My husband and I tend to be serious travelers. We prefer visiting museums, buildings and landmarks rather than enjoying amusement parks, sports and entertainment venues. Sometimes, nonetheless, something seemingly silly calls us and so it was when we chose a visit to the suburban town of Richmond when we returned to London from Scotland.

For the uninitiated Richmond is the site of the television comedy Ted Lasso. The story of the sitcom revolves around a soccer team owned by a woman embroiled in a competition with her ex husband and coached by an American who knows little or nothing about soccer.  The characters are delightful and the ultimate result of the strange arrangement pulls the people of the town together in the belief that anything is possible. 

We rode from the Embankment tube station to Richmond in a little over thirty minutes with multiple stops along the way. The Richmond station was built in the late nineteen twenties and it has a lovely art deco look that sets the mood for a stroll around a place that harks back to Tudor kings and queens. The town itself is neat and clean and filled with the same kind of friendly folks who brought so much joy to the Ted Lasso show. 

One of the batteries in Mike’s hearing aide had died while we were enroute so our first task was to find some new batteries which proved to be a bit more complicated than expected because the sizing dimensions in the UK are different from those in the USA. Fortunately there was a shop that specialized in all kinds of batteries and the manager knew exactly how to match Mike’s batteries to the ones that he had. With his assistance we were quickly on our way to explore the town. 

We soon found ourselves at a lovely park where people were enjoying the sun, walking their dogs and just strolling with friends. The site had once been used for jousting tournaments and it was surrounded by lovely high end homes that had been there for decades. We found a bench and watched the passersby and the antics of the pups exercising and fetching sticks. I expected to see members of the fictional Greyhound soccer team walk by at any moment but most of the filming for the coming season of the show is taking place elsewhere for right now. 

After enjoying some great people watching we headed over to the pub made famous by scenes from Ted Lasso where the townspeople gathered to watch soccer matches that all too often did not end well. Before going inside we continued down the narrow street to the Ted Lasso store where a variety of shirts, scarves and Ted Lasso themed merchandise is on sale.I settled for a small refrigerator magnet with Ted’s “Believe” mantra reminding me of the positive outlook that pulled the motley group together. 

We also peered into a hat shop that featured the kind of headgear that might be celebrated at a royal event or the Kentucky Derby. There was one lovely design after another tempting me to go inside but the place was closed for the day so I had to be content with only gazing through the window at the lovely creations. 

From there we found our way to the River Thames on which Queen Elizabeth I often rode to the Richmond Palace where she sometimes lived. It was filled with sea birds resting on small boats that appeared to be fitted for everything from fishing to living. Benches along the banks of the river were beckoning us to spend some time watching the life of the river flow before us but we were hungry and ready to return to the pub for some lunch. 

We quickly wound our way back to the Prince’s Head which was called the Crown and Anchor in the Ted Lasso show. Located on Richmond Green it was filled with memories of the television show including uniforms and scarves from the fictional Greyhounds. A special corner was filled with Ted Lasso paraphernalia. It was a delightful nook created with a wooden bench and lots of pillows. It felt as though the proprietors had been waiting for us to arrive. When we perused the menu we not only found exactly what we had hoped to eat but there among all of the brews was cider from New Zealand called Old Moot that I had been searching for since our last visit to London.

We settled in for a comfortable dining and drinking experience that seemed to top off our delighted joy in being there. We could have sat there for the rest of the afternoon and we did indeed spend a great deal of time savoring our feast and the moment but it was nearing the rush hour and we knew that as we rode back on the tube our coach would be filled with people going home from work. We reluctantly said goodbye to Richmond feeling the same kind of joy that we had experienced in watching the Ted Lasso show. We both agreed that we will eagerly await the new season whenever it is finally scheduled to return with an intimate feeling of what living in Richmond is acutally like.