Hello from London
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ציףציף1000
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BentzWatchJudo
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Hello from London
Hi Guys
After almost 3 days I at last found an internet cafe...
I arrived here in London on Sunday, and checked in just in time to see Shatilov in the Final.
Later that night we went to Horse Guards for beach volleyball. Just before the matches started, the screens showed live the men's 100m final so we didn't miss it... there were 2 women's qurterfinals in our session: In the first one USA #2 team beat Czech Republic in a close match, 25:23 and 21:18 if I recall correctly. It was follwed by Brazil vs Germany, Brazil won the first set 21:8, and by that we were both very tired so decided to "call it a day" and head to our "home" until Thursday morning, which is a nice 3* hotel at Earl's Court. For those not familiar with London... it's in South-West direction off the center (SW5)
on the edge of zone 1 of the Underground, with very good connections on 2 lines: District and Picadilly. Because of the volleyball arena nearby, there's exit only from the entrance to the station closest to our hotel (just across the road from the place I am right now), and in order to enter we have to walk around the block to the opposite side, which is where the crowds exit the arena. As you can imagine, it's a very busy station these days...
To be continued...
Hi Guys
After almost 3 days I at last found an internet cafe...
I arrived here in London on Sunday, and checked in just in time to see Shatilov in the Final.
Later that night we went to Horse Guards for beach volleyball. Just before the matches started, the screens showed live the men's 100m final so we didn't miss it... there were 2 women's qurterfinals in our session: In the first one USA #2 team beat Czech Republic in a close match, 25:23 and 21:18 if I recall correctly. It was follwed by Brazil vs Germany, Brazil won the first set 21:8, and by that we were both very tired so decided to "call it a day" and head to our "home" until Thursday morning, which is a nice 3* hotel at Earl's Court. For those not familiar with London... it's in South-West direction off the center (SW5)
on the edge of zone 1 of the Underground, with very good connections on 2 lines: District and Picadilly. Because of the volleyball arena nearby, there's exit only from the entrance to the station closest to our hotel (just across the road from the place I am right now), and in order to enter we have to walk around the block to the opposite side, which is where the crowds exit the arena. As you can imagine, it's a very busy station these days...
To be continued...
Hello from London - day 2
Yestarday we went to 2 events. First we went to the so-called North Greenwich arena, AKA the O2 and previousely Millenium Dome.
It's the biggest indoor arena in London (I'm not sure about the whole of UK), with 20000 seats, but the current arena only takes the inside perimeter of the Dome, so it's surrounded with streets lined with shops and resturants which are all under one roof.
In order to get there we took the Jubilee line of the Tube from Westminster, and that was our first experience of what Olympic congestion is all about... This is one of the busiest lines and serves Wembey Stadium and Arena on the Western side, and both the O2 and the Olympic Park on the east side.
It also serves many commuters from the Westminster area and Canary Wharf to suburbs on both sides. It is also one of few lines that cross the Thames to the South side. It actually goes across the river at least 3 times.
Anyway... the train was allready packed when it got to Westminster and there was hardly a chance to move.
Our session included finals of men's rings (taba'ot), women's assymetric bars (makbilim medoragim) and men's vault (kfitzot). The highlight for the home crowd was Beth Tweddle on the bars. She is probably the best female gymnast GB ever had, she has won several European and World titles, but never won an Olympic medal. As a 27 years old, it was her last chance for Olympic medal. She had an excellent routine that may have been good enough for gold, but she had a poor landing and had to settle for bronze.
Nevertheles, she got such huge cheers that the roof almost blew up... The atmosphere there, as everywhere else I've been so far, was fantastic. Despite the congestion inside and outside the arenas, everyone is happy and I've seen no one complaining. The organization, despite what you may have read or seen in the news, is near perfect. There are clear signs that direct you to the right place, and everywhere you look around you see employees and volunteers that do mostly simple, but very valuable tasks. And they are all happy and proud to be "games makers". And they are duly appreciated... for example... in beach volleyball, when the team that sweeps the sand in every stoppage of play do their job the big screens read: "Rakers" (which could be translated to Hebrew as Megarfim) as if they were a rock group...
Yestarday we went to 2 events. First we went to the so-called North Greenwich arena, AKA the O2 and previousely Millenium Dome.
It's the biggest indoor arena in London (I'm not sure about the whole of UK), with 20000 seats, but the current arena only takes the inside perimeter of the Dome, so it's surrounded with streets lined with shops and resturants which are all under one roof.
In order to get there we took the Jubilee line of the Tube from Westminster, and that was our first experience of what Olympic congestion is all about... This is one of the busiest lines and serves Wembey Stadium and Arena on the Western side, and both the O2 and the Olympic Park on the east side.
It also serves many commuters from the Westminster area and Canary Wharf to suburbs on both sides. It is also one of few lines that cross the Thames to the South side. It actually goes across the river at least 3 times.
Anyway... the train was allready packed when it got to Westminster and there was hardly a chance to move.
Our session included finals of men's rings (taba'ot), women's assymetric bars (makbilim medoragim) and men's vault (kfitzot). The highlight for the home crowd was Beth Tweddle on the bars. She is probably the best female gymnast GB ever had, she has won several European and World titles, but never won an Olympic medal. As a 27 years old, it was her last chance for Olympic medal. She had an excellent routine that may have been good enough for gold, but she had a poor landing and had to settle for bronze.
Nevertheles, she got such huge cheers that the roof almost blew up... The atmosphere there, as everywhere else I've been so far, was fantastic. Despite the congestion inside and outside the arenas, everyone is happy and I've seen no one complaining. The organization, despite what you may have read or seen in the news, is near perfect. There are clear signs that direct you to the right place, and everywhere you look around you see employees and volunteers that do mostly simple, but very valuable tasks. And they are all happy and proud to be "games makers". And they are duly appreciated... for example... in beach volleyball, when the team that sweeps the sand in every stoppage of play do their job the big screens read: "Rakers" (which could be translated to Hebrew as Megarfim) as if they were a rock group...
Day 2 continued...
After the Gymnastics, we had just about 2.5 hours time to get to the Olympic stadium for the evening session in athletics.
We wanted to avoid the crowded Jubilee line that goes to the Park, and instead cross the river to the other side and take a DLR train to the Park. But we found out that many other people do the same, and we have to wait about an hour in line for the Air Tram (Rakevel), and that the next available boat is only in about an hour as well...
We didn't have the time to wait, so we went back to the Tube station... it was even more crowded than the train we took earlier to the O2, but fortunately we just had to travel 2 stops to West Ham station (presumably, the football club got it's name from this neighborhood).
We were advised to take the train to West Ham rather than Stratford, the main station that serves the Olympic Park, because the crowds there were the worst.
There was not such a big crowd on the way from West Ham to the Park, but it's much longer way that takes about half an hour.
My partner suffers from some problem in his foot that aches when he walks long distance, and he really struggled... when we finally got to the Park, we inquired about the accesible shuttle that transports people with such difficulties between the venues and gates or stations.
We were told where to find it after the session is over, and despite the fact that we had to wait some time for the crowds to get a bit thinner, eventually it took us to the Stratford gate.
But that was later... we got to our seats about 15 minutes late, (kfitza bemot) but we just missed the beginning of the women's pole vault final, and just in time for the beginning of the women's shot put (hadifat Kadur barzel) final. The track events started just later, and included the first round of the women's 200m, the semifinals of women's 400 m hurdles (mesukhot), and finals of men's 400 m hurdles, women's 3000 m steeplechase (mikhsholim). It wasn't a great program, but who cares...
Our seats in this session were on the top level (as are all of them), on the side near the end of the second bend and start of 100m races. We had good view of the pole vault inside the near bend and also the water barrier of the steeplechase, but we could see almost nothing of the shot put which was on the opposite side, and were right behind the finish line and about 150m away so it was hard to see the winners.
Nevertheles, if we wanted to have good view we better stayed at home... we are here to experience the games from a different angle...
After the session was over, as previousely said, we had to wait for the people mover, and then went to have a late dinner at the nearby Westfield Mall, which is a huge Kanyon by Israeli standards, but as far as I know, there are at least two bigger than this in the London area.
By that time we headed back home, at about 11.30PM, there were no crowds at all. We took the newly opened Olympic Javeline, a train that goes directly from Stratford International near the Olympic Park to St. Pancras Internatiol in Central London in just 7 minutes, from which we took the Piccadilly line to Earls Court.
Well... my time to go has come, because now I'm heading to Issta headquarters for the medal race of Lee Korzitz, and hope to be among a group of cheering Israelis when the race is over...
Then we will travel to Wembley stadium for the men's semifinal... I don't even know yet who plays there, but it really doesn't matter...
Now that I found the internet, I may come here more often... possibly tonight after we get back from Wembley...
You can imagine how frustrating it must be when the Brittish win multiple medals each day, while Team Israel has yet to get a single one, and has practically one chance remaining...
After the Gymnastics, we had just about 2.5 hours time to get to the Olympic stadium for the evening session in athletics.
We wanted to avoid the crowded Jubilee line that goes to the Park, and instead cross the river to the other side and take a DLR train to the Park. But we found out that many other people do the same, and we have to wait about an hour in line for the Air Tram (Rakevel), and that the next available boat is only in about an hour as well...
We didn't have the time to wait, so we went back to the Tube station... it was even more crowded than the train we took earlier to the O2, but fortunately we just had to travel 2 stops to West Ham station (presumably, the football club got it's name from this neighborhood).
We were advised to take the train to West Ham rather than Stratford, the main station that serves the Olympic Park, because the crowds there were the worst.
There was not such a big crowd on the way from West Ham to the Park, but it's much longer way that takes about half an hour.
My partner suffers from some problem in his foot that aches when he walks long distance, and he really struggled... when we finally got to the Park, we inquired about the accesible shuttle that transports people with such difficulties between the venues and gates or stations.
We were told where to find it after the session is over, and despite the fact that we had to wait some time for the crowds to get a bit thinner, eventually it took us to the Stratford gate.
But that was later... we got to our seats about 15 minutes late, (kfitza bemot) but we just missed the beginning of the women's pole vault final, and just in time for the beginning of the women's shot put (hadifat Kadur barzel) final. The track events started just later, and included the first round of the women's 200m, the semifinals of women's 400 m hurdles (mesukhot), and finals of men's 400 m hurdles, women's 3000 m steeplechase (mikhsholim). It wasn't a great program, but who cares...
Our seats in this session were on the top level (as are all of them), on the side near the end of the second bend and start of 100m races. We had good view of the pole vault inside the near bend and also the water barrier of the steeplechase, but we could see almost nothing of the shot put which was on the opposite side, and were right behind the finish line and about 150m away so it was hard to see the winners.
Nevertheles, if we wanted to have good view we better stayed at home... we are here to experience the games from a different angle...
After the session was over, as previousely said, we had to wait for the people mover, and then went to have a late dinner at the nearby Westfield Mall, which is a huge Kanyon by Israeli standards, but as far as I know, there are at least two bigger than this in the London area.
By that time we headed back home, at about 11.30PM, there were no crowds at all. We took the newly opened Olympic Javeline, a train that goes directly from Stratford International near the Olympic Park to St. Pancras Internatiol in Central London in just 7 minutes, from which we took the Piccadilly line to Earls Court.
Well... my time to go has come, because now I'm heading to Issta headquarters for the medal race of Lee Korzitz, and hope to be among a group of cheering Israelis when the race is over...
Then we will travel to Wembley stadium for the men's semifinal... I don't even know yet who plays there, but it really doesn't matter...
Now that I found the internet, I may come here more often... possibly tonight after we get back from Wembley...
You can imagine how frustrating it must be when the Brittish win multiple medals each day, while Team Israel has yet to get a single one, and has practically one chance remaining...
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