Re live England’ s World Cup triumph
SOME of us remember the day (I was 11 at the time) as if it were last week and can’t help getting a little dewy-eyed.
Now, there’s a chance to walk (and sleep) down memory lane as the country celebrates the 50th anniversary of England’s World Cup-winning heroics.
The place to start is the Royal Garden Hotel, in High Street Kensington, London, where Sir Alf Ramsey’s team stayed the night of July 30 after beating West Germany 4-2 at Wembley.
A special Bobby Moore package is on offer there. It gets you bed and breakfast, a bulging goodie bag filled with 1966themed football gifts and a World Cup book with terrific photos of the postmatch celebrations.
The following day there’s a tour of Wembley (albeit not the stadium of 50 years ago), which includes access to the Royal Box and the players’ changing rooms.
During July, the hotel’s Bertie’s Bar will become the Bobby Moore Lounge, with themed snacks and screenings of matches from the World Cup. What’s more, Stephanie Moore (Bobby’s widow) has created a special menu of the skipper’s favourite dishes. Order from it and the hotel will make a donation to the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK.
Moore’s huge statue greets you at the main entrance of Wembley, from where the 75-minute tour starts. My son and I enjoyed pretending to be England coach Roy Hodgson as we sat in his press conference chair. We listened in the tunnel to the canned sounds of excited fans and lifted the FA Cup in the Royal Box for an official photograph that cost £10.
Oh, and we learned that Wembley has more toilets than any structure in the western world — 2,618.
In July, Wembley will stage its own 1966 World Cup exhibition. By then we will know how the current side has done at the Euros in France, but nothing will quite match that day 50 years ago — and it’s unlikely Roy’s squad will be checking into the Royal Garden Hotel soon. TRAVEL FACTS THE Bobby Moore package at the Royal Garden Hotel ( royalgardenhotel.co.uk, 020 7937 8000) from £290 B&B, based on two sharing a King room. That includes tickets for the Wembley tour and a footballthemed Royal Garden Hotel gift bag.