What I did on my summer vacation part 2: The Olympics

I am a big fan of the Olympics.  My dad installed an antenna in my house two years ago, just so I could watch the winter Olympics.  For the three years before that I hadn't watched any broadcast TV.  As soon as they announced that the 2012 games would be in London I planned to attend.  My grandmother lives less than an hours train ride south of London and she has a spare room, so lodging was easy.  The difficult part was getting tickets.  I had heard from a friend of a friend that the only way you could get ticket was to sign up with a website way in advance, so in the fall of 2010 I signed up with co-sport for updates and the opportunity to buy tickets when they became available.  I checked back last fall (2011) and found out that the first round of tickets was sold out!  How did I miss that?  I signed up with co-sport again and when the second round of tickets became available in January I was ready.  Tickets are sold by country, so I was eligible for American tickets and they went on sale at midnight New York time on some school day.  I am in the habit of checking my email first thing in the morning (6:30am Turkey time happens to be 11:30pm in NY) and realized that today was the day!  I went to school as usual and logged in to co-sport at about 7:30 to see what I could get.  When I first looked at the prices of tickets, my jaw dropped.  Tickets were expensive.  I took a few deep breaths, thought about how if I was going on a tour, I would spend $1000 for a week, easy, so I set my self a budget of $1000 and took another look.  Track and Field was right out, one four hour block of time was $800, but I found that other tickets weren't so bad.  In general I went for the less 'spotlight' sports and usually the cheapest tickets for the venue and ended up with 7 tickets on 7 consecutive days at 6 different venues.  At some point later in the day, I wondered, now why didn't I get... and I went back to the site and everything was sold out.  I got really lucky.  If I had been in California and waited until morning to choose, I wouldn't have gotten anything!

The tickets were shipped to my dad's house in California in July when I was home.  It was a very pleasant surprise that each ticket came with a travel card for zones 1-9.  It turns out that there aren't zones 7-9, and my grandmother lives outside zone 6, but to get to the venues all I had to do was buy an extension ticket, good to the zone 6 boundary, four pounds fifty, and the travel card took care of the rest. 

I arrived in London on August 2nd and my first ticket was for the 3rd.  After picking me up at the airport, my aunt Julia helped me figure out how to get to each venue.  The London2012 website was very helpful with this as well.  If you put in the name of the venue, where you were starting from and what time you wanted to get there, it would tell you exactly which train to get on and where to transfer, etc.  There were a couple of times when human common sense overruled the computer which took things a bit too literally.  Fortunately the first one was easy, beach volleyball at the Horse Garden Parade.  

Below are the pictures I have already posted to facebook along with the captions I used there.  We'll see if the spirit moves me to write any more, but I think I pretty much told the story in those pictures.



The view of Dorking from my third floor bedroom at Grannies house

Day 1: August 3: Beach Volleyball at the Horse Guard Parade.

Winged Victory was watching over team GB at these Olympic games



Buckingham Palace, I've been inside, but not on this trip



It has got to be hard to stand there, but even harder when your hat is falling off



This sticker could be on many cars the rest of the world over...

I never had to wait more than a minute for a toilet and they were not just port a pottys.

My grandmother made me lunch for most of the days I went up to London.  Money saving and tasty.

The London Eye from the park.

Queuing for beach volleyball.  This was probably the longest line I had to stand in, and if I had gotten there 20 minutes later I don't think I would have had to wait to get it.  They clear and clean the venues between sessions (in this case two matches) so they don't let the next group in more than 90 minutes before the event starts. 

By the luck of the draw, I had tickets to session 3 and got to see American men and women.  The women went on to get a silver to the other American team: Kerri Walsh and Misty Maynor.

This was the view from my seat.  Not to shabby even the weather was good.  The only downside was I was facing into the sun.

I like practicing taking action photos.  It was a nice bonus that the subjects were so photogenic.

I did see some of the beach volleyball from the night before.  They do put more clothes on if it is cold. 

The camera looks like its looking at me rather than at her.  I did end up on the big screen at at least one point during the men's match.  Maybe other times I didn't notice.

The men were taller, but they didn't hold up against the Italians.  I think they may be wearing too many clothes.

An interesting perspective on the after match interview. It looks like an assembly line except that I don't think many athletes have to stop at more than one team of journalists.

The shorter guy (with the ball) seemed much more energetic than the taller guy.  Chris says that Dahlhauser was having ankle problems which made it hard for him to be mobile and jump.  Bummer. 

This guy was painting a landscape that included the beach volleyball venue at Horse Guard Parade.  I saw him interviewed on BBC later in the week.  Search as I may, I can't find an Internet reference to this guy.

I am not sure I would let my kid pose with these Union Jack puppet men, but it was all in good fun and part of the atmosphere.

This is not Big Ben, but thanks to some input from my facebook friends, I now know that the tower has been renamed Elizabeth Tower and the bell, which you can hear but not see, is still called Big Ben.

The sun was in my eyes for the volleyball, but perfect for this shot of government buildings and the London Eye.  This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip.

Day 2: August 4: Table Tennis at Excel Arena East London

The Excel Arena had table tennis, boxing, judo, fencing (I think).  It was huge inside.

They had a nice display of some historical items. Table tennis was invented in England and was called wiff-waff at points in the past and used to be played with real rackets.

They have two tables going on at the same time, so I saw the top pair and the bottom pair going at the same time, although I was much closer to the China/Netherlands table, so my best pictures are from there

The Chinese team won, despite (or maybe because) they served with a ball balanced on the nose.



This player from the Netherlands (age 39 if I heard the commentator correctly) had great facial expressions, especially after losing a point.  Unfortunately I didn't capture any of those. 



In the team event, two of the three players play single matches (best of 5 games, games to 11) and then two players from each team play in a doubles match. If one team has won all of these matches, they win the super match (not called a set). I am not sure what happens if one team doesn't win them all as both China and Japan swept their opponents in strait matches.

Day 3: August 5: Badmitton at Wembly Arena one of only two venues also used in the London 1948 Olympics.

We passed the contraversial olympic lane on the way to the arena. Thanks to Julia and Andrew for the lift. Why the organizers couldn't have a train early enough to get to the venue on a Sunday morning I dont know.



I get the 2012, but what is the square in the middle?

Badminton and rythmic gymnastics are held in Wembly Arena.  Nearby Wembly Stadium held the finals of the soccer.  The preliminary games were held all over Great Brittan, both to spread the wealth as well as to relieve the pressure on the venues given the number of preliminary matches there were.

Not the greatest seat, but I was in the middle of a crowd of Koreans which were very spirited, so it was fun.  Including some folks in monk outfits with a drum they were told to put away after just a few minues )-:

This guy was huge, with one foot in the middle of the court he could reach any corner. He won easily in the end.

The game is a mixture of really fast slams and really slow drop shots. How they switch between them is what really amazed me but they always start with a very gentle serve. 

The Korean opponent was much smaller and had to do a lot of running around and stretching.



He was still very good and it was fun to root for him with my neighbors.  When I bought tickets I had no idea who would be playing, in fact most athletes hadn't even qualified for the olympics yet, so I have no idea how so many relevent fans were at each event.

This is the side view of the postmortem interview that often seems hurtful right after somone loses or redundant and stupid after someone wins.

I was pleasently surprised that often there was more than one match/game/event included in one session.  It makes sence for crowd management vs venue time of course and it does make people happy when you say "oh by the way you get two matches when you thought you would only get one".

One of these Malaysians has unfortunate initials



The doubles is much faster, with less finesse. I guess since there are two bodies in the court, placement isn't as big an emphasis as speed.



I rooted for the Malaysians because they were the underdogs. There were a surprising number of supporters in the stands, although not as many as for Korea. (They lost)

Playing Queen: Flash Gordon, We Will Rock You, and one other, symphany style. Very nice to eat lunch next too outside the science musuem.

Yeah science musuem! Especially free science museums!

The Toaster Project - Turns out it is hard to make a toaster from scratch.  I was impressed by his attempt.  You should check it out: http://www.thetoasterproject.org/

What was available in Brittan before the 1950s?  When was soft toilet tissue available elsewhere?  What does it say about a culture, when they develope soft toilet tissue?  Plenty to ponder.



In two days I got to see an Olympic Silver metal from 1948 (Paul Mellows) and a Nobel prize (JJ Thomson). But I only got to touch the first.

I could add this to my question which will come first: the whole world using the Latin alphabet, the US using the metric system and now, school children will bring their lunch to school and bring their poop home....



This might have been a flash mob. I wasn't there for the begining, but it was very cool.  I had heard the music from another part of the museum but didn't realize it was live.  When I got back to the front, the folks down stairs were playing.  Kids and adults together.  Then I noticed there were tubas on the balcony (my level) on the far side.  When I went to a good place to take their picture, I realized there were singers on my side as well.  The effect was amazing.



Each layer is made out of a different material, some quite creative, from oak to acrylic to linen.  I am glad this was in the science musseum.  I can appreciate it as science, if it had been in an art museum I might not have understood.

I wouldn't want to put a kilo of gold in my pocket, even it is worth 1000 pounds. Who would make change when you want to buy a bag of crisps?

The natural history museum was very grand. I didn't get to see it all, but perhaps I can go back. It is free afterall. Hurrah for free museums!  (I did get to go back another day. I definately liked the older exhibits better than the new ones.)



The 'Animals: Inside and Out' exibit wasn't free, and no pictures were allowed, but this camel was the teaser. I had seen the human version in SF a few years ago and I thought the animals were even cooler.

  A dodo!  This is what museums are for, if you ask me.  To see things that you could never see.  In the past that meant far away lands, increasingly I think it will mean obsolete technology and extinct animals. 

Day 4: August 7 - Men's Volleyball: Earl's Court - West London

Earl's court is one of only two Olympic venues that was also used during the 1948 games. I dont think the seats were original, but it was pretty cool to sit on wooden seats instead of metal or plastic

The first match I saw was Italy (in blue) vs Bulgaria. The first match was very close, but Bulgaria ended up winning in three.

It was interesting to me how different teams prepared differently when their side was serving. Bulgaria was not the only team to put their hands on their heads , but it wasn't universal. 

Having 6 people on each side of the court seems crowded after watching the beach volleyball, but it is pretty cool to see how they move as a team, blocking, getty ready to defend, dig, or spike.

The six boys were very coordinated as they mopped the floor for sweat after the players dripped and/or dove into it.

This is one of the bonuses of being at the games.  You never get to see this part when you watch on TV. 

The group hug post point seems to be a uniquely volleyball phenomenon. I didn't see anything like it in table tennis or badmitton.  I am also not sure what was up with the butt suns.  Again this was not the only team to have them, but it wasn't universal. 

Amazing jumps.

The second game I watched was GBR vs Argentina. This was the fourth match GBR had competed in and they won no games of 12, but it was great to be with the crowd who supported every point with great cheers and enthousiasm.

In between official mopping times, there were a couple other kids who came out with hand towels.  I wonder how they were selected for this honor.  Were there Olympic mopping and wiping trials?

This bear had several different different ads, all claiming to be the friendliness police. The stars in his eyes rotate as to the yellow swirls. I wonder what 'friendliness' means in london...Google Department of Friendliness

Day 5: Canoe Sprint - Eton Dorney - South West of London near Windsor

Eton Dorney is a man made water way (worlds biggest ditch?) where all the rowing events were held earlier and now the canoe and kayak sprints

You can tell this is kayaking because the athletes are sitting down and their paddles have two ends

This spy cam follows (or really leads) the boats down the course to give the great arial shots

This truck followed (on the side) the boats on each race. Some times there were people (with cameras) in it and sometimes not. There was another truck ahead of it, which I think had the official camera on top. I did like the idea of a moving spectator's stand.

 

I took a lot of pictures of the finish (my seats were very near the finish) but since I wasnt really invested in any of the teams, I am not sure what I will do with them all



You can tell this is canoe since they are kneeling and their paddle has only one flat end.  They were very wobbly when they aren't moving due to the high center of gravity. 

These Australian guys were way behind, but they were only 17 and got big cheers from the crowd.

Lest you think all canoers and kayakers are of Eurpean descent.



This is one of the mascots of the games.  No one I talked to knew what it is or why it is the mascot.  At this venue I was introduced to the macot dance (pantomiming each of the sports) and the mascot song (something about rainbows).

More on mascots:  I did some research after the fact trying to find out what thee mascots were supposed to represent and I found this website: http://www.empowernetwork.com/pradeepkv/blog/london-olympic-games-2012-mascots-making-wenlock-and-mandeville/  it is awful.  I have never seen anything on the internet that made less sence.  It could just be written by someone for whom English is not a first language, but it makes even less sence than that.  I share it here only because I am startled by its badness.  Wikipedia comes to the rescue, explaining not only the shapes (drops of molten iron) and the names, towns where the modern olympics and paraolympics were started.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Summer_Olympics#Mascots

 You can also check out the official mascot site where you can watch the videos and even play mascot games!  https://mascot-games.london2012.com/

 



The bonus outing of the day was to Windsor castle. This is the keep surrounded by the moat. Very pictureskew. (misspelling on purpose, thank you very much)

St. George's church. Home of the knights of the garter. I got into a bit of trouble going the wrong way (three times) but it was all in the persuit of truth.

The quadrangle. Directly across from this view is the queen's private chambers, she is in residence most weekends, too bad i was there on a Tuesday.

The changing of the guard. I wonder when they started carrying those big guns. I dont remember them from my extreme youth, but time has a way of making memories as fuzzy as hats.

I took this picture before I knew I wasn't allowed to take any pictures inside the castle. If I could only take one, I wish it had been a different one because there were so many interesting things in this castle.

The view from the outside. The statue is nice, but what amazes me is that the castle is just right in the middle of town. There is a McDonalds across the street. The queen could pop out for a big mac any time she wanted.

 

Day 6: Wicked and Handball (or was it Field Hockey?): Olympic Park, East London

 

My aunt and I went to a matinee performance of Wicked. It was my fourth (although perhaps the third one shouldn't count) and her first. Still an amazing story and it was good to see in performed well

What they dont say, is that after 6 minutes you just enter the park, the venue you want is 30-40 more minutes of walking past that. They also try to tell you this is the fastest way into and out of the park. Phooey, I was only fooled once!



All over the olympic park were fields of wildflowers. It really made the venue beautiful.  Apparently they pulled some trickets to get the flowers to bloom just at the right time and since they weren't blooming early they got a lot of flack from those of little faith.



I am not sure what team these folks were supporting but I admire their planning and guts (litterally and figuratively) to pull it off. There were lots of groups dressed up, it certainly helps your chances of being shown on the big screen during down moments. (Tania says they are from Spain.)



This is the BBC's broadcast center. All of the athelete interviews that we see on the news are conducted from the top left room. What I think is particularly cool about this building is that it is made out of truck trailers. I have no idea if it will be a permenant structure or not.

This picture is the olympic stadium and the oribit. We would occasionally hear roars of the crowd from inside while walking by.  . Athletes interviewed on TV said they were really impressed by the crowds in the stadium, it was full at 10am for the preliminary heats. Some spectators were frustrated that the cost of the seat didn't correlate to the view. What good is it to be close if all you can see is the shot put catge?

There was an area to watch the live broadcast on a big outside screen, and although you didn't need a special ticket to get it, it was at capacity and they weren't letting more folks through

This is the basketball and handball venue.

The field? court? looks a lot like the field hockey pitch from yesterday.  Only the goalee is allowed in the dark blue D

I think these Norway fans must have all come together. They had cheers and did their own mini wave. When Norway won, the bowed to the crowd in general and then to this corner specificially.

In team handball, there are 6 players on a side plus the goalee. The offensive team sets up in a semi circle outside the dotted line, passing the ball back and forth with increasing intensity and decreasing radius from the goal until they are ready to shoot.

No one is allowed in the dark blue D except for the goalee. The exception is when shooting. If you start leaping in the light blue and cross the line in the air, as long as you release the ball before you land, you can end up in the dark blue.

Even with this huge no mans land, it was very hard to defend the goal. The goalees were very acrobatic, jumping high in the air and doing splits to try to cover as much area as possible.



This is a series of three pictures, so you should look at them together.

Notice the Korean is off the ground as she enters the dark blue D.

This was a save for Norway.

There is always one player on the offence who is inside the dotted semi circle getting beat up by the defensive players. I think she was supposed to be the the forward, but really she turned out to just keep the defenders busy and tangled up

One of my favorite pictures of this event, a goal by Norway even with the phenomenal effort of the Korean goalee.

It is a high scoring game and they keep track of how many goals each athlete scores. This was the final after 60 minutes of play.

Day 7: Thursday August 9, The Brittish Museum and Field Hockey (or was it handball?)  in the Olympic park

The British Museum, established in 1753, 'saving' the worlds antiquities for almost 260 years

 

Not the best picture, but the highlight of the visit for me, the Rosetta stone. If only there were more cheat sheets in other aspects of the world's mysteries.

Assyrian gate guardian, a winged bull.  Poor Assyrians, who is guarding their gate now?

 

The Westmacott youth - an original Olympian athlete.



The Nereid Mounument - A Lykian tomb in Xanthos, southwest Turkey. Named for the figures of Nereids, daughters of the sea-god Nereus.



The head of the horse of the Selene, goddess of the moon from the east pediment of the Parthenon temple in Athens. It is good that Elgin took these marbles from Athens, those Greeks just didn't know how to take care of them. They couldn't even see them at eye level.

Moai are always cool, and I can see, as with many of the items in this musuem, for folks that have no chance of actually going these places, having them all collected is a great opportunity to spread the world's treasures and culture. It is kind of like zoos, with the animal cruelty concern replaced with cultural sensitivity issues.

I was glad? to see Native North Americans represented as well.

This is not the best picture, but I didn't want to be one of those people who run in front of tall people to take pictures. But in fact I was ahead of him and was only alerted to his coming was young female voices mewing 'Yao, Yao' from behind me

Look at the map and see what global warming can accomplish. How would world history be different if Englad was never an island?



Medieval Eurpean chess set of feudal society. Chess originated in India around AD 500 and came to Europe through the Islamic presence in southern Spain and Italy. I liked the meloncoly look on the queen so much, I bought a model of her to bring home.

The reason for the names of the olympic mascots: Wenlock and Mandeville. Still doesnt explain their shapes.

(Yes I take pictures of the captions at museums, they are very helpful for remembering things later.)



The front and reverse of the 2012 olympic gold metal. I am not a big fan of the 2012 logo. I dont understand the square in the middle.  When I was looking up information about the mascots I read about this logo.  Apparently in popularity polls it consistantly ranked in the lowest category.  How they ended up with it, I can't guess. 



I guess as queer as a three dollar bill isn't that queer after all. How can I get one?

This was a surprise.

This was the slightly spongy ground in the olympic park.  I saw more than one person try their best to stay on only one color by hopping from circle to circle. 



I got to see the lower semifinal, Argentina vs Team GB. It is always fun to watch a match here when GB is playing. The crowd is great



Before going to this event I had never seen a whole game of field hockey. I knew what it was (which put it above handball) but I thought of it as something east coast girls prep schools played. Perhaps this is true, USA competes with Belgium to not be last tomorrow morning - there are only 12 teams in the tournament.

Before going to this event I had never seen a whole game of field hockey. I knew what it was (which put it above handball) but I thought of it as something east coast girls prep schools played. Perhaps this is true, USA competes with Belgium to not be last tomorrow morning - there are only 12 teams in the tournament.

Heineken was the only beer I saw in bottles (plastic BTW) although there were other beers on tap at various venues. I dont like beer, so I tend not to pay very much attention until I see some one go so far beyond two fisted...



This was a typical set up. GB is in red and there seemed to be a whole lot more of them around. They are playing on astroturf and I guess it is quite an inovation that it should be colored (or should I say coloured) blue.

I can understand the astroturf, they are hitting it with sticks all day, but if you look closely you can see the splash the stick makes. They purposely have water on the pitch. The announcer was saying something about making the ball go faster as I was coming in, but I dont really know what this is all about and I imagine that the players are quite wet by the time they are done since they do fall down from time to time.



You may have noticed that the players are wearing skirt/shorts, skorts? The official and the ball fetchers were as well. I wonder what this is about. It does go along with my east coast prrep school picture of this sport.



Argentina did something wrong, so they all got sent to their goal to wear funny masks... I think this was a penaly shot, where the GB team got a fairly inexpensive (ie not quite free) chance to score, but they do look kind of like the denizens of hell waiting to break free.

When the time ran out and GB had lost, they all fell to their knees at the same time, where ever they were. I dont know if that was spontaneous or something they planned, but it did kind of make the scene surreal, almost like they were robots that had all been switched off at the same time

Besides the five Argentinian (or are the Dutch?) fans in this picture, there was a couple sitting near me, and that could have been it for the whole stadium. I would have felt very intimidated with the rest of the crowd supporting GB.  There was no hazing (unlike in Turkish football, but I still thought it was brave for them to be rooting against GB.



This is the orbit. The tallest art in London according to the news paper. Tickets for this were also sold out, but at least it will remain after the games are finished so I might get another chance to go up in it on another visit to London

 Well there it is.  My London Olympic experience.  I had a great time.  London is an easy city to get around in.  The games were well organized and exciting.  The volunteers were friendly and helpful.  I dont expect that I will go to the olympics again (unless by some terrible mistake Istanbul wins the bid and I still know folks here who are willing to put me up.) and there are certainly some things that are better to watch on TV, so it wont be a big deal.  (Side note on broadcast, it turned out that the BBC was just as GB biased as NBC is US biased.  The US showed next to no heptathalon (won by GB), but BBC showed next to no women's gymnastics (won by the US))

 

I'll end this blog with a picture from my Grandmother's museum room.  She set up a display of her olympic experience.  In 1948, my grandfather (Paul Mellows) was on the silver metal winning men's 8 crew team.  The baby in the pictures is my father, was kind of like the team's mascot.

Grannie's Olympic memorabilia from the 1948 London games.