Editor’s note: Read Insider Matt Maiocco’s reports from the U.K. all week long as the 49ers gear up for their Week 8 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in London
LONDON – The 49ers took a detour en route to checking into their downtown hotel Friday after four days at a resort in the English countryside.
And coach Jim Harbaugh was most eager to immerse himself in the sights along the way.
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The team buses made a stop at 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the Prime Minister. And Harbaugh even proved he was prepared to quote Sir Winston Churchill to his team prior to Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium.
“He’s my favorite figure of all time,” Harbaugh said following Friday's practice session. “As the decades go on, the world appreciates his leadership, his character, the titanium in his spine, the iron will of Winston Churchill.
“So, yeah, (I’m) looking forward to this afternoon and hopefully getting a chance to see his war room. That would be one of the real highlights of my life if I can experience that.”
Churchill and his government conducted most of their strategizing from a bunker that protected them from air raids during World War II. The heavy reinforced maze of underground rooms and hallways is now a museum.
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When asked if he plans to recite any of Churchill’s famed rhetoric to his team, Harbaugh was ready with a pluralized adaptation of the original: “History will be kind to us because we intend to write it," he said.
Among the other spots the 49ers’ sightseeing tour passed on their way through London were Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and Trafalgar Square.
