Sunday, March 11 – London & West Ham Training
At 7:30 a.m., the group enjoyed breakfast and loaded up on our bus at Upton Park for an 8:30 a.m. departure into London. The bus dropped us off at the Tower of London and Tower Bridge where we were able to get some great group photos and enjoy a mid-morning Starbucks treat with a view of London’s Tower Bridge. After our coffee “fix,” we boarded the city water taxi at the Tower of London and took the river boat tour up to Westminster and Big Ben. During our River Thames tour, our group learned a great deal about the great fire of London, the Romans' influence, early trading practices and World War II historical facts.
When the boat docked at Big Ben, we broke into our smaller groups of five and grabbed taxis to our favorite destinations. My group chose to walk a bit. We saw the London police closing streets because the Prime Minister was traveling to church. We then grabbed a taxi back to the Tower of London to take a guided tour through the historic fortress, a place of medieval Kings and ceremonious beheadings of queens…
At 12:30 p.m., we loaded our bus and headed out to Chadwell Heath training ground for West Ham United’s first team and youth academy. The boys trained with Paul Heffner, academy assistant director and West Ham legendary player. The training session challenged the boys mentally as a great deal of it focused on thinking, vision and communication. Afterwards, we took a few photos with Paul and made a quick stop at our hotel before heading to Covent Garden for dinner.
We also visited open air markets and saw street performances. One street around Covent Garden was shut down because they were filming for James Bond.
