EMPTY seats, transport chaos, shameless corporate rules and regulations.
In light of recent stories about the London 2012 Games, I almost decided not to bother on Monday.
But I’m glad I did as, quite frankly, it couldn’t have been easier.
Having travelled up to stay with family in Harrow on Sunday night, I jumped on the Tube at Harrow-on-the-Hill at 8am on Monday morning – 20-odd stops and once change from the Olympic Park in Stratford.
With underground chaos predicted around London Bridge, I had braced myself for some snug contact for at least part of the journey, before an estimated 15-minute walk from Stratford to the park or 25 minutes should I jump off the underground at West Ham.
Given how empty the train was, I decided to wait until Stratford and it was actually only a five-minute walk to the park.
I passed through the much-maligned airport security without even stopping and even shared a joke with one of the soliders tasked with checking I had nothing untoward on my person.
Having arrived inside the park, I was blown away by the sheer scale of it.
I had last visited in March 2011 and it was still a building site then – the change in just over a year was remarkable.
With much made of the hundreds of empty seats, I tried my luck at grabbing some last-minute tickets and managed to bag a seat at the women’s basketball match between the Czech Republic and Turkey.
The atmosphere inside the arena was electric and it was simply a pleasure to be there – all for £10!
My return journey was much the same, aside from some Jubilee line congestion around London Bridge. I even had a seat between Canary Wharf and Harrow-on-the-Hill.
It was a fantastic day and my message to anyone thinking of staying away due to scaremongering is this: Go. As un-British and unlikely as it sounds given our track record, the London 2012 Olympic Games is an organisational and logistical triumph.
It couldn’t have been better.
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