Hampden Park Stadium and Scottish Football Museum

Over the Christmas holidays Alessio and I went back to Scotland, the only big trip we did was to go to Glasgow. There we went on a tour of Hampden Park Stadium and then onto the Scottish Football Museum.

Hampden Park is home to Queen´s Park Football club and to the Scottish National football team. It has a capacity of 52,000, it used to hold many, many more people. In fact in 1937 it recorded it´s highest attendance at 149,415 for an international match between Scotland and England. Wow! It is hard to imagine a stadium with such capacity.

It has also held some big matches in 1960 it hosted the European Cup final between Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt (7-3), 130,000 attendance. It also held in 1962 the first ever Cup Winners´ Cup between Atletico Madrid and Fiorentina (1-1), then again in 1966 with Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool.

The museum has many objects on display and traces the history of Scottish football from the 19th century up to present day. It holds the original Scottish Cup made in 1873, the world´s oldest national trophy. There is film footage of some the memorable games and players.

We all enjoyed the whole experience, not only was it me and Alessio, my father, sister and her son Jamie came along too. The whole family is football mad!

I really enjoy going on stadium tours, so far I have been to Bernabeu(Real Madrid) and Allianz Arena (Bayern Munich). I have not been on a stadium tour of Camp Nou, as we usually go see to FC Barcelona play!

Hope you are all holding out in the lockdown!

Bletchley Park, UK

Hope you all had a great Easter! As you can imagine Alessio and I spent it eating, walking, cycling(him), reading(me), xbox(him) and watching TV.

The beginning of March I went to London for a long weekend. The last trip before most places/countries went into a shutdown. It was a present from myself and my sister, Elena for our mothers' 70th birthday which was the end of December.

One of the places my mother and to be honest me, have always wanted to visit was Bletchely Park. For those who don't know what Bletchley Park was it was where all the allied code-breaking took place during WWII. There have been numerous films about the place, such as Enigma and The Imitation Game which are both very good.

There is a lot to take in so you need the whole day, not far from London about 50miles and then  a short walk from the train station. First there is an short film to explain the place, then an exhibition too. It is a bit cheaper to buy the tickets online.

Then you leave the main building and head into the complex. There are many huts where lots of different aspects of the code-breaking went on. Quite frankly I was rather lost on how it was all done, as maths it NOT my subject.  It shows how the men and women were able to decipher the codes from the Enigma machines and Tunny machines. It is said that the work done at Bletchley  Park shortened the war by up to 2 years.

The men and women who worked at Bletchley signed the Official Secrets Act and even long after the war they could not tell their families what they did during the work.

It is well worth a visit if you are interested in WWII and history in general. The gift shop had lots of interesting stuff to buy. I bought a book(of course) about the men and women who worked here. It was very interesting!

Have a great week!

Casa Vicens, Barcelona

Hello everyone, hope you are all somehow coping with these circumstances we are in at the moment. Now that I am at home for a while, I decided to get back in the blogging world, we will see how long it lasts.

Back in early December I went to Barcelona and one of the places I visited was Casa Vicens, this place is just beautiful. Built by Antoni Gaudi, between 1883 and 1885 as a summer home for the Vicens family. It is his first masterpiece, it is simple astounding. The colourful tiles, stained glass windows, doors, and walls are beautiful. It also has  a small cafe too. I would recommend a visit to Casa Vicens if you ever go to Barcelona.

As I mentioned above, I am on two weeks holiday. Alessio and I were supposed to be flying to Miami and then going on a cruise. But it looks like we should get it all refunded at some point in time.

To pass the time it looks like I will be reading, watching TV, going for walks by the lake and not much else.

Wishing you all a safe and happy Easter