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!

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.