I finally have some pictures on line. I took over 1000 pictures (I love my new digital camera) and have pulled out 54 of the best ones. I'm going to probably repeat some of what I said before...
They are all available here:
The pictures did end up backwards, that is the first one on the page is from the very end of the trip, and the ones of page 3 are from the beginning of the trip. I could re upload all of them, but I don't feel like taking the time.
I'll post some more detailed descriptions of them here (in the order of the trip).
The Timbers Army watches Timbers games from section 107 in PGE park so whenever I see a "107" I like to get a picture, this one is from the Newark Airport, sadly we didn't use this gate.
This is the view out of my window at the Harbor View Hotel is Seaham, County Durham, England. That is the North Sea, looking toward Denmark (I think).
By the time I got there one of the earlier arrival has already given the pub a Timbers feel by giving them a Timbers Army scarf. On the tip I alone gave away 10 Timbers Army scarves and 12 or 13 of the Special ones we made for this trip. In total I think we left about 175-200 scarves around Northern England.
The next several are of the tour of Sunderland Stadium, the Stadium of Light.
Driving up to the stadium...
The Crest on the outside of the stadium
The Crest in the seats
The ends zone seats. Ha'way the Lads is a Sunderland chant.
They even have the Crest on tiles in the Home locker room.
The Stadium was build on a site that used to have a coal mine. The coal they were mining was 8 miles off the coast under the North Sea. There are some people in the world that don't commute more than 8 miles to work, and these people did that UNDERGROUND. This is a picture of that mine and processing plant.
A banner that hands in one of the many stairwells inside the stadium honoring the Coal workers.
A description of the meaning of the Sunderland crest. I can post a slightly larger copy is people want to be able to read the text more easily.
This is the Harbor View Hotel, in Seaham. I stayed here for 5 days. The hospitality of the inn keeper (Ian) and his wife was amazing. Normally bar in England have to close at midnight (I think), but private clubs are allowed to stay open later. Since we were guests of the hotel he was allowed to serve up whenever he felt like it. After the Manchester United match we got back to the hotel at about 1:30pm, and were up until he finally closed the bar at about 3:30am.
This is the seawall that protects the Seaham Harbor.
Before the match in Manchester we were given special permission from the local Football Constable and the home team (Manchester United) to be allowed to be within the 10 mile limit earlier than the 2 hours before match time. We were at the Duke of York pub in Eccles.
This is the sign outside the pub.
We left a scarf there too...
There are Manchester fans arriving for the match. I am still amazed that 3,000 people could be louder than 70,000. The Manchester fan, while great in numbers, didn't make any noise except when they had a scoring chance. The 3,000 Sunderland fans were singing and chanting the entire match.
the police guard the visiting fans entrance. Every one of us was patted down before being allowed to enter the stadium. I wish I had a picture of the actually stadium entrance, because it is something that would never be allowed here is the US. After getting patted down and Okayed I walked forward and into a slot about 2 feet wide. After about 6 inches it was a space 3 feet wide with a heavy wire mesh on one side with the ticket taker behind it. Instead of the normal turnstile that is a single bar like we have here in the states, this has a 2 foot tall wall that you had to push so that it rotated and you could pass through. Once past that it opened up like a normal stadium, except that the visitors concourse is totally separate from the rest of the stadium. On one end there were doors that were guarded by about 6-8 police, the other side was just a solid wall. This way they can be moved depending on the number of fans that are traveling to the match. Once indie the seating bowl there were police on both sides of the visitors section, but not nearly as many as were guarding the visiting fans at the Newcastle match (see below).
We even hung a Timbers banner at the match. In the lower right of picture you can see a camera pointed straight at me, this was a photo that ended up getting printed in the local paper (The Football Echo, Sunderland's weekly sports paper).
Allison and Bruce show no pity for the (silent) ManU fans.
After the match the Sunderland players thanks the fans for their support. Sunderland is, to be honest, one of the worst teams (points wise) in the history of the EPL. Manchester United is one of the richest teams. Stretching back to early last season ManU has scored a gaol in every home game. Sunderland was the first team to hold them scoreless at home. This was a really amazing game to be at. Sunderland was getting relegated the day of the match. In England all of the leagues combine together and send the best teams in one level up, and the worst teams down. Sunderland was getting relegated to the second level, but their fans were still going crazy the entire match.
The next day we went 25 minutes down to coast to Hartlepool. We had no real connection to this team, but they are close by and had a match we could make. We had a little contact with some of their fans, but no official contact with the club. We showed up on match day and were given a stadium tour.
People from Hartlepool are referred to as Monkey hangers. This was originally a derogatory term meaning that they were stupid. The story behind the nickname is that during the Napoleonic wars there was a shipwreck of the coast of Hartlepool. A monkey is a sailor suit was washed up on the shore. The people of Hartlepool had never seen a monkey before (or a Frenchman) so they assumed he was a French spy. They gave him a fair trial, and put the monkey on the stand, and he didn't deny being a French spy. So he was sentenced to death, and he was hung from the gallows. This obviously isn't the most flattering way for your town the be know, but the people turned it into a compliment by embracing the term Money Hanger, so much so that 2 guys proudly showed us their monkey hanger tattoos:
The people love their football club so much that a few years ago the mascot (Hangus the Monkey) ran for Mayor of the town, and won. Since a guy in a big furry costume can't be mayor, it was decided that the guy in the costume was the mayor (and had to quit his job as the mascot).
The outside of the Hartlepool grounds.
The ceiling of the season ticket holders pub (another place were were allowed simply because we had traveled 6000 miles) has football scarves. These are all European (mostly English I think), and we left a Timbers Army scarf and an official Timbers scarf for them to hang up. I need to remember to contact the fans we talked to and see if we can get a picture of our scarves in a football pub in England.
The main grandstand.
The Town End, where we watched the match.
In the top 2 levels of professional football in England seats are requires, and fans are supposed to use them. Hartlepool plays in the third level where seats are not required so were sere allowed to stand, which is what the TA does at Timbers games
Hangus the monkey!
The next day we were the guests of the Mayor of Seaham at a brunch.
The Mayor talking to the crowd.
The Timbers Army looks on.
Hoss presents the mayor with a Trip Scarf.
The Mayor proudly wears that scarf.
One of the stars of the Portland Timbers is Byron Alvarez, so I took a shot of The Lord Byron for him.
Here is the picture of me taking a picture of the Timbers Banner.
And then a picture of the article about the reception we had with the mayor. I am (mis)quoted in the article.
The next day was the main reason for the trip, the match against Newcastle.
The TA outside the stadium.
If bringing any of these item into the stadium makes you a hooligan, then I guess I am, I took in my camera.
The Black Cat logo is everywhere...
The first of close to 100 buses arrive with opposing supporters.
In England it is illegal to serve alcohol where at football match can be seen live and in person. They stop serving alcohol 5 minutes into the match and then start up again 5 minutes before halftime, then stop again 5 minutes into the second half.
To avoid the lines, in the Black Cat's bar where we were, you can preorder a drink to be ready at halftime.
We had good seats, this was our view of the pitch.
Across the way this was the line between the opposing supporters and the home supporters. The other side had more space, about 20-30 seats were kept empty in an entire section.
Strange signs for bathrooms seemed to be the norm in Northern England, here are the signs in the Harbor View.
Then on to Moffat, Scotland!
We stayed in the Narrowest free standing hotel in the world, at 20 feet wide. The Famous Star Hotel
This picture (of a picture) give an idea to how long the hotel is, I think it is 165 feet long.
In Moffat there was a church that was being renovated apparently into condos. i forgot to get a picture of the sign that said this, but...
Here is the church.
A small side street in Moffat
The town of Moffat as seen from the road up to the Golf course.
As we were teeing off on the first hole we were buzzed by a pair of fighter jets of some kind (I assume from the RAF). They were no more than 400 feet of the ground. We all thought it was cool, except fro Kip who was about to hit his ball when the sound hit us.
This is the 9th hole on the course. The blown-up part shows the pin marker in front of the green.
The view from the 18th tee was amazing too, it looked back towards the town.
An article about the famous star hotel explains why the hotel is so narrow...
Enjoy!
posted by steeplechase3k @ 12:24 PM
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