I am an expat living abroad in London. I have lived here for the last five years. Today I attended Beach Volleyball and below are my observations.
The process of going to the Olympics began over a year ago when tickets went on sale. Every UK resident was allowed to enter into a lottery. You could pick and choose the events and ticket levels (lower the letter, the higher the price) that were of interest to you.
The catch was that you had to prepay for tickets. So if you got all 13 events you wanted, the price could be rather hefty. It forced you to look at some less popular events with lower prices, hence how I ended up at Beach Volleyball.
The other reason was that Beach Volleyball was designated as a "family event". Even better was that children ticket prices were the same as their age. We were able to take our son to Beach Volleyball for a pound as he was one a year ago and he had his own seat.
The venue.
Beach Volleyball was held at the Horse Guard Parade. It was amazing to say the least. Sitting in the stands, we could see Big Ben, Parliament, The London Eye and Westminster Abbey. Walking to the event took you through Trafalgar Square which houses the National Picture Gallery and then onto the Mall of which Buckingham Palace sits at the end of. Our seats were great and we had a nice view of the court.
The people.
We were surrounded by families as this was a "family event". This was good for us because we were a little worried about bring our very demanding toddler. He luckily was entertained by the crowd. The crowd was lovely. Lots of people wearing their home colors and almost all the British crowd was wearing shirts supporting Team GB (which is the current slogan for the Olympics). Crowd was very excited and into the matches.
The organizers
I can't say enough about how great the organizers of this event were. From the moment we left the tube (which had clearly marked signs on how to get to the venue), there was someone available every five feet to help you. We had not received our tickets so we needed to stand in a line to pick them up. At first this line did not move but the organizers (a lot of which are volunteers) quickly realized the problem. A lot of people were picking up tickets for other events. So they quickly made the line for the event only and had people come back for other events at a later time. Problem solved and we flew forward. We had to go through a security checkpoint which was manned by the men and women of the British army. When we got inside, a gentleman showed us to our seats and proceeded to tell the people in front of us a little history about the Horse Guard Parade (some stuff about beheadings).
What really made my day were two young gentlemen who I approached about ice cream. They asked around and no one could figure out where it was. I gave up but about 20 minutes later, they came up and told me that they had located the ice cream man. My toddler thanks you and so does my shirt. :)
All in all it was a lovely day. The sun was out and shining. It has been raining for the last month solid so everyone was in good spirits. The matches were good, the event was well planned and everyone had a good time.
I will make one political comment and that is Mitts is getting killed over here in the press and by the general public. Michael Johnson was slagging him off during the pre- Opening Ceremony show. Whatever you think the reaction has been in the US, double it for the reaction it got in the UK. Brits don't respond kindly to Americans coming over and telling them how its done.
Enough politics for now. Go Team USA and also go Team GB.