Getting our game faces on!

Our summer's main event is the Olympic Games in London, England.  We had submitted requests for about 40 different events between us in the ticket lottery and got only one (thank goodness for our credit card!), but it was a good one - athletics (track and field) so that's when we changed our original summer plans.  We bought more tickets when available through reselling (at our price range) and have been lucky to be able to snag 6 events.  We knew then that this would be a very memorable summer.

But we also knew that spending 2 weeks in London in the middle of summer in the same year as the Queen's 60th jubilee - at the Olympic Games - would make us a bit crazed, so we decided to add a few weeks on either side as sort of a crescendo and rallentando to the craziness.

And now here we are, in London, with our comfortable clothing, our flags, and our patience, ready to take on the Games. Yay!!!!

Our first day started with the Olympic Journey, at the Royal Opera House.  A good friend who works there ensured we got signed up for it and we showed up at the allotted time. 

No queue.  (None!)

The exhibit itself was not bad - tracing the history of the ancient games and then highlighting the exploits of some of the Olympic greats (Jesse Owens, Larisa Latynina, Olga Korbut, Cathie Freeman, Krizstina Egerzsegi, Teofilo Stevenson, etc.)  and displayed all the torches and medals from previous 'modern' Games.  It was a large room and there were, oh I don't know, maybe 30 people? 

I know!  We were as amazed as you are!  Where are the hordes?

Let's try for one of the international houses.  Brasil House is at Somerset House which is not far from Covent Garden and a lovely venue so off we went. 

No queue.

No event either.  A bit of a rah-rah travel piece on Rio (which will host the next Games in 2016) and a modern art exhbit that was quite good and that was it!  Apparently there is music in the evening but we can't wait around for that.  We need some Olympic spirit now!

So what then?  While walking along the Embankment we spotted a sign at Inner Temple inviting us in to the Belgian house.  Well ok, it costs 5 euros but we'd never been inside (it being an ancient Inn of court for lawyers and judges) and there would be beer of that we were certain.  So we bought our wrist bands and walked in.  Inner Temple dates back to the 12th century and some of The Da Vinci Code movie was filmed there.  We entered the great hall to find a wonderful old room of stained glass, high wooden beams, crests and bits of centuries-old armour.  And beer!

We were lucky to snag a table, got a couple of Stellas and watched Flemish television on the big screen. 

Beside us were a few others using their own cycling strength to power their iphones.  Gnarly, briny seafood, frites, waffles and pastries were available. 


At one point several previous Belgian Olympic medal winners were trotted and cheered at.  The screen indicated Team GB's Bradley Wiggins (this year's unexpected Tour de France winner - seems like a long time ago and it's only been 10 days!) won the road race - and the crowd roared. 

Oops, left it a bit late!  We had to hustle to get to the Excel Centre for our first event, but we got there in record time only because London is incredibly quiet.  Here it is a midweek rush hour and there were less people about than a Tuesday evening in February.  Well, ok maybe not quite.  But it had the same effect compared to expectations.  No problem getting the top seat in the bus.

If we didn't know better, the atmosphere was as if the Games did not exist.  Lucky for us they do!