2012 Olympic Games - London, United KingdomAug 3, 2012
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Parliament flying the flag
Big Ben with the traditional London cab passing by
They put a large flag display of all the Olympic Countries at...
| We had the most amazing time in London for the 2012 Olympics! We went down to London for a 3 day weekend to attend two events and soak up the atmosphere. On Friday we left early from Harrogate to get the 4 hour drive to central London out of the way so we could enjoy most of the day. Checked into our hotel, which was only a few blocks away from Parliament (thanks Hilton honors points), we set out to pick up our tickets for our two events. On our way to the tube we passed in front of Parliament where they had a display showing the flags of all the participating nations so we stopped for a quick photo op. It was quickly apparent how much thought and energy London had put into this event by all the volunteers on many of the street corners, tube stops, and pretty much everywhere the eye could see. Once we picked up our tickets from the American will call site, which was easier said than done, we decided to go immediately to Olympic Park. It was an impressive sight walking up to the park and you could just feel the energy of the event as we passed through the gates. We were greeted almost as soon as we entered by the massive Olympic stadium, which towered over everything. It would have been nice to have seen an event inside, but we enjoyed the exterior views and made our way towards the Basketball Arena. Since our event was on the other side of the park we got the full view of all the event locations and the large amounts of green space that was incorporated into the parks design. Our first event was two women’s basketball games where the UK was playing France (little bit of a rivalry there) and the US played the Czech Republic immediately following. The first game was a nail biter as it came down to the final shot and the Brits pulled off the upset win which sent the home crowd into a frenzy. It was very cool seeing team USA take the court, but due to their absolute dominance it wasn’t much of a game past the first 10 minutes. After the game we snapped a few pictures in the venue and then enjoyed a nice sunset walk as we exited the park for some much needed sleep. Our second day we enjoyed a little more sleep and made it out to the park by noon for another rare warm and sunny day in London. We tried to hit all the corners of the park, picked up our American flags for the later event, and enjoyed some first class people watching. The second event was women’s field hockey and again we were lucky enough to be able to see a game with Team USA in it. We aren’t known as a field hockey power house so it wasn’t quite as dominant as the basketball game but the USA gave New Zealand a good fight. It was very interesting see field hockey being played on the new surface which is soaked in water to increase the speed of the ball and makes the game very fast paced compared to what I had seen in the US. We made sure to hit up the massive gift shop to spend insane amounts of money on Olympic goodies before we made our final exit from the park. On our last day in London we slept in, and hit up Harrods to gawk at expensive unattainable items. Next we strolled over to Hyde Park and enjoyed a nice sunny walk before hucking it back to Harrogate. All in all it was a weekend we’ll never forget and an experience I think everyone should have at some point. Seeing all the national pride while everyone being so open and friendly was a heartwarming experience from what we always see in the news. -B&S |
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