Paralympics

We had the most amazing today at the Paralympics. Exhausting but amazing!
An early start - we tried to get the 7.55am train but naturally misssed it! But still in Euston for 9.15am, a lovely walk to St Pancras and onto the superfast Javelin to the Olympic Park. It was quite surreal seeing all the pink signage and Gamesmakers in the flesh. They made the journey so easy - from Euston to our seats in the stadium!
I can't describe how incredible it was to get the first glimpse of the stadium, the Orbit, the Aquatic Centre.... It all looked so familiar - like walking into a film set!
Glorious sunshine, thousands of happy excited people, Gamesmakers jollying everyone along with megaphones (which should be incredibly annoying but isn't!!!), street entertainers, music through the PA system, wildflowers everywhere - gone a bit over now but still beautiful.
I loved it!!!!
And we hadn't even made it into the stadium yet!!
There's nothing like that feeling when you walk into a stadium - I've been to the old Wembly and the Millennium Stadium as well as Watford's - ever so slightly less impressive - Vicarage Road and it's so exciting going up the dark steps and then stepping out to the light, the dizzying vastness, the thousands of people, the muffled noise, the expectation and excitement.
And then the inevitable climb up the stairs to our seats in or near the back row!!!!
We came into the stadium today right by the beautiful cauldron - it gave me goosebumps to see it in real life.
The athletics we saw was pretty humbling: long jump by blind athletes - amazing trust in their guide, dwarf javelin - world record after world record by a cartwheeling Iraqui! British gold medal in the discus, and lots of track events and medal ceremonies. It just flew by, wonderful!
Then we had a few hours wandering around the park and soaking up the atmosphere.
And then - to top off a great day - we got the train to Waterloo, walked across Hungerford Bridge (my favourite bridge in London!) up past Trafalgar Square and Leicester Sqaure to meet our friend Mr M for a scrummy Indian at Dishoom
Lastly there was the obligatory dash to the Underground, the sprint up the escalators and through the station to make our train home with minutes to spare!
From Leicester Square to our front door in exactly an hour. Who knew?!!!!

A tough choice Blipwise today! I've added a few more shots to my Blipfolio