London - History, Beer and Football

On Monday morning, Kevin Ward, Tim Skipworth and I begin our quest to complete the West Highland Way, a 96 mile hike thru NW Scotland.  As an appetizer, we hit London for some history, beer and football (if you think that is how we ranked our priorities, ah, not so much).  Landed early in London and immediately took in some sights, including the Leaning Tower of Big Ben.

While roaming London, we discovered that Kevin's heritage can be directly tied to the history of this small town on the Thames

It was now 5 o'clock in Dallas, so we headed for our first pub (OK, 5 AM, but don't bother us w details).  After a couple pubs and a few pints of local flavor, we headed to Griffin Park, home of the Brentford FC Bees, a 2nd tier club in west London.  Their stadium holds about 12,000 and front doors of houses are about 10 feet from the entrance.  It was quite homey, not exactly AT&T stadjum.

Brentford rolled to a 2-1 victory and we celebrated with a few beers at the Lord Nelson pub.  

Sunday, was another match, this time the world famous Tottenham Hotspur.  Surprisingly, we had a couple pints before hand  at a pub that didn't care to welcome the opponent's fans.  They basically refused to let them in.  At the stadium, away fans are segregated into a few sections, surrounded by brightly outfitted stewards to keep the peace.  Football supporters are quite passionate.

After the match we flew up to Scotland on the discount carrier RyanAir.  They make SW look like the Mercedes of air travel.  To supplement "cheaper" fares, they charges check-in fees.  So, you can get cheap fares, but, you have to pay to use them!  They sell stuff on the plane, with a great deal on perfume, Cologne and watches.  Anyway, we get to Glasgow, grab dinner and watch Romo break his clavicle.  The West Highland Way awaits!!!