MTC Excursion to Real Madrid Soccer Stadium

This excerpt is from another blog but has plenty of pictures of our very own Sister Tuttle-

All of you Soccer (or futbol as it's really called) Fans can eat your hearts out. On Thursday, preparation day for the missionaries in the MTC, we have outings in the afternoon for those that are interested in seeing some of the sights around this magnificent city. Today 13 missionaries, myself and 2 staff members took the Metro and toured the legendary home of Real Madrid Soccer. The name of the stadium is Santiago Bernabeu (sorry, I don't know what the name stands for; maybe one of you soccer aficionados can tell us).
If there are parents who occasionally check our blog and your son or daughter is not in this posting,           I apologize. I can only go on one outing each Thursday and these are the missionaries that went today to Real Madrid, so maybe next week I'll be with a different group. There are currently 65 missionaries and tomorrow 8 more arrive from the U.S., and then next week 11 from Italy. Things will get interesting because the MTC was originally built to house 72. Thus begins the wave, or tsunami, of missionaries.    It's exciting but hectic.

Leaving the MTC for our Outing.

In the foreground, Hermano Cuesca, in charge of exercise program and related activities.

 

At the Stadium.

Sister Noakes is something of a soccer fanatic, having played at the high school,

collegiate and club levels

Group Picture Outside the Stadium, called Estadio Santiago Bernabeu

 

Going into the Metro from Pavones, the Metro stop nearest the Temple.

Don't know what the artwork interpretation is supposed to be but the Sisters are creeped out by it.

 

Here we are, inside the stadium. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was breath-taking.

Notice the strange looking wheeled contraptions on the field in the lower right.

They were some sort of space age mega-lights used to enhance the growth of grass,

and they move slowly like giant sprinklers on alfalfa from one end of the pitch to the other.

I think it seats somewhere around 90,000.

All individual seats. No benches. Five levels and not a bad seat in the house.

 

 

There are long hallways filled with trophies of every size and description from the past glory days.

 

View of the Pitch from the VIP seats

 

More missionaries in the VIP seats

 

Sitting in the Team "dugout" where they sit during the game, right on the Pitch.

 

There was a life-sized team photo from last year's victorious team, so the missionaries assumed the "sitting" position (no real bench) while I took their picture.

 

There were more photos but that's probably enough to bore everyone who's either not a parent
or a soccer fan.