Get me to the games!

When does the Olympic Park re-open to visitors?

According to the London Legacy site http://www.londonlegacy.co.uk/ the park will be open from July 2013. However there are some advance tickets available now if you don’t mind going to what is effectively a building site (yes, you need to wear a hard hat!). There is an article about this on the BBC here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21974713

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Well, that’s it! The Olympics are over and I achieved my aim of “getting to the games” I had a blast seeing 6 different sports which included two free events (open water swimming and the cycling road race) which proved by far to be the most popular post on my blog. I also went to Wembley to see GB in the football and at the Olympic Park I saw hockey, athletics and handball. I’m also proud to have nominated one of the torchbearers as well.

I’m going to keep the blog live for posterity however as you can appreciate there’s not really anything for me to post about any more! I am though considering trips to either the Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014 or (more likely) the next Summer Olympics in Rio 2016. If so then I may start blogging here again about that.

Until then, thanks for reading, I really appreciated the comments and I hope I may have helped some of you Get To The Games.

Best wishes,

Martin

Hi everyone!

You’ll forgive me that my recent posts are mainly me uploading my pictures from my times at the venues!  These past couple of days have been very busy for me. On Wednesday 8th August 2012 I was up on the park again in Stratford.  A few days previous I had managed to secure a Handball ticket for the men’s quarter finals.  I got this from the official LOCOG ticket site as they had been releasing tickets on a daily basis (and still are at time of this post) between about 7pm-9pm.  The site is still very frustrating and it requires a lot of perseverance, but people are getting tickets that way.  I opted to collect my ticket up at the park which was absolutely fine, with no queues.  (You just needed to take photo ID, the Visa card you used to pay and the confirmation email).

The Handball match itself was amazing! I can’t understand why it isn’t more popular in the UK.  Hungary beat Iceland in “extra extra time” after they had equalised with just 3 seconds to go in regulation time.

In the evening, I also had a ticket for the main athletics stadium itself which I was os happy to get.  This one I had purchased some time previously from the excellent Sportsworld website, which is an official/authorised ticket reseller for Denmark (and so as an EU citizen I was within my rights to buy from).  Although there was no British success that evening, I had a great time and got to see the legend Usain Bolt run in the 200m semi finals.
Then on Day 13 of the games (9th August) I decided to go up to Hyde PArk to watch the women’s 10km open water swim, since it is a free event!

Once again, here’s a just a few pictures I took from the two days. (Yes, the grinning fool in the baseball cap is me):

Although by this point I had seen some live Olympic action on the streets of London and at Wembley, this was the day which I finally got to the Olympic Park.  What an amazing day it was!

It started with a quick trip to Hyde Park to visit the BT London Live event there and we watched the men’s lightweight fours snatch a dramatic silver on the big screens.  Then after a quick lunch it was off to spend the afternoon and evening on the park itself.  Firstly, I would say that the transport system has been absolutely fine.  Busy, but not manic, pretty much like any other day in London.  The volunteers are also very friendly and so bright and bubbly!

We had tickets to see GB Women in action in the hockey, which we won 3-0 against Belgium.  There was so much to see and do, and I even got to have my picture taken with Nicole Cooke, the 2008 road cycling gold medallist.  She was lovely!

Here is a load of pictures below from my day:

Day 2 at the games – Olympic Football.  Senegal 2-0 Uruguay followed by Team GB 3-1 UAE.
I was seating right up at the back but I had a great time with my Dad, we got chatting to loads of people and the atmosphere, although not like a regular Premier League or England match, was nice enough.  It is just a shame the catering & facilites staff were pretty much incompetiant but I don’t want to go into that too much as I wouldn’t want it to take the gloss of what was a great evening of football.
Goalscorers for Great Britain were Ryan Giggs, Scott Sinclair and Daniel Sturridge.  Here are a few pictures from the day:

I’m off to Singapore for a week so I’ve not had time to write a full blog post about my visit to Windsor Castle, but here’s just one picture from the day, Seb Coe with my torchbearer nominee and me!

I’ll write up the full day as a post when I get back!

Sportsworld is an official LOCOG ticket reseller who can be found here: https://london2012.sportsworld.co.uk

They will have the following Olympic tickets on sale on the 5th July between 10am-midday, first come, first serve:

Opening Ceremony 3 different price categories
Closing Ceremony 3 different price categories
Athletics Heptathlon (all 4 sessions)
Men’s 10,000m final
Men’s 100m final
Men’s 400m final
Men’s 200m final
Men’s 5,000m final
All Relay finals
Basketball Men’s games including USA/GB pool games plus final
Beach Volleyball Prelins, semi finals and finals (Men’s and Women’s)
Boxing Both Men’s final sessions
Cycling Track 5 sessions to finals
Diving Men’s 10m Platform semi final and final
Men’s 3m Platform final
Men’s 10m Synchro final
Football Men’s final
Gymnastics (Artistic) All final sessions
Handball Men’s and Women’s finals
Hockey Men’s and Women’s finals
Rowing Prelins and Finals
Swimming 6 sessions to finals
Tennis Women’s singles final
Table Tennis Men’s and Women’s finals
Volleyball Prelins, Men’s and Women’s finals

The majority of the attention the the Olympic Games is of course, on London. However we shouldn’t forget that the Sailing will all take place down in Dorset, in Weymouth and around the Portland peninsula
A good friend of mine lives and works in Weymouth and so I spoke to him about what his feelings were around the Olympics. I have also visited the town many times so I am quite familiar with the place. His knee-jerk reaction is very much “it’s a waste of money, they are wasting so much money around the town!”. To be fair, I can see his point.

From odd looking sculptures which look like some terrible alien from a H.G.Wells novel through to an expensive laser show (again, quite science-fictiony) it’s easy to see why some residents might question quite how the available money has been invested in the town.

Also, there is still confusion locally about which roads will be closed during the Olympics and whether there will be access to the main lifting bridge in the town (one of the few ways to cross the harbour entrance without a significant detour upriver).  Local cab drivers too are unhappy about the prospect of Black Cabs (Hackney Carriages) being brought in for the period of the Olympics because they are seen to be more “British”.  I also don’t think there will be public access to the historical Nothe fort on top of the hill which protected the harbour during the war due to the area being used for the tickets stands to view the sailing events.

It’s not all doom and gloom though.  The town has been given a good clean, and the clock tower is looking much better.  Also, the newly built Weymouth observation tower looks like a genuine tourist attraction for years to come… let’s just hope it is kept in good repair years down the line.

Additionally there are rumours (which I must stress I cannot substantiate) of shop rents being raised massively due to the games coming to town and the supposed regeneration of the town centre. Like many seaside towns in this country, they have a faded Victorian grandeur about them but the High Street is really struggling. Will two weeks of Olympics really be enough to help keep these struggling shops open? Time will tell, I just hope it is as good for Weymouth as I certainly expect it to be for London.

At time of writing there were still some tickets available for the sailing events on the official LOCOG site, but if you are heading off down there this summer please do help to support the town and the residents by spending your hard earned cash in local shops, bars and services.