FRIDAY

Arrival in London

Made our way to our respective hotels, the Coughlins near Westminster Bridge and Tom near Tower Hill. When I arrived at my hotel I saw some TV coverage about the Olympic Torch being on a barge near Tower Bridge, so walked over there, just 10 mins away, but no sign of it. Gather it had probably already passed by and it might have been video from earlier in the day. Did take some photos in the area of the Olympic Rings atop Tower Bridge and of a platform on the Thames across from London City Hall. Walked down the Thames to London Bridge Tube where I worked my way back to the Coughlins hotel.



Friday night we went to the Proctor and Gamble hospitality center. This is a large multi-room two-story unmarked complex, near the London Bridge station, for U.S. Olympic families. After registering, we found seats in front of a large wall-mounted TV and watched the opening ceremonies from here. Had a hard time finding this center as we came out the wrong end of the Tube station and had to backtrack a few blocks. Lots of U.S. families here from all Olympic sports. They did serve food (I had a huge hamburger) which included chicken, Indian dishes and pot pies, and there was a bar with beer, wine and soft drinks. We referred to one area as the “man cave” as you descended a stairway to find pool tables, beer and a place to get a shave. There was a woman's salon two floors up with two posters of Natalie on the wall. We were there until almost 0100 and then worked our way back to out hotels via Tube.

Natalie's Pantene poster on the wall of the salon (one of two there):



One of the viewing rooms:



Circle Line at 0120 after opening ceremonies



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