Hampden park Tour and Museum

After a quick breakfast in the church halls, 14 of us jumped on the train to Mount Florida and then had a short walk to Hampden Park.

Our timing was quite good as our visit was only a few days after the latest chapter in the oldest rivalry in world football as Scotland took on England in a special 150th Anniversary Heritage Match to mark the first meeting between the two sides in 1872. That original contest is recognised by FIFA as football’s first-ever international match, as 4000 supporters packed into the West of Scotland Cricket Club in Glasgow.

Our tour guide Paul was excellent and had a great depth of knowledge about the history of the stadium and the national team. We were given a behind-the-scenes tour of the stadium, seeing the changing rooms, managers rooms, and even the showers. 

We then went into the players' warm-up room where a few of the lads took the chance to have a kick at the goal, which had a machine that records the ball speed. Here are some of them...I think Raymond won with a shot of 38 mph.

After that we were led up the players' tunnel and out onto the edge of the pitch. We didn't get onto the pitch itself as the staff were organizing the remote-controlled lighting rigs they use to make the grass grow faster then normal. These massive lights follow a pre-programmed path around the pitch at night and it must work and there was no sign of any damage caused by the Scotland vs England match a few days before.

Some more group shots...

We spent a fair bit of time in the museum after the tour and ended the visit in the café for a light refreshment before heading for the train back home. Here are the rest of the photos taken on the day in a slide show...

I think we all enjoyed the visit, even those that aren't ardent football fans as there was so much to see and the tour guide was very informative. If you want to learn more about Hampden Park, then have a look at their web sites as they have everything from their history, what's on, photos, and future events:

• https://www.hampdenpark.co.uk/ 

• https://www.scottishfootballmuseum.org.uk/