August 9, 2012
Scott Reed and his son Jeff have traveled from Lilburn to London to attend the 2012 Olympics. Scott Reed is attending his fifth Olympic Games this summer and will blog about his experiences for the Daily Post. His 19-year-old son Jeff, a Killian Hill Christian graduate and Reinhardt University student, will provide photos for the blog. The two will blog throughout the Olympics.
Tuesday was our last full day in London; we head for home today. Time has crept up on us, and we haven’t done as much sightseeing in London as we had planned. So we spent a good chunk of the morning and some of the afternoon at the Tower of London. I thought we would be in and out of there in about an hour, but we were there several hours and could have spent all day if we had chosen to do so. It’s fascinating to hear about the history and realize that much of its structure has been there 800-900 years. What a reminder of how new the United States really is compared to much of the world.
We took a guided tour led by one of the Beefeaters that lives in the facility. He did a great job; he spent the bulk of his talk discussing the many prisoners and recounting the many executions that have occurred there. He gave a lot of gory detail in order to make sure that the children in the crowd obeyed their parents in the future.
Even the Olympics were referred to in the tour. The British are extremely proud that they are third in the medal count. It means a lot to them to be ahead of their Australian rivals. At one point in the tour, when he was trying to get some in the crowd to move more quickly to the next location in the tour, he said to the stragglers, “Pretend you are an Australia Olympian, and come (in) fourth.”
From the Tower of London there are spectacular views of the Tower Bridge, which has been one of the iconic symbols of the London Olympics with the Olympic rings hanging from it. Our time there was well spent and it was a perfect way to spend much of our last day.
The rest of the afternoon was spent in the Olympic Park, visiting with friends and trading pins. I ran into some Atlanta friends that had just arrived at the Games, and also some Russian friends for the first time here. I always seek out the Russians because they always have unique pins and other collectables that no one else has. They don’t speak English and I certainly don’t speak Russian, but we always manage to communicate.
Jeff and Barry left the park at about 8 p.m. for dinner, but I wanted to stay and squeeze every moment from our last day. I stayed until after 10 p.m. and then met with a friend from Los Angeles, finally making it back to our flat after 1 a.m. Why waste time packing when there is so much else to do?
We are on the flight home as I am writing this. I have enjoyed the Games, and both Jeff and I have agreed that it seemed short. But at the same time, as I look at my watch and think what time it is in London right now, and what those still there are doing, I don’t feel any sense of remorse that we are coming home now. We had our trip and made the most of it; now it’s time to get home to our family and normal life.
I am looking forward to watching the last few days of the Games on TV from home. It will be the first time we will be able to follow the USA results in any detail.
I will have another blog or two in the next few days sharing some of my final impressions of the Games.
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