Took the train north for a little more than two hours today from London. I'm at Old Trafford now home of Manchester United, and the US and Canada women's soccer teams are warming up for the semifinals of the Olympic tournament.

Now that I've been to Wimbledon and Old Trafford, I want to see two more UK institutions: Wembley Stadium (I hope to get to a match there later this week) and St. Andrew's (can't see the newspaper sending me there for the British Open, even though my peers say it's one of the great things they've ever covered.)

It's cold here. Or at least it feels cold after a warm couple of weeks in London. Right now there's a disappointing crowd here.

Gotta tell you, I loved the train trip. No security lines, just buy a ticket, get on, spread out, pop off. Beats the heck out of flying.

Manchester itself is a pretty cool town as well. And the scenery on the way here was, as they say, brilliant.

I get why some Americans become Anglophiles.

I'll have advances on the women's volleyball and women's basketball quarter-finals in tomorrow's paper, along with a column on the women's soccer semifinal.