LONDON IN OLYMPIC FEVER

Before I returned home to Brussels, after having visited the London Tower, I took 3 buses to return to St. Pancras International, where I catched the Eurostar train.

The ride on the buses allowed me to do a sightseeing tour through London in a very special atmosphere : the celebration of the Olympics 2012.



The city was packed with tourists from all over the world, and the streets were empty except for taxis and buses and some delivery vans.



London bridge decorated for the Olympics





This bus was just in front of mine



People taxis and buses, that's all you could see on the streets







There were special "Games Lanes"




Quiet a lot of people had their faces painted with the British Flag







and of course the flags of all countries were hanging over the streets





Some taxis choose the flag's colors



and the Barcley's bank at St. Pancras had a special dress too



Lots of publicity around the station






It was impossible to miss the Olympic Park !



When people arrived they were taken to these barriers, and had to line up like cattle, to bring them all safely to the Olympic Park. Only I didn't want to go there and I asked one of the countless Tourist information guides where I could find the tube to Tower Hill, she looked at me as if I had asked her the way to the moon. "Are you sure you don't want to go to see the Olympics ?" "No, I said I want to see the Crown Jewels !" Then, she said you have to ask in the tube station.



The Tourists guides were all dressed in special uniforms, either pink or yellow and some in little stalls in black.



St. Pancras International station where the athletes arrived too



and from outside

The city was very very well organized and even a blind person would have found his way to the Olympics ! All people very helpful and there was a quiet cheerful feeling in the air !

LONDON UNDER CONSTRUCTION

more participants here

When I came back from the English coast I stopped in London for the day before taking the Eurostar train back to Brussels.

First thing I noticed when I got out of the station was that London had become a big construction site ! Everywhere they were hammering, digging and working on buildings, and I saw cranes a little bit everywhere.

For cars, buses and pedestrians it became an acrobatic work to get through the streets and sidewalks. London prepares itself for the Olympic games in 2012 ! It will become a beauty !

Meanwhile the beauty gets its face lifiting

a little everywhere

except on Trafalgar square, where I missed the pigeons which had been chased away ! No pictures anymore with pigeons sitting on your head and 10 others on your arms and shoulders.

Downing street, where the prime minister lives, looked like a zoo, with all the tourists staring inside the grids (not cage), and when a red car came out everybody made necks like a girafe, to see who it was but it was only the plumber. Apparently they had some troubles with the water pipes.

The Thames and the London eye looked the same, although I saw a few cranes there too.

I had never seen this touching memorial with the inscription : "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" (Winston Churchill)

Big Ben still looked uncovered but not the buildings around it.

Niketown was still there

and the good old English pub too

The parcs looked green

and I regretted that I didn't have enough time to see Sister Act

I enjoyed Carnaby street and made a walk through the Liberty store, before I had to go back to St. Pancras station to take my train home.