London Olympics
Off to London and will make a trip report on London and how the Olympics has had an effect on transportation, and other logistics related matters. I do not plan to go anywhere near the Olympic Village since my thougts on the Olympics are rather contrarian. It's a great event, but it has a shelf life of a month at the most.
Ralph
Heidelberg 8/6/12
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That's very kind of you, Ralph. I suppose you know that the Olympics are half-way through, and that anyone interested in transport problems could find out a lot from reading the Transport for London website and the British press. I have no personal experience, but the general consensus is that the transport arrangements have worked well, apart from the occasional glitch, and that the rest of London is generally quieter than is usual in August.
I hope you have sufficient knowledge of normal travel conditions in London to be able to measure the particular impact of the Olympics. The whole world is hanging on your judgement of the situation.
Did you have other business in London?
I'm so glad you were able to confirm your views on big corporations taking over the Olympics. That seems to have been important to you. Was THAT on your bucket list?
Sao Paolo? Everyone else seems to think the Olympics are in Rio de Janeiro.
Ralph where have you been? A commune? As noted by Paddy Chayefsky's brilliant screenplay for Network, " Governments don't rule the world, corporations do."
Ralph, corporate sponsorship is not new. The 1948 London games had corporate sponsors including Coca Cola, Nescafé, Gillette razors, Martell brandy, and Brylcreem. To use the Olympic logo, a fee of £250 had to be paid.
Corporate sponsors being prominent at the Olympics? I'm shocked, shocked (as Captain Renault would say). Of course, you could bar all corporate sponsorship and have the tax payers foot the entire bill instead...
So Ralph did you like being able to go to London during the Olympics or not?
Honestly Ralph you're too much!
So was it more expensive to go to London during the Olympics, out of curiosity? How much did you spend on a hotel room?
So out of curiosity, did you choose to travel to London and Edinburgh during two of the biggest events ever for those respective places to enjoy those events or just to see those cities? In which case it's really confusing why you'd travel at that time to those places.
OK, I'm still confused. You traveled to Edinburg for the tattoo - that makes sense. Did you WANT to see the Olympics in London and is that specifically why you spent time in London, or did you go to London during the Olympics in spite of the event, not because of it?
Medal displays? There is still a free exhibition at the British Museum about the manufacture and design of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic medals + an exhibition of the medals and ephemera from past London Olympics, Wenlock Games and early Paralympics.
Over the Olympic Games period there was a collection of exhibits in the Royal Opera House, on loan from the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, currently closed for renovation. Included was a complete display of all the Olympic medals and Torches used in the modern Games. Entrance was free.
The British Library still has on display an exhibition of Olympic memorabilia and stamps from private collections. Entrance is free.
There were autograph opportunities through the Games, but these were in general through the respective countries' Houses in sites all over London. Admission to some of these were free but some charged.
"By the way, it's been more than a week, and no one in the States even cares that the Olympics just happened..."
By the way...Speechless.
Ralph, you are one confusing dude, since in the original post of this thread you said: "I do not plan to go anywhere near the Olympic Village since my thougts on the Olympics are rather contrarian." That seems to make it seem like you were going to London DESPITE the Olympics, not because of it.
I have some American friends here who went and had a blast. As for me, you couldn't pay me to go. I have a standing invite to Sao Paulo for World Cup in two years and that's tempting but I'm allergic to overinflated events and huge crowds. But I had so much fun just watching UEFA 2012 that I'm almost tempted...
"Time to watch the Cowboys," provides all the clarity needed. 49er fan since Y.A..
As I indicated fan activities were based away from Stratford, in the Olympic Houses and parts of the Cultural Olympiad.
I agree that Westfield Stratford was not the place to be without a Park ticket or hospitality - which is why people were in that state were discouraged from going. Tickets were available for many events in the Park and elsewhere from legitimate sources throughout the Games, usually for the next day.