Saturday 18th October 2014, and I took a flying visit to that great city of London.

It really was a flying visit – a day trip at its very best.  A 7.40am flight out of Dublin into Gatwick allowed me to make it into “The City”,  standing at Westminister Bridge and it wasn’t even 10.30am.

First real stop of the day was a trip on the iconic London Eye.  Perched right at the top of it, overlooking the metropolis of London at a time that I might only be getting up on a Saturday morning had a good, if not surreal feel to it.

Back down to solid ground and I had time to take in the sights and buzz that was happening along the Thames and around Westminster – between street hawkers taking bets of people at £20 and £40 a go (the American tourists were appalled at this, and one was even heard to say that he would be writing to Boris to complain – there was no place for this along the streets of London) to those that were beginning to gather in their thousands to start their protest march against Government cuts along the Embarkment.

It was now time to negotiate my way through the underground network and to make my way back via Victoria and onto Finsbury Park.  The Underground itself is a must do attraction when visiting London (maybe that’s just me that finds it exciting – all those coloured lines and different layers of railway tracks..).

Now I was in the heart of North London, making my way to the splendid Emirates Stadium, the home of Arsenal FC along with 60,000 others.  I’ve been to the Emirates several times before and I have seen Arsenal play before – albeit in Glasgow, but this was my first ever time seeing Arsenal play at home.

Whilst the Gunners did not win, there was plenty of excitement in the 2-2 draw against Hull, including a last minute equaliser from Danny Welback, deep into injury time to save the day for Arsenal.  I was actually surprised with the passion shown by the Arsenal supporters, for some reason I wasn’t expecting this.

The game was now over and the return journey home had to begin starting with the walk back to Finsbury Park station with the thousands of others each going their own different direction; onto the tube back to Victoria and then onto the Gatwick Express getting me back to Gatwick airport in time for the 9.20pm flight back to Dublin.  All in all, it was a good day.