July 28, 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 College student, will provide photos for the blog. The two will blog throughout the Olympics.
It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep can do to! After our long overnight flight Wednesday night and then staying up all day on Thursday, we slept well and felt much better yesterday.
The Opening Ceremonies were last night, so all day Friday was geared toward preparing for them. There was definitely a buzz in the air, particularly at the mall next to the stadium. It was crowded with people.
We spent much of the day pin trading and meeting people. It’s funny to see how much the media loves to do features on pin trading. I did a trade on camera with a reporter from Hong Kong, who wanted to make sure the camera got everything on tape: He was very animated for the camera and thanked me profusely when it was done. I met a reporter from Germany as well as people from several other countries. And there are lots of Americans here. I seemed to run into as many Americans as I did people from all other countries combined, except of course for the locals.
We had some luck finding tickets for future events. We were able to get everything at face value or lower. We even found Opening Ceremony tickets, but turned them down because they were just too expensive. Even at a discount, it was way too much for me to justify spending. I would have sat through the entire event worrying about the cost instead of enjoying the evening. So we just made the decision to watch it on TV for free back in our flat.
In the evening we had a little time to explore and we were able to see St. Pauls Cathedral. by Scott Reed
The ceremonies on TV here are much different than on NBC in the USA. First, of course, it is live rather than tape delayed. And the focus is on the British view rather than on the USA. But most interesting to me was that it was shown entirely commercial free, the full 5 hours. Rather than only showing a few countries in the parade of nations, all 205 countries were featured as they marched in. That made for a long segment, but it was nice to see and learn about many of the smaller countries.
I was really glad we watched on TV rather than going in person. It didn’t end until 1:00 AM, so people who attended wouldn’t have returned back to their lodging until 3:00 or so. I couldn’t have handled that. Saturday morning is going to be very slow and quiet here! I don’t imagine much will happen today as people try to catch up on their sleep.
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