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Published: August 6th 2012
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Today was our final full day here in London, sad but true. Luckily for us, our best Olympic tickets (seating wise) were for this morning’s Indoor Volleyball. Volleyball was a fitting place for the two of us to be this morning, especially considering it is our 2
ndwedding anniversary and we met on a volleyball court more than a decade ago! Hard to believe that 2 years of marriage has already flown by. It has been amazing and to spend our anniversary together on this trip has been a dream come true.
Back to the volleyball, going into the morning we were a little disappointed that we would be watching two consecutive blow outs, but you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover and this is why they play the game (plus any other cliché or phrase you want to come up with). The Indoor Volleyball was taking place at Earl’s Court by the way; it is used as a conference centre and has been completely transformed for the Olympics and a venue that now seats over 12,000 spectators. We mentioned our seats; they were spectacular, centre court, 12 rows up.
Game #1 was Poland vs. Australia. Poland came into
the match with a 3-1 record in round robin action and the Aussies had a reverse fate of 1-3. The match was super competitive from start to finish with both teams pushing each other to the limits. We were pumped to cheer on a fellow Commonwealth country and underdog and would like to take a little bit of credit for helping push them towards a 3-1 set victory (25-18 / 25-22 / 19-25 / 25-23). The venue was CRAZY loud for volleyball and it seemed packed with every Polish spectator/supporter in London. We counted no less than 30 Polish Flags and the beer was flowing by 9am…you can only imagine by noon what those fans were like. Our second match was a bit more of a blowout but we already felt like we had our ‘monies worth’ during the first match. The second match was Russia vs. Serbia. Unfortunately for Serbia, they just could not match the sheer power, speed and size of the Russian squad and lost in three straight sets.
This was our last time in an official Olympic venue. We will be going to Hyde Park tomorrow morning for the Men’s Triathlon, but this is our
last official ticketed event. An awesome finish to an incredible show put on by the people and City of London. While the Games have not been without hiccups and the odd stressed (read rude) volunteer, on the whole, the organization and staging of the games has been as close to perfect as one might imagine.
After the Olympics we wanted to squeeze in two last-minute sightseeing adventures; the first was a trip to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to visit the replica built in 1997 of the original Globe which burnt down in 1613. When it burnt down, the second Globe was built in less than a year to replace it – the replica theatre took Sam Wanamaker 27 years to bring to fruition – in fact, he didn’t live to see it completed and died in 1994. The tour was full of great history of the Elizabethan period and it was just too bad we didn’t have Al along with us for the tour!
We also were able to get in to Chelsea FC’s Stadium (officials named Stamford Bridge) for a behind-the-scenes tour. While neither of us profess to be soccer (sorry…football) fans, it was really interesting to learn
about the history of the stadium and get to experience first-hand the passion of the team’s fans and its huge following. One little cool fact, unlike many new stadiums for major league teams, the Chelsea FC Stadium was originally built in 1877 and used by the London Athletic Club for a couple of decades; it had its first renovations in 1905 when Gus Mears founded Chelsea FC and from then until 2001 was section by section renovated, sometimes two and three times. To this day, it is being renovated (the dugout areas as we write this). The point being, the stadium is in the exact same place it always was and we even have a picture of one of the old original walls (the Shed wall).
At the end of our day, we made our way to Garfunkel’s Restaurant for a traditional British meal to celebrate our anniversary together for fish and chips and pies and mash. Awesome way to end the day, now back to the hostel for packing and bed time.
Night,
Kristy & Will
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Kim Dupuis
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Happy Anniversay
Happy 2nd Anniversary! Perfect way to celebrate:)