With Tower Bridge all dressed up for the Olympics I had to go back and get some evening shots of the new lights.  Not much to discuss, so on with the photos!

At a quarter to ten in the evening they put on a bit of a light show.  It basically consisted of of flashing the towers with multiple combinations of coloured lights.  Given the spirit of the Olympics I thought the Red, White & Blue theme worked quite well.

The gallery is here, but the images I’ve posted here comprise the entirety of the collection.  No need to explore any further!

We managed to get a couple of sets of fencing tickets for the 2012 games here in London thanks to a lucky draw in the initial ticket lottery as well as an unlucky friend who was unable to attend (thanks Robert!).  I convinced Danni to join me for the medal bouts of the men’s foil early in the week in hopes that she’d enjoy it enough to be my date for the men’s team foil finals a few days later.

The venue was stunning; lit up like a futuristic battle arena awaiting the combatants to arrive and cross blades on an elevated, multi-coloured dueling platform.  I couldn’t have been more excited!

I was too worried about being denied entrance to the venue if I brought my big camera & lenses, so for the first event I limited myself to a little point and shoot.  I needn’t have worried though, there were plenty of SLR cameras in the stands.  I may have missed out on getting some good images that first day, but not having a bit camera let me fully immerse myself in the fencing at hand.  Which was good, as it was fast, furious and thrilling to watch!

China was the eventual winner of the individual bouts which got Danni hooked enough to want to come back and watch the team events.  It was a good thing the individual bouts were first as they were full of drama, excitement and close matches.  The team events were all fairly one sided and the question of the eventual winners never really came up.

Still, I thoroughly enjoyed both days and was really happy to get some nice photos of Olympic caliber fencing.  It was awe-inspiring and humbling to watch, and made me wish I was much more strict with my own personal training schedule.  Maybe 2016 will be my year…

More images in the gallery.

With the unavoidable hype surrounding the Olympics this year, we thought it would be fun to take a tour of the Olympic Park.  I have a few tickets to some fencing events but unfortunately those all take place at the Excel Centre, far away from the main Olympic venues.  I won’t get to see the completed works during the games, so this is likely as close as I’ll get for the foreseeable future.

The majority of the tour took place a considerable distance from the park, discussing the history of the area and showcasing some of the regeneration that’s been done.  I knew beforehand that we wouldn’t actually get access to the grounds (due to the over-the-top security), but a lot of the banter didn’t really interest me.  The regeneration projects were nice to see, but obviously not what we were there for.

We were told we were the last ‘lucky’ group who would have close proximity access to the village before the games start.  The road that provided the best views (the three images displayed here were all taken on that road) was to be closed to all traffic the very next day.

The tour lasted about 2 hours and ended at Westfield Shopping Centre (which by ‘happy accident’, almost everyone attending an event here must pass through).  It was fairly informative and our guide was friendly and amenable to our questions, but as far as I know the tours have stopped now so there’s no reason to recommend going.

Having been sucked into Westfield, we stopped for a bit of Yo-Sushi lunch before heading home for the day. There are a couple more images in the gallery.