Tom, thanks for being our reporter on the ground. I enjoyed reading your reports/updates. Have a safe trip back.

Nice bump.

the last installment, posted from home
 

Day 8 and Day 9

Saturday was our last full day in London. I checked out of the Hotel Indigo on Tower Hill around 10am and was surprised to find out this award stay included breakfast every morning in the adjoining restaurant. I had only made it down for breakfast one morning and found about this when checking out and trying to pay for the meal ( a full English breakfast is 13 pounds, about $20, while I just had a ham and cheese omelette for 8 pounds). Is that typical with award stays at Indigo? Doubt I would have been down for many other breakfasts, paid for or not, as I generally didn't roll out of bed until sometime after 9 and didn't head out the door until 10, with the exception of the first day of swimming where I headed to the pool around 8.

I used my zone 1-3 Oyster 7-day travel card to work my way out on the Tube to Heathrow. I also have a cash balance on this card which covers the additional fare from zone 3-6 (Heathrow being in 6). Took the escalators adjoining the Heathrow Tube station up to the coach station and hopped the 105 bus out to Bath Road, just 5 minutes away. Left my two bags and right back into central London. I didn't recall the bus stop for the return trip being so far away, as it's a little bit of a hike. The bus stop from the airport adjoins the hotel driveway. This is in the “free zone” so no charge to ride. I was at the Holiday Inn at Bath and Sipson Road.

Arrived back in London and met the Coughlins for lunch at Omega House on Greek Street in SoHo. Had some steak with baby tomatoes and french fries (chips). I had just missed a buffet line which had closed. Not possible to take patio photos due to so many guests about, but I did get photos of two interior rooms. Omega has remodeled this facility, including the patio addition, and will turn it over to the charity that owns the building at the end of the Olympics.

Two of their rooms:

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We were just a few blocks from the British Museum so popped in there for an hour, touring mostly the Greek section (reminded us of our visit to the 2004 Olympics in Athens and the visit to the Acropolis).

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Back to the Coughlins hotel, the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, for a break, and then I headed out on my own over to Cotswolds near Picadilly Circus to look for a new day pack. They stock some brands we don't typically see in the U.S., but nothing caught my interest. Also took a look around Fortnum and Mason across the street, a shop that stocks tea, chocolates and biscuits on the ground floor.

Saturday night we watched swimming at Proctor and Gamble's center. After that we headed over to USA House which adjoins the Royal Albert Hall. The swim team was due in at 2300. I had checked the train schedule from South Kensington earlier in the day and the last departure listed on the web site to Heathrow was 2240. By the time I got the Coughlins over to USA House it was right about that time, so I turned right back around and went over to Gloucester Road, about the same distance from USA House, where the Picadilly Line out to Heathrow was still running. Caught the 2300 train. There were later trains listed when I looked at their web site via cell phone once on board. Happy with my decision to leave as I didn't make it to my hotel until just after midnight as it was and needed to be out at 0745. Guess there are some issues with the Tube website.

Sunday morning to the airport was an adventure for the Coughlins. Some bridges and roads were closed due to the marathon, and we just weren't sure a cab to Paddington for Heathrow Express or Heathrow Connect would work. They walked from their hotel to Westminster station to find it closed, even though the Tube site, when checking today's schedule, showed good service from there. They backtracked to Waterloo and got a train there which was taken out of service. Offboarded and waited for another train. Arrived Heathrow about 2 ¼ hours before departure which worked out fine, an overall delay of about 30 minutes for them. We were able to get the 5 pound deposit for their Oyster cards back at the ticket window for the Tube.

Made my way to the Admiral's Club and volunteered, along with two others in our party, for a bump on the LAX flight. They needed five but by the time we got to the gate they needed 3, and then when the doors were getting ready to close only needed two---Ethan, Natalie's husband, and me. Could not confirm any routing until flight was out. Rebooked us on the 1530 DFW flight and then onto SFO, getting in 4 hours later than our original flights. Flight to DFW was in business class which was a great deal for me being that I was on a coach award ticket in this direction. Stopped in the British Airways First Class Lounge before departure for lunch (just had a burger and a cupcake). Very quiet in there with few guests.

Arrived at SFO at 2320 to find my bag was in Chicago. No idea how it got there. It will be delivered to me at home. Caught the 2335 train out to Concord (next to the last one at 2355), picked up my car, and was in the door at 0120.

New photos start here:
http://tom911.smugmug.com/2012Olympi...7752&k=sXzF6KM

An amazing report. I shall re read it all again another day, as there is so much detail.

Its really nice hearing how overseas people have found the Olympics and the UK in general during this time.

Thanks.

I'd definitely want to commend all the volunteers. Everyone was so genuinely welcoming and you could tell justifiably proud to host the Olympics. After being at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 where armies of volunteers marched to and from venues like robots, it was great seeing volunteers having fun as they donated their time.

Thank you for a wonderful trip report. I enjoyed looking through all of your pictures.

I do want to thank all of you that have offered positive comments. Makes my time commitment to try and get the photos uploaded and text written worthwhile in the end. I hope you're able to sample some of the Olympics excitement without actually being in London this last week.

The one thing I personally noticed is that it's very different attending an Olympics when your favorite athlete only swims one day, compared to the last two Olympics where Natalie would have swam 6 or 7 nights. No rush to the Olympics venue and worrying about security lines or transit delays. A lot more time to visit various hospitality centers we had access to, as well as touring time (would have loved to have more of that in Athens and Beijing).

Missy Franklin, who won Gold in the 100 backstroke, keeps that medal for USA after Natalie won the Gold in 100 backstroke in Athens and Beijing. Hope she has a shot at it again in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Romania won this event back in the Sydney Games.

I actually ate at the Dome once (Parents were paying) and let me tell you while the food is excellent it is very expensive. Cool photos and thanks for sharing your experience.

Excellent Report! Really enjoyed seeing some of the action from a different perspective.

We'll be heading out the London for a short trip at the end of the month, just in time to miss the Olympics. (Sadly, couldn't make it work. But I'm hoping for Rio! :))

Hopefully, a little bit of the Olympic Village/atmosphere will still be around.

Your photos are great. My favorites: the beautiful bulldog. The weather looked very nice, so unusual in London. Thanks for the public transport tips, Oyster Card info., etc. Sounds like London got the transport right, what a task. Thanks again for your reports and photos. I hope your bag made it home by now.

The bag showed up at 6am Tuesday, about 30 hours after I arrived home. Haven't even unpacked it yet as it's mostly laundry.

Just found your report Tom & really enjoyed it.
Very interesting to get a perspective of the Olympics from a visitor, we are from Scotland originally but now live in Windsor so I was glad to hear that you enjoyed your visit north of the border.

Mrs ABZ1C & I & were at the rowing on Friday & had such a great time that we decided we had to try & get tickets for something at the Olympic Park.
Batches of tickets are being released every night for the following day, so after spending most of Saturday online I finally managed to get two tickets to the men’s 100m final the following evening.

We had a fantastic time & have been well & truly bitten by the Olympic bug.
We will definitely be at the Commonwealth games in Glasgow in 2014 & are seriously considering how doable Rio will be in 2016.

Thanks for another great trip report!

It was surprisingly easy to get up to Eaton for rowing. The Coughlins were near Waterloo so we did the train from there to Eton Riverside, down below the castle, which is about 50 mins travel time. We could have made our way over to Paddington by Tube and transferred at Slough, the route I would normally take, but the Tube time to get over there balanced out the longer rail trip from Waterloo. Plenty of buses waiting on arrival to get us to the rowing venue and spectacular weather.

Between swimming, table tennis and rowing, I was pretty happy with the events I did hit.

Looks like Natalie made it to Omega House last night:

Natalie Coughlin ‏@NatalieCoughlin

Fun event last night with @MichaelPhelps @LeClos_Swim and Alexander Popov at the Omega House. Such a beautiful space!

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