England and Ireland: England. Part 3: London Day 1

We took an early train from Stratford to London on Wednesday, enjoying the English countryside outside the train's windows.

Photo by Trish

We got to London in plenty of time to check in, stow our luggage, retrieve our tickets and goodies from the CoSport staff, and have some lunch before our FIRST OLYMPIC EVENT!

It was an easy tube ride, something over 30 minutes, to Olympic Park.  It was another 30+ minutes walk to the basketball stadium itself, where we were to see two women's basketball games.

It was exciting to reach the Olympic Park!

The walk from the tube station to the venue was pretty entertaining, with lots of people-watching opportunities, public art, and oh, those Brits and their gardens!

 This installation by BP was pretty cool:

Y'all prolly know more about this than I do from TV coverage. I haven't even looked it up yet. It was ugly.

 There were plenty of people-watching opportunities:



And beautiful flowers.

 Everyone who worked the Games was so friendly. The volunteers were great, and the cops were so nice!

The first basketball game was Australia vs. Brazil, with Australia winning the game, 67-61. I had the unfortunate experience of sitting next to THE stinkiest Ozzie that walked the earth.  Luckily, after he saw his team win, he didn't stay for the second game.

The second game had Russia vs. Great Britain, with Russia taking that game, 67-61.  It was fun watching the Brits cheer on their team!

This taxi was waiting outside our hotel:

That night we took part in a "Hospitality" event that CoSport sponsored at the Orangery at Kensington Palace. Gormet dinner, drinks, and delicious desserts!  I enjoyed this chicken thing. It looks gross, but it was so amazing!

What a successful first day at the Olympics!






Continue on to Day 2 here.