small cup of the Turkish apple tea.

The next day which was also the last day of our trip, we didn't have much plan even though our flight back to London was in the evening.

We went back to Sultanahmet area to finish off some parts of the areas which we missed out earlier.

Walking towards the market selling rugs... there we could see rugs laying on the streets already.

As if Turkish really like their bread very much. They can be seen everywhere.

These nicely arranged huge roasted chestnuts looked really yummy, but after checking the price we walked off immediately because it was very expensive!

All kind of designs for earrings.

A lady was making fresh bread at the front of a restaurant. A good way to attract customers though.

We had a stroll at this park next to the Tokapi Palace.

At first sight they looked like ice-cream but in fact they were salads!



To enjoy our final meal in Istanbul before flying back to London we decided to give this local restaurant a try.

We just ordered whatever dishes we wanted and then they would place them on the plates.

Da~~ da~~ here are what we had ordered. The one on the left plate is an artichole dish and apparently it is quite popular among Turkish.

And last but not least a big slice of watermelon for me.