As London entered its second week of Olympic euphoria, I had the chance to see a few more events and plot my post-Olympic travel plans.
I bought individual tickets for beach volleyball and soccer on CoSport, the official ticket distributor in the United States. The owner is a prominent figure in Olympic circles, allowing him to raise ticket prices gradually over the years. I bought the tickets in February. Even at that point availability was low and prices were high. I also received one ticket for volleyball from the Visa VIP Lounge and one more for swimming from a friend who had a spare ticket.
The Olympic Park
Outside of the Aquatics Center
All in all, I had a fantastic time watching the events and would recommend anyone to attend any event at the Summer Olympics (except maybe equestrian).
I have two weeks left in the UK after the Games and I plan to take trips to Oxford, Cambridge, and maybe Stonehenge - it’s a bunch of rocks, but it is a UNESCO site. I also plan to check out the extensive array of (free!) museums in London after the Games.
Horse Guards Parade, home of Beach Volleyball
For European football fans: To my surprise, I found availability for English Premier League matches for Fulham vs Norwich City on opening day and Chelsea vs Newcastle on August 25th. The box office manager at Stamford Bridge told me that the continuing holiday season in the UK meant that availability early in the season is high (mid August – early September).
England's flagship football stadium, Wembley
RTC Correspondent Hao Tran is in London, if you are in London or want to contact Hao, you can reach him on twitter or email.
lol you don’t know what your missing.
-David
I went to Equestrian. Eventing/Dressage. It was the most boring sporting event I’ve ever attended. Paid $130 apiece for the tix. We could only stomach 35 mins out of the 6 hr event before we could take it no longer and left. Guess I’m not cultured enough to enjoy that garbage. Beach volleyball was MUCH better!!!!
I would recommend Premier League football over Olympic football any day. Premier League is serious competition, whereas Olympic football is weird and meaningless teams where the results make little difference to the participants.
Equestrian Stadium Jumping would be the one to see for excitement. Watch those horses and riders try to clear a course of 6 foot fences against the clock.
@MJM: That’s what I thought I was gonna be seeing some of: Jumping. I could have easily stomached that. My tix were only for “Eventing”, and I researched quickly and found out that includes 3 different events, so I thought I would get to see a little bit of everything. Not so as the Eventing lasted 3 days, and each day offered a different Event………….unfortunately I attended on the worst event offered: Dressage. Worst $390 we’ve ever spent!
I LOVE Dressage… like horsey ballerinas.