Selhurst Park - Is it A Crystal Palace?

Just as the school holidays began we had another reason to head to London, but only had a morning to ourselves. It was sunny and bright. The Olympics were about to begin and there was a great buzz of expectation throughout the city. When you passed through the train stations, the sound of Boris warning us to travel off-peak was blasting on the tannoy. People were handing out freebies to us - we pocketed several granola bars with pleasure. So we decided to head south to find Crystal Palace. I'm more of a North Londoner and only found my way to Croyden once when I first moved to the UK, like so many other immigrants, to get the permits and cards so that I could stay. The boys and I made our way to Victoria station and dodged families heading for the Gatwick Express to start their summer holidays. We found the platform and bought our (quite expensive) train tickets to Selhurst Station. Passing Battersea Power station, I told them that it is the biggest brick structure in Europe - and they were duly impressed. I couldn't help but hum "Up the Junction" as we went through Clapham Junction but boys didn't believe me when I told them what a busy station it is. I guess that is all any North Londoner needs to know about South London's important bits? It takes longer to get to Selhurst than I imagined. It was a good 10 or so stops from Victoria.

Selhurst Station was quiet when we arrived and as we headed out I asked the station assistant how to find the football ground. He pointed out a shortcut through the back of the station and we followed his perfect directions. We were hot and thristy and I hoped we might pass by a cafe and stop in for a cold drink. I was not lucky in that regard, there were not many shady trees lining these residential streets and there was no cafes either. But just as the boys could go no further, we did find a corner store selling ice creams and sodas so we picked up some supplies and sat at the picnic tables across from the shop that belong to the pub. It looked closed so I figured they wouldn't mind. Pepped back up from the sugar rush we continued on. We arrived by what looked the back section of the stadium and we were able to walk along the side to the shop, but it was closed. We snapped all of our usual photos and wandered around the stadium. We realized at this point that there was a big Sainsburys that we could have gone into for our drinks - there is a large shopping area next to this side of the stadium.

On our circuit back we stopped into the Reception area and were very kindly given permission to see some more of the stadium from the inside. We were shown around the executive boxes and saw their impressive array of 'Silverware'. They were taking the summer break to do some improvements like many of the other clubs we had seen. The receptionist mentioned that we could go around the corner and go into the stadium where they were doing some painting and the workmen could let us in. We thanked her and wandered back out and re-traced our steps to the painters. They welcomed us into the stands and let us take more photos of the ground. There is a electric fence around the turf to protect it from urban foxes. They made sure we didn't get zapped, but let us wander down a bit for some better shots. We chatted about where the notorious incident with Cantona took place. We wished them well and good luck for the upcoming season. Our kindly station assistant welcomed us back and as we made our way home we all agreed that South London and Crystal Palace was pretty nice.

We got to see the goal post up close, how do they ever save anything - it is so big!