I got up and dressed in my lycra ready for our trip to the Olympic
Village but then decided that I couldn’t impose the sight of me in lycra on the
good people of London!!!
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| The Aquatic Centre |
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| Olympic Stadium |
We took the DLR up to Stratford and then walked to the Queen Elizabeth
Olympic Park.
It was the opening day of the Invictus Games today and by the time you
read this you will probably know all about it so I won’t go on. However I have taken the following off their
website which, I think, says it all.
“The Invictus Games are about survival in the face of adversity and the
strength of the human spirit. They will send a positive message about life
beyond disability.”
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| Fountain |
As we entered the park we saw the stadium in front of us and the
Aquatic Centre on our left - we tried to peer in the window but it was rather
difficult and couldn’t see very much. We
had a cup of coffee watching the marvellous fountain with its 195 individual
computer controlled jets – there were even a few brave children playing in the
water.
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| ArcelorMittal Orbit |
From there we walked to the ArcelorMittal Orbit which is probably more
iconic than the stadium in the Olympic park.
Sadly dogs aren’t allowed up so Richard stayed down while I went up and
was able to tick another thing off my bucket list! It was as amazing as I had hoped it would be
and was even better as I had a lovely view of the Invictus arena where they
were rehearsing for the opening ceremony.
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| Invictus Games Arena |
The views from the top were spectacular and I could have stayed up
there for hours just looking but I was all too aware of a lonely husband on the
ground waiting for me.
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| The Aquatic Centre |
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| A lonely duo |
I was able to spot where we had been on Saturday – we were so close to
the Park yet so far.
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| We were down there on Saturday |
We had lunch not far from the Invictus arena and spotted Claire Balding
– but were shot down when a lady told us that she had seen Prince Harry on a
bicycle earlier!
After lunch we took a stroll across to the Velodrome through the park –
it is lovely and you could easily forget that you are in the middle of
London. They have planted a lot of wild
flowers and plants but I just hope they look after it and don’t let it get too
wild.
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| The Velodrome |
The map we had showed that we were closer to Stratford International
Station this time so we caught the DLR back to Limehouse and Mary H.
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| Interesting flats |
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| What is it? |
If anyone happened to see the One
Show last night, this is the pod that they were broadcasting from.
Just
before I close here are a few facts about the Orbit. It is Britain’s largest sculpture and was
made from 2,240 tons of steel – more than half of it recycled. 1,200 tons of the steel used was recycled –
equivalent to 660 cars. On a clear day
you can see for 20 miles. 35,000 bolts
hold it together. 19,000 litres of paint
were used to paint it. It would take 954
steel drink cans stacked on top of each other to reach the top! And it all came about after a chance conversation
between Boris Johnson and Lakshmi Mittal of ArcelorMittal in a loo!
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