I just got back from Spring Break with my daughter in London. The weather was fabulous, we saw an incredible Picasso exhibit at The National Gallery, and I convinced my non-tennis-playing ambivalent-about-most-things daughter to take a Tube ride out to Wimbledon with me.
However impressive you think Wimbledon might be – it is! Getting out to Wimbledon is not that hard and the walk to the grounds is probably about half an hour through a very sweet little English village. Really.
We saw Court No. 1 and took a tour of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum. Here's my top 7 favorite things I learned at Wimbledon:
1. The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum is propagating the theory that “love” in tennis is derived from the French “l'ouef” meaning the egg which looks like a zero (?) and therefore means nothing. I've already stated my opinion on this (which is basically – who cares?).
2. There is a very cool holographic presentation with John McEnroe taking you into the locker room and talking about champions during his time. Even my daughter thought this was good.
3. What we play is “lawn tennis” not “real tennis.”
4. Venus Williams is really tall. I saw one of her dresses. It would be past my knees.
5. Maria Sharapova is also really tall and has very big feet. I saw a pair of her shoes.
6. My daughter not only has never heard of Bjorn Borg, she does not think he was the least bit cute.
7. I wish the shop at the museum had more cute stuff that I could have bought.
I loved Wimbledon and am now inspired to go to some Slam, somewhere, soon. The Championships at Wimbledon will be played from June 22 to July 5 this year and I'll be watching the TV broadcast and looking for the entrance to the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum so I can tell anyone who'll listen “I've been there!”
© Kim Selzman 2009
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