England and Ireland: England. Part 6: London Day 4

London, England Day 4

Our last day in London was my favorite. We saw Equestrian Jumping that day. Fabo!

After we packed and checked out of the hotel, we made our way to Greenwich, where the Equestrian events were held.

We got to walk through the neighborhood. Colorful folks, colorful doors!

Erin got to know a couple of the local friendly constables.

AND we got to stand on both hemispheres of the Earth at one time!

I had bought "Category C" tickets for the Equestrian Jumping event and didn't hold much hope for good seats. I thought that binoculars would be in order.

I was stunned and delighted that the venue was quite intimate and our seats were very close. The final jump of the course was right in front of us!

I didn't know much about jumping before attending this event. Unlike dressage, jumping scores consider neither elegance nor ungainliness in the jumps. Scores reflect the speed through the course and the avoidance of penalties for knocking down rails.

It is intriguing that both beast and man must be in top condition and must trust each other implicitly. Unlike other sports, the human athlete depends on the whims of a sometimes-unpredictable beast.

Though elegance is not scored, it is a wonderful sport to watch!

We saw 75 riders in this preliminary qualifying round. Each rider took about 90 seconds to ride the course.

Here are some videos of what we got to experience.

A rider completing the entire course:


A rider on the last jump, right in front of our seats!
And there is always the chance of a wreck. Do jumping spectators get a perverse thrill in the hopes of one like NASCAR aficionados? I don't know, but Erin caught the wreck of the afternoon. Neighther horse nor rider was injured.



(At Annette's request, the video above is listed as Private on YouTube. Sign in to YouTube to see it. If you cannot access it, view the version below)

England and Ireland: England. Part 5: London Day 3

London, England Day 3

Woo! Busy day on Friday at the Olympics! We had two events at two different venues.

Our morning event was beach volleyball at the Horse Guard Parades. They are beautiful grounds, and only a couple tube stops from our hotel.

Loos with a View!

One of the practice courts. Isn't the setting grand?!

It was a spectacularly beautiful, sunny day. Perfect for beach volleyball! It felt just like home. We saw two matches, a women's match and a men's match.

There was entertainment before the games. This is The Band of the Blues and Royals.

Here they are in action:


Our first beach volleyball match was women: Germany vs. Germany. Germany won! What a surprise! Germany was disappointed with the loss. Germany won in two straight games. I was disappointed that we didn't get to see a third.

It's not your monitor: The gal in red is wearing pink kinesiotape.

Then a slight raise of the net and the men came on the court. It was Poland vs. Switzerland. My hero of the match was 40-year-old Sascha Heyer.  He was a firecracker playing against men almost half his age. Alas, he and his teammate couldn't pull it off, and Poland won the match in two straight games.

 It was fun opening The Guardian the next day to see that writer Stephen Moss and his photographer had also been at the event and filed this article, printed in a spread in the center of the special Olympics section. Article: The Guardian, August 4, 2012 Photos: The Guardian, August 3, 2012


Our afternoon event was women's 3 -meter springboard diving, in the Aquatics Center back at Olympic Park.

This was the only event where it was a little hard for us to see, with the diving board being at the end of the aquatics center. Luckily, there was a nice big screen for re-plays. It was an exciting event, and I learned a little about the competition and the scoring. It was exciting to sit pool-side at the place where Michael Phelps made Olympic history.

The Chinese girls were amazing, especially the top scorer, who was so STRONG, and jumped so high and dived beautifully. The Mexican divers were very good, too, and I found out today why:  LA Times, September 9, 2012

And here is a taste of what we experienced. Videos of the two Team USA competitors, Christina Loukas and Cassidy Krug.



What amazing athletes we are watching!

England and Ireland: England. Part 4: London Day 2

I know I'm slow getting these posts up! Thanks for sticking with me!  If you are late to the party, start here for the first post of this Vacation.

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London, England: Day 2

We got to go back to Olympic Park on Thursday for more basketball! The men played this time, and we had closer seats. It was grand!

The first game was France vs. Lithuania. As you might imagine, France beat Lithuania, 82-74.   Then Australia beat China, 81-61.

This guy, "Jesus" with #10, missed his miracle shot at the end of the game.

There was this guy, Simon, talking to the crowd during time-outs.

Rehearsing an interview with a Lithuanian fan

 Here is a bit of our sights and sounds during the game.  You've heard of (and maybe participated in) the "Mexican Wave," right?  How 'bout a slo-mo version?


The mascot of the Games was the one-eyed Wenlock. He creeped me out at first, but I warmed up to him. Annette loved him!

A psychadelic version of Wenlock and his biggest fan.

After big basketball plays, Wenlock did a little victory leap on the view screen.  So cute!


One of the fun aspects about seeing Australia play is the Australian fans.  Randomly, someone will shout out, "Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie!" And there will be a chorus of response: "Oy, oy, oy!" "Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie!"  "Oy, oy, oy!"  "Ozzie!" "Oy!" "Ozzie!" "Oy!" "Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie!" "Oy! Oy! Oy!"

I wanted to be an Aussie just so I could join in!

After the basketball games, we boarded a tour bus to see the sights of London. Trish had the idea, since there was going to be no time to really see the city in depth. We got the quick-n-dirty look.  Cynthia and Trish wanted to also look for churches where ancestors had married or been baptized, so we took our bus tours separately. 

Annette and I hopped off of the bus just once, to get up close to the iconic Big Ben and to see Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately, the Abbey was not open for tours on that day, so we just got to see the outside. It is beautiful!

We were there in time to hear the chimes!

And here is your typical tourist slide show.  Annette took many of these photos.  Enjoy.

Our cutie-patootie tour guide.

That night we had the low point of our Olympic experience.  Chase Visa had advertised a "lounge" with drinks and food and TVs for cardholders to enjoy. We arrived at an extremely hot, crowded, and noisy bar.  The "food" consisted of pretzels and nuts in communal bowls. We couldn't get the attention of a bartender. We left very disappointed that we had gone to such trouble to find the place and it was a bust. We were able to enjoy a nice Japanese dinner nearby, though! And after I got home, Chase sent me a survey about the experience. I was able to sock it to 'em!

We made it back to the hotel and fell into bed, to be ready for another exciting day at the 2012 London Olympics!