Emmalee's parents (another study abroad student) were in town so I tagged along with them/they tagged along with me to explore Kew Gardens and tour Wimbledon Tennis Park. By the time we actually FOUND Kew Gardens we only had 15 minutes to walk around. Usually Kew Gardens is a whole-day thing to go to. Oops.
In our 15 minutes, we went into this huge greenhouse and saw lots of random plants and trees from all over the world. Then there was an aquarium downstairs we walked through.
Then we went to WIMBLEDON :) I don't know much, if anything, about tennis but I still think it's a really cool sport and would love to learn how to play it. A little background info on Wimbledon: The Wimbledon Championships are one of four grand-slam tennis tournaments, the other being the U.S. Open, French Open, and Australian Open. The US and Australian Opens are played on hard courts, the French Open on clay, and at Wimbledon they play on grass, which was the original playing surface when it opened in 1877. (Ps, I actually knew that BEFORE I went on the tour. Haha) One thing I didn't know before the tour was that even first round players make bank at Wimbledon - 10,000 pounds. The 2010 winners at Wimbledon, Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal, each got a pretty check for 1,000,000 pounds. Which is about $16,000 and $1,600,000, respectively.
This is the Millennium building - over 18 different broadcast/media stations use this building during the 2 weeks of Championship games.
This is the main press conference room at Wimbledon. Players are required to come here and talk about their match. I got to sit in the chairs at the desk, where Roger Federer, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams have all sat ... no big deal :)
Outside and inside the second most famous court here, No. 1 Court.
This area is known as Aorangi Terrace. The area is packed with around 3,000 fans during bigger matches because a giant tv screen is set up for fans that don't have centre court tickets.
View from the north end of the grounds. No. 1 Court is on the left, with the Aorangi Terrace in front of it.
This is court #18, where the longest game of tennis has ever been played. After three days of play, Isner finally beat Mahut 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68.
This is where the players arrive in their private vehicles. Players and members of the tennis club each have HUGE areas where they hang out during the championships: restaurants, lounges, gym facilities, courtyards, etc.
This is the private courtyard for the players.
The dark green stadium in the back of the picture is No. 2 court, also known as the Graveyard of Champions because of lot of high-seeded players have been defeated there. On the right side of the picture, you can see the re-construction of No. 3 court.
The main attraction - Centre Court, which has a capacity of 15,000. They recently installed a retractable roof for when they encounter rain. They are VERY particular about the grass at these courts, never ever letting it get above 8mm. They have 14 full time groundskeepers, year round. On the off season they mow the grass every 3 days and during the Championships, every morning because they absolutely won't let the grass get above 8mm. In this photo of Centre Court, you can see them using a heat lamp to make sure the grass doesn't get too cold.
That is the royal box where anyone of importance gets to sit for the matches. Last year, the Queen herself came to a day of matches.
That, my dear blog readers, is Kew Gardens and Wimbledon :)
In our 15 minutes, we went into this huge greenhouse and saw lots of random plants and trees from all over the world. Then there was an aquarium downstairs we walked through.
Then we went to WIMBLEDON :) I don't know much, if anything, about tennis but I still think it's a really cool sport and would love to learn how to play it. A little background info on Wimbledon: The Wimbledon Championships are one of four grand-slam tennis tournaments, the other being the U.S. Open, French Open, and Australian Open. The US and Australian Opens are played on hard courts, the French Open on clay, and at Wimbledon they play on grass, which was the original playing surface when it opened in 1877. (Ps, I actually knew that BEFORE I went on the tour. Haha) One thing I didn't know before the tour was that even first round players make bank at Wimbledon - 10,000 pounds. The 2010 winners at Wimbledon, Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal, each got a pretty check for 1,000,000 pounds. Which is about $16,000 and $1,600,000, respectively.
This is the Millennium building - over 18 different broadcast/media stations use this building during the 2 weeks of Championship games.
This is the main press conference room at Wimbledon. Players are required to come here and talk about their match. I got to sit in the chairs at the desk, where Roger Federer, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams have all sat ... no big deal :)
Outside and inside the second most famous court here, No. 1 Court.
This area is known as Aorangi Terrace. The area is packed with around 3,000 fans during bigger matches because a giant tv screen is set up for fans that don't have centre court tickets.
View from the north end of the grounds. No. 1 Court is on the left, with the Aorangi Terrace in front of it.
This is court #18, where the longest game of tennis has ever been played. After three days of play, Isner finally beat Mahut 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68.
This is where the players arrive in their private vehicles. Players and members of the tennis club each have HUGE areas where they hang out during the championships: restaurants, lounges, gym facilities, courtyards, etc.
This is the private courtyard for the players.
The dark green stadium in the back of the picture is No. 2 court, also known as the Graveyard of Champions because of lot of high-seeded players have been defeated there. On the right side of the picture, you can see the re-construction of No. 3 court.
The main attraction - Centre Court, which has a capacity of 15,000. They recently installed a retractable roof for when they encounter rain. They are VERY particular about the grass at these courts, never ever letting it get above 8mm. They have 14 full time groundskeepers, year round. On the off season they mow the grass every 3 days and during the Championships, every morning because they absolutely won't let the grass get above 8mm. In this photo of Centre Court, you can see them using a heat lamp to make sure the grass doesn't get too cold.
That is the royal box where anyone of importance gets to sit for the matches. Last year, the Queen herself came to a day of matches.
That, my dear blog readers, is Kew Gardens and Wimbledon :)
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