Day 1: Sunday 5 July 2026

Catherine dropped us at Retford for our train to London.  We again used our 'Two Together' card to travel first class.  We were sitting with two fun ladies who had won VIP tickets to see Duran Duran in Hyde Park.  We got on like a house on fire when their Prosecco bottle overflowed and Graeme was able to produce several serviettes to assist them. They were from Chesterfield, but one of them said she often went to Worksop.

As always the train journey passed very quickly and we were soon on the tube to Chiswick.  After getting on the wrong tube once, we arrived at Turnham Green which was supposed to be the nearest station to the hotel, but it was quite a long walk with our bags in the heat. Unfortunately we were unable to check in for another two hours so we left our luggage and went to a nearby pub for lunch. As often seems to happen, we were served by a girl from near where we live, and this time it was Nottingham! We happily whiled away a couple of hours in the pub garden accompanied by a group from Chiswick cycling club.

After checking in and a quick pitstop we set off for Abba Voyage.  We had learned that it was best to get a bus to Hammersmith tube station and then get on the tube system.  It was a long journey with lots of walking at the underground stations. Metallica were also performing tonight at the London Stadium so it was a heady mix of sequinned Abba fans and t-shirted Metallica fans - all good humoured.

We had our first trip on the DLR from Stratford to Pudding Mill Lane which is where the Abba Arena is situated. After the obligatory photo with the Abba sign we were ready to go in except Graeme couldn't access the dreaded app to get his ticket. After several failed attempts we were directed to the booking office in the Abba shop to be told that the app was down - argh!  A paper ticket was supplied and we were in!

What a place! There was a plentiful supply of watering holes outside the arena. The arena itself was massive but we had a really good view. We had opted for seats as we thought we were a bit old for the dance floor, although it did look fantastic fun.  The show itself was spectacular - very colourful but also very loud. 

The avatars were amazing and it was hard to take in that the real Abba of decades ago weren't performing.  We sang and danced along to the many hits and listened to a couple of recent, unfamiliar songs.  All too soon it was over and we started the fairly long trip back to the hotel, feeling fairly worn out after a busy day. We had no intention of watching Mexico v England as we were tired and had no expectations of victory.