The torch was making its way through all of London's 32 boroughs on it's way to Olympic Park. On the day we caught it, we saw it in Barnet (northwest part of London). In the little town of Hendon, we set up in front of Hendon City Hall.
Such a cute little town
We got a free drink from the lovely Hendon Methodist Church
And enjoyed the excitement of the town -- most of the people there were locals. How cute are these little kids with their homemade torches?
We also enjoyed the pipe band while we waited. They played a lot of "She'll be Coming 'Round the Mountain" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (interesting choices) as well as some Scottish favorites.
The the official cars, motorcycles, and extra security started to roll in
Official Olympic cameraman
Torch Relay 2012!
And then the woman herself -- Diana Gould. She's 100 years old and the oldest person to carry the torch. Her grandson nominated her, and she lives in a retirement home where she leads exercise and stretching classes for the other residents. The grandson's reason for nominating her was because she shows it's never too late to practice/learn a new sport. She was so cute!
The parade began with people stopping to congratulate Ms. Gould
And to perform interesting tricks for the crowd
And then the flame came from the previous torchbearer! I love this picture!
Passing the flame!
And she was off! She would deliver the torch to the Mayor at the local college. Rupert Grint would then take the torch from the college to the next location -- sad we didn't get to see him, but we had the PERFECT spot where we were and you had to be student/faculty to see anything at the college. I'll take pleasure knowing he was only a mile or so away!
Bus carrying the torches and torchbearers of the day!
The passing of the flame was so exciting and so fun to see! I am so glad we had the opportunity as it was one of my most favorite things of the whole trip! I have a pretty great video of the passing on my Facebook page -- you should definitely check it out to get the full effect/excitement!
We headed back to our hotel to meet up with Dr. Weed and Carol so we could catch our train back to Paris, but found they had COMPLETELY redone the entire lobby. We believe some official Germans must have been coming in to stay here or something...
When we did make our way back to St. Pancras Station, we saw a group of Olympic cameramen and reporters gathered at one of the arrival doors. There were two trains that had just arrived as we got there, so we figured someone cool had to be on one for this group to gather. As we stood, we gathered quite a crowd, but no one knew who was getting off the train (except the Olympic officials, I'm sure). We guessed everything from Brad and Angelina (yeah right, like they'd take the train) to Justin Bieber. As the guy finally (like, he was very last off the train) came out, the Olympic officials scrambled to talk to him, and we were all left still wondering "who is it?" ha It turned out to be a Canadian cyclist arriving; I later looked him up and his name is Ryder Hesjedal. He finished sixth in this year's Tour de France. No Justin Bieber, but okay.
I'm obviously writing this post after we are back in the States, and I just watched Aly Raisman win a Bronze and Gold Medal and the two USA women's beach volleyball teams make it to the final (WOO USA!). It is SO cool to see all of the things we got to see just two weeks ago on TV every single day since we got home! Love it!
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