So, we joined the crowds. The pictures here don't really show the enormity of the queue. We sat down and rested for a while because there was no point in standing. All around us people were having picnics and while we were pretty far back, there were masses of people behind us. So we felt like there was a chance we would get in.
People behind us:
The humor behind the willingness of thousands of people to stand in an enormous line hasn't been lost on the Wimbledon organizers. Along with a guide to queuing, we also were given stickers which stated that we had stood in the queue!
We also were given queue cards, which ensured that people wouldn't "jump the queue." (in very bad taste and strictly forbidden at Wimbledon!) We were numbers 13,320 and 13,321.
Making progress....only about two more miles of the queue to go at this point.
Jim enjoys a snack in the queue. Smart people had set up food stalls along the way, so the hungry and thirsty crowds could get hamburgers, sausages, chinese food, coffee, ice cream and a lot of other stuff.
Some hard core Federer fans were camped out along the side of the queue.
The Federer fans and these people were all camping for the 6am queue the next morning. we discussed the pros and cons of doing this (pros: you get good tickets and don't have to wait in the queue as long. cons: you probably smell pretty bad and have to sleep in the ground with a lot of other people...and are forced by the officials to get up at 6am)
Almost in the Park:
We could see Centre Court!
Finally, after about an hour and a half, we were in! We paid 14 pounds each to get onto the grounds.
This was the scene on the smaller courts. People hanging over walls to watch. Lucky people had seats.
We walked up to Henman Hill (for those of you who don't know--and we didn't before we moved to England--Tim Henman is another English tennis player. I'm not sure he's ever won anything major, but he's quite popular around here and has a hill at Wimbledon named after him.) I was settling down to watch Chris Eaton on a giant TV screen and thinking to myself "I'm so glad we stood in line for an hour and a half so we could sit on a hill and watch a giant TV screen of some guy we've never heard of playing tennis," when Jim appeared with two centre court tickets (which he got for 5 pounds). We were going to sit four rows off of the court and watch Andy Roddick play. It was very exciting!
We were sitting so close that we could hear him panting as he played. Unfortunately he lost and we only were on the court for about half an hour, but it was exciting and the crowds were really fun. I always thought Wimbledon would be prim and proper, but everyone was hooting and hollering in between points. We loved it.
These green men came out when there was the slightest hint of rain. Presumably they would have pulled some sort of cover over the court.
In between points, military men stood guard along the edge of the court. I'm not sure if it was to keep away rabid fans or those who might want to hurt the players or just to keep an eye on things in general. There was a lot of security overall.
We ended on strawberries and creme before heading back on the tube to our house, where we collapsed from exhaustion as soon as we got into the door. It was an awesome experience!
