Well its been a month since my return and I finally dug through the photos from my trip and just thought id share my adventures again this year. For the 2nd time in just under a year I went to England. Of course it was a football based holiday for myself but this time round my mom made the trek across with me as she has always wanted to see England.
Arrived April 7th in the evening in London. My mom got a taste for London hospitality when the cabbie asked us "Have you got English money?". I wanted to be a smart as and say "No, dont you take American?" But I did not want to associate myself with North Americas pants
Next morning went off to Birmingham to meet up with a good mate of mine for some pints. April 9th was first football match as VIlla took on Stoke...ironically enough same as my first match last year and same result 1-1. Football was pretty dire (as it has been all season) and even my mom who had never been to a professional football match said "Well that was pretty shit"
Off to London next morning for some touristy bits, The Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham etc. Sun out so it was a great day to walk around London.
Went off to Paris for a day trip next morning. 5am train, got into Paris around 9 where we met up with a local guide we hired out for the day to show us around.
Notre Dame
The Louvre
And of course
Fantastic day out in Paris. Our guide took us on a "Real Paris" themed tour as we went to alot of areas out of the way and not having a ton of tourists. Hidden churches and old parts of Paris.
Came back for another day in London, again nothing special as we were pretty tired from the day in Paris. Got up and headed off to Worthing on the Friday to meet up with [MENTION=12838]The Peanut Roaster[/MENTION] and [MENTION=20866]pipkin112[/MENTION] for some pints. That evening myself [MENTION=12838]The Peanut Roaster[/MENTION] [MENTION=12422]Taybha[/MENTION] [MENTION=15008]HAILSHAM SEAGULL[/MENTION] and others met up for some poker at our host [MENTION=12756]R. Slicker[/MENTION] house. Great food, great beers, great company....lost all my money.
I was up way to early the next morning to head to Swindon to meet up with a mate of mine to see Swindon play Plymouth in what could have been the match Swindon clinched promotion. Swindon won but did not clinched. Had a great day out doing a mini crawl through Swindon.
Sunday the 15th I headed to Birmingham again to meet up with my mate to go see Villa away at Manure. At this point I did not have one of my brightest moments...
Heading up the M6 to Manchester I will have to use the toilet.....like I was twitching and could not sit still....I was going to explode. Could not see any signs for services so I finally got my mate to pull over under an overpass to wish I jumped out of the car and got behind the pillar to relieve myself. After a the most glorious 2 minutes I got back in the car and we started to drive away. 1/2 mile down the M6 I realized my wallet was not with me anymore...it had fallen out when I got out to piss. So there I was....marching down the M6 1/2 mile back to the overpass and sure enough my wallet was sitting right next to a river of piss..... I have never seen Mike laugh so hard in his laugh. At least I realized before getting to Manchester....
Football was horrible and we got bummed 4-0 and Ash young had a horrid dive....
Spent the night in Brum before heading back to Brighton. Spent 2 nights at the UMI down on the seafront. Next morning had a gathering to head to Seaford to spread [MENTION=3482]defrocked priest[/MENTION] ashes at Seaford head. Had a few NSC members turn up for it as well as his parents and brother. Emotional time but a fitting end.
Pints in the evening before heading to the Amex for my first match. Did a post about that already so wont go into great detail.
As it turns out this brick was done twice! Had no idea until it was pointed out on my way to the ground in the afternoon.
Spent the next 2 days in Bath doing some touring of Salisbury, Bath and surrounding area.
The famous Roman Baths
From here headed back to Birmingham for the end of our trip. Villa v Sunderland....nothing special again 0-0.....Sunderland should have beat us but we held on for yet another draw. Was a great day out with my mates though as we had nearly 20 people turn up from the VIlla forum i frequent so it was nice to see people I met last year and meet some new faces.
Also had a present brought for me....Buckfest from Scotland
Not bad really.....
Not the whole crew of people but a snap of some from the meet up
View from the Holte 5 seats from where I was last year
Also on the way out from the pub we bumped into a few Villa Legends.....can anyone name them?
All in all I enjoyed my trip yet again. Met some new people, had alot of pints and got to see some football. Happy days
Hope I haven't bored anyone
Arrived April 7th in the evening in London. My mom got a taste for London hospitality when the cabbie asked us "Have you got English money?". I wanted to be a smart as and say "No, dont you take American?" But I did not want to associate myself with North Americas pants
Next morning went off to Birmingham to meet up with a good mate of mine for some pints. April 9th was first football match as VIlla took on Stoke...ironically enough same as my first match last year and same result 1-1. Football was pretty dire (as it has been all season) and even my mom who had never been to a professional football match said "Well that was pretty shit"
Off to London next morning for some touristy bits, The Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham etc. Sun out so it was a great day to walk around London.
Went off to Paris for a day trip next morning. 5am train, got into Paris around 9 where we met up with a local guide we hired out for the day to show us around.
Notre Dame
The Louvre
And of course
Fantastic day out in Paris. Our guide took us on a "Real Paris" themed tour as we went to alot of areas out of the way and not having a ton of tourists. Hidden churches and old parts of Paris.
Came back for another day in London, again nothing special as we were pretty tired from the day in Paris. Got up and headed off to Worthing on the Friday to meet up with [MENTION=12838]The Peanut Roaster[/MENTION] and [MENTION=20866]pipkin112[/MENTION] for some pints. That evening myself [MENTION=12838]The Peanut Roaster[/MENTION] [MENTION=12422]Taybha[/MENTION] [MENTION=15008]HAILSHAM SEAGULL[/MENTION] and others met up for some poker at our host [MENTION=12756]R. Slicker[/MENTION] house. Great food, great beers, great company....lost all my money.
I was up way to early the next morning to head to Swindon to meet up with a mate of mine to see Swindon play Plymouth in what could have been the match Swindon clinched promotion. Swindon won but did not clinched. Had a great day out doing a mini crawl through Swindon.
Sunday the 15th I headed to Birmingham again to meet up with my mate to go see Villa away at Manure. At this point I did not have one of my brightest moments...
Heading up the M6 to Manchester I will have to use the toilet.....like I was twitching and could not sit still....I was going to explode. Could not see any signs for services so I finally got my mate to pull over under an overpass to wish I jumped out of the car and got behind the pillar to relieve myself. After a the most glorious 2 minutes I got back in the car and we started to drive away. 1/2 mile down the M6 I realized my wallet was not with me anymore...it had fallen out when I got out to piss. So there I was....marching down the M6 1/2 mile back to the overpass and sure enough my wallet was sitting right next to a river of piss..... I have never seen Mike laugh so hard in his laugh. At least I realized before getting to Manchester....
Football was horrible and we got bummed 4-0 and Ash young had a horrid dive....
Spent the night in Brum before heading back to Brighton. Spent 2 nights at the UMI down on the seafront. Next morning had a gathering to head to Seaford to spread [MENTION=3482]defrocked priest[/MENTION] ashes at Seaford head. Had a few NSC members turn up for it as well as his parents and brother. Emotional time but a fitting end.
Pints in the evening before heading to the Amex for my first match. Did a post about that already so wont go into great detail.
As it turns out this brick was done twice! Had no idea until it was pointed out on my way to the ground in the afternoon.
Spent the next 2 days in Bath doing some touring of Salisbury, Bath and surrounding area.
The famous Roman Baths
From here headed back to Birmingham for the end of our trip. Villa v Sunderland....nothing special again 0-0.....Sunderland should have beat us but we held on for yet another draw. Was a great day out with my mates though as we had nearly 20 people turn up from the VIlla forum i frequent so it was nice to see people I met last year and meet some new faces.
Also had a present brought for me....Buckfest from Scotland
Not bad really.....
Not the whole crew of people but a snap of some from the meet up
View from the Holte 5 seats from where I was last year
Also on the way out from the pub we bumped into a few Villa Legends.....can anyone name them?
All in all I enjoyed my trip yet again. Met some new people, had alot of pints and got to see some football. Happy days
Hope I haven't bored anyone
When you come across the pond?
).....
