As we passed midnight, doves on bikes (yes really) calmed everything down.
Let The Games Begin
Seb Coe’s speech hit the perfect note of optimism ahead of the games.
Seeing Mohammed Ali appear later with the Olympic flag bearers was
particularly moving.
There is a Light That Never Goes Out
Of course the bulk of the discussion had been WHO would be lighting
the cauldron (along with… where the hell IS the cauldron?)
We were having wagers down in Flash-Mob central – Roger Bannister,
Steve Redgrave, David Beckham.
It took everyone by surprise when the announcers read the
names of young up and coming athletes who had been nominated by some of our
greatest gold medallists, and the lighting and forming of the cauldron was
amazing, along with the fireworks.
It does seem strange that there is no structure for the
flame to remain throughout the games, but the imagery was stunning.
And in the end…
I did feel a little sorry for Sir Paul McCartney singing to
a departing stadium (as well as affording myself a chuckle at Hey Jude, a song
one my best friend always rolls her eyes at!)… but this would be the real test.
The Transport System
An almost capacity crowd of 80,000, the majority of whom
remained to the end tipped out and made their way briskly to the Stratford
station.
Our plan was to stay together and head in as centrally as we
could.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to risk everything on hoping an
Overground service would exist from Stratford to Richmond – I have commuted
into the city from Richmond many times over the past four years and the
non-running of the Overground service has been a long running joke amongst commuters
for a long time.
So Jubilee Line it would have to be – and there were three
staggered trains running with a few minutes between them.
So far so good, and crowded obviously but not too bad, which
suggests that extra rolling stock was available and ready.
I have never been a fan of getting the very late trains
home, certainly if I am on my own, and was a little concerned that I only had
two options – the last train to Richmond at 01:48 or the last train to
Wimbledon at 01:55.
I knew that the roads in Surrey were being closed from 4am
for the road race event, so initially had no worries.
But as we waited on the Richmond train and the clock wound
on and on, a quick check on twitter showed that the last trains were being held
for apparently 30 minutes to help people still coming to the mainline stations
from Stratford.
Add to that the journey time of at least a good half hour,
and waiting time most likely for cabs given how packed the trains were, and I
was starting to get a little anxious, not without reason as the Road Closed
signs were being put out as we were going home.
Cabbie was told he had half an hour to drop off and get back before
being closed out of the area.
For me, the whole journey was about 2 hours, which is way
better than I thought it would be.
I am going to find it hard to ever be at an entertainment
event that tops that.
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