My London Olympic Games 2012 - continued

Waking up to sunny Sunday, I felt full of energy that I just wanted to put on my skates and go out exploring some local venues. First friend I called actually had exactly the same idea and so we met up on skates and set off on our adventure...

Starting at the Royal Albert Hall, I fell in love with these graphics. So simple yet describing the disciplines so clearly.

There I decided that these figures would be the focus of the day.



As we were passing through Hyde Park, I spotted this image of a cyclist and the iconic 'Boris' bike (named after the London mayor who introduced them to the public) leaning against a wall next to the graphic.

What a fitting image for the cycling olympic discipline that was about to start at the Mall (Buckingham Palace). This is exactly where we were heading...

We got to the Buckingham Palace on time to secure ourselves a great spot to see it all (and hopefully take some great pictures).

It all started so well. Every now and than, bikes would go past to the cheer of the growing audience.

The sun was shining.

The atmosphere was magical.

It is hard to believe (or not since we are in England), that within the space of half an hour, the weather would take such a turn.

To cut the story short, the sky turned from a lovely sunny blue to atmospheric grey. Yes, the rain was coming...

Such scary was the atmosphere that even Queen Victoria frowned and a girl cried.

However, luckily for us, the rain went past reasonably quickly just in time for the race to start. Do you know what 'Sod's law' means? It means that if something can go wrong, it will (usually at the least appropriate time). And that is what happened to me with my camera.

As the race was approaching our spot, my camera decided to misbehave and all I actually captured was this little snipped of the entire peleton.

I kept the picture for you to see showing the few girls in cololur on the left. And our spot was so good...

Well, at least I can say that I was there. If it continues like this my memories will be with a twist. K-)

My London Olympic Games 2012

On the day of the opening of the London Olympic Games 2012 I decided to visit the heart of it all; I decided to visit Stratford, the home to the Olympic Park. Before I set up on my journey, I visited the Czech House located in the Business Design Centre. After all, do not forget, I am Czech and so felt it was my rather pleasant duty to support my team with my presence.

What welcomed me and everybody else was an installation of this double-decker bus by David Cerny placed so well in front of the entrance. We all just stopped and stared with amazement and amusement, observing the workout this fella does day in, day out. Just check out the triceps.

No wonder this red beauty breathes so heavily. To perform push-ups all day long is quite an achievement. Hopefully, this sets up an example to the entire Czech team and good luck to the athletes.

After such an up-lifting start to the day I finally put myself on the underground, destination Stratford. The closer I was getting the more busy the train became. But still, full of pride and surrounded by the excitement of the Olympic Games, I kept on going. I would call this stamina.

I was so much looking forward to the Anish Kapoor sculpture in front of the stadium, to the structures and to the entire Village...

Well, this is as close to it all as I actually got. All I could see were crowds of people (luckily well-natured) and this large poster of the olympic stadium spread over a wall of the Westfield shopping centre with quite an eye-catching decoration. Without a ticket, there was no way to get closer. Oh well, I just have to come back after the Games are over.

After coming home and turning on the TV, I just managed to catch what the English are famous for, the air squadron flying over the Olympic Village, releasing red, blue and white behind. This is always a joy to watch.

What I did not realise (and should have done) was that they would continue over London. And so, all of the sudden, they flew past my windows. Having been taken by a complete surprise, all I managed was to stumble towards the windows only to return to grab my camera, realising that I had a wrong lens on and by the time I sorted myself out the picture looks like this; fading colour smoke over a sunny wall of the building opposite.


All of this happened to me yesterday, on the official opening of the Olympic Games 2012 in London. What a day this turned out to be. K-)