http://www.london2012.com/games/venues/index.php

Some of the events will be held in Central London i.e. Hyde Park, Royal Artillery , Regents Park and The Horseguards Parade. The rest of the events to be held in London are fanned out to the suburbs because of proximity to the Olympic Village. The village will be turned over to the local public authorities for the public's benefit after the Olympics.

Public transport is fab over here but, still a daunting task for the Olympic Committee to ensure that the athletes get to their events on time because it is heaving during peak hours. Transport and access to the Games are of utmost concern for 2012 and I hope visitors to London would walk to venues. They'll get to see more of London that way as well.

Lola, your town reminds me a bit of Annapolis where our Naval Academy is located, however it is on the Water.

What fun that the two of you can discuss your towns holding the Olympics.

I couldn't imagine the traffic if they were held in our city. Egads. Lola, are you having trouble getting around to do your everyday chores, etc?

It's really great that Orchid is writing about the Olympics in her town and her resident experience because it gives an insight into what to expect when it hits our town in two years. Wish we had Vancouver's space though as London is quite compact.

We jostle everyday going around London on ordinary days, Dotsie. I expect more so when works start over here, which would be later this year. They're proposing to install operational facilities on The Heath, which my property fronts. It's right across the road from me and a five-minute walk to the events arena. I believe the residents will get concessionary tickets to all the games held in the Borough. YAY! I only hope that Zara (the Queen's granddaughter) qualifies for the GB team. I'd love to see her at dressage.

Unfortunately the Olympic athletes' village housing which is primarily condos that overlook a waterfront, have become very expensive homes to buy..at least over $800,000CAN to over $1 million per condo. And these would not be huge suites. At the beginning, we were led to believe there would be affordable housing, but the developers had itchy hot fingers.

Now a furious debate broiling underneath for after Olympics, if a tiny handful of suites could be set aside for lower-income folks. The public was abit hoodwinked at the beginning when there were public consultations on sustainability design, etc. That's nice, but now who can afford this?

VAncouver has the highest real estate prices in Canada. I heard London and suburbs aren't cheap at this time.

It is true..the financial beneficiaries are not mainly the athletes at all. Only a few gold medalled ones become decently comfortable.

Haven't heard about concessionary tickets for folks like Lola who are affected by noise, construction, etc.

We just found out last night that there will be fireworks displays every night at a major Olympic public venue in our neighbourhood. So I will post fireworks photos soon. But for now see our opening ceremonies fireworks:

http://cyclewriteblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/iconic-photo-memories-2010-winter-olympics-part-i/

That'll be something taxpayers will have a hawkseye on since taxpayers' money are heavily invested into the Olympic Village. The justification at the time that it was invested was for plans to turn over the units for social housing after the events and that there were proposed plans to build up social housing in that area. There may be a portion sold off to private buyers at market rate {for an immediate ROI) and a portion on a shared ownership which is how most new-built properties under social housing i.e. "affordable" is sold. Market rate over here is £250,000 on average now. The rest, I presume, would fall within the norm i.e. controlled rents. The beneficiaries of the housing units will be very lucky as most of the associated facilities to the Village will remain.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/may/13/olympic-village-fully-nationalised

A further hawkseye on the impact of the events to be held in my town.
http://www.greenwich.co.uk/tag/london-2012-olympics/
"GREENWICH Park will not be fully restored to its current state after the Olympics until 2015, the planning application documents, published on the council’s website on Tuesday, show.

Areas of the park will be closed off from February or March 2010, meaning that the park has less than four months of full public access left. The total duration of the Olympic-related works and closures in the Park will be five years. The total duration of the events themselves is two weeks.

The length of the work period, far in excess of expectations, is one of a number of very unpleasant shocks from the planning application documents. The principal document, the Environmental Statement volume 1 (ES), is downloadable in two parts from this document list

(it is about three-quarters of the way down the list of documents). References which follow are to ES paragraph numbers, except where indicated.

Lorry and vehicle movements

Construction and removal of the main 23,00-seat showjumping arena will create an estimated 6,420 lorry movements to the park - an average of 43 to 58 per day .(ES 3.4.17). This phase will close large parts of the park for a total of eight months in 2012, from April to November inclusive (ES 3.2).

Other items of plant in the park will include 160-tonne mobile cranes, 5 tonne mini-excavators, bulldozers and JCBs (ES 3.4.23).

The events themselves will create 35,960 vehicle movements by competitors, officials and media to the park, an average of 625 a day. (ES 3.4.32). The park will be almost completely closed for four weeks (ES 3.3.7) and largely closed for longer.

Heritage impact (archaeology, historic buildings, etc.)

The overall permanent impact on the park’s heritage features is assessed as “likely to be neutral to slightly adverse” and the ES admits that some heritage features could suffer permanent “loss or partial loss.” (ES introduction, page 10).

Most features, it is claimed, will be protected by mitigation (protective structures and the like). But “as a last resort,” some heritage features will be “preserv[ed] by record,” ie permanently destroyed, but only after pictures and records have been made of them. (ES introduction, page 10).

A set of ornate gates into the park will be removed to allow vehicle access, although it is promised that they will be replaced afterwards.

Visual impact and trees

The park will be surrounded by a 9-foot-high metal security fence, with spotlights every 80 feet and CCTV cameras on 16-foot poles every 250 feet. There will be a similar, inner fence cordoning off other areas. (ES 3.2.32-3.)

The ground in the open area in front of the Maritime Museum, which currently slopes slightly, will be made level, with topsoil potentially needing to be stripped to a depth of 1.3 feet. “Retaining structures” may have to be installed in the soil in this area. (ES 3.2.2-9.)

Seventy-two trees will be pruned to allow a 11-foot clearance for horses to pass underneath, including a “small number” which will suffer “removal of branches to the main stem.” The majority of pruning would be to branches of 25mm or less,
although a number would be up to but not more than 50mm. (ES 12.6.9).

There will be temporary power plants, water and fuel tank compounds (ES 3.2.52-5). Temprary ducts will be dug across the park to divert some existing gas, water and sewage mains pipes which currently pass under areas needed for the competition (ES 3.2.61).

“On balance, the overall magnitude of change is considered to be
medium adverse resulting in a moderate adverse effect.” (ES 12.6.14)"

Just a few of the reasons against holding the events at the Royal Park. The residents firmly hold that the damage to the Royal Park is disproportionate to the benefits.

Just been to your blog and enjoyed the photos, Orchid. Thanks. The Olympic fireworks and opening ceremonies are just breathtaking to watch, even on television, which is how I will choose to view them when it happens here because I am asthmatic and gunpowder is not my bedfellow. To date, the best opening and closing Olympic ceremonies on the top of my list would be Barcelona and China's.

How are the games holding up with the initial problem with snow?

P.S.

I was on one of those Dutch bikes when I took the grandchildren to Amsterdam last summer. I quite like them as they're the closest to "traditional" bikes i.e. single speed. I also did not have to hunch to cycle at leisure.

Here's another reason why residents have taken up an environmental jihad. The road is a main artery to the Royal Park and although the problem with road subsidence has been dealt with, residents are quite wary of problems arising again as and when the unusual traffic of heavy equipment commence.
http://gihs.gold.ac.uk/blackhole/hole.htm

I haven't watched the opening and closing ceremonies for any Olympics in the past 15 years or so. So I can't comment.

But for Canada's 2010 version for opening ceremonies..methinks many Canadians who have lived here for several decades and have experienced Canada by travelling abit in different provinces, have read about Canada's history, (which can be quite contrasting in history, demographic composition, even wildlife and vegetation in different regions) would strongly identify some of the common themes, symbols and historic-cultural legacies.

I enjoyed the twinkling light Spirit Bear..which evokes the real-life rare albino bear inhabiting the wild uninhabited rugged coastline of British Columbia. This coastline is similar to the fjords of Norway if one takes a cruise through the Strait up to Alaska. I have taken a ferry 400 kms. up the coastline and was humbled/awed. So wild. It's so steep, rocky and dense of tall rainforest trees, that hardly anyway can live there. The road maps of British Columbia hardly show ANY roads leading to the whole rugged coastline. One would have fly in by seaplane.

The First Nations people (native Indians, but they are called/call themselves First nations, because they were the original inhabitants of Canada) does have a special place in their legends, etc. Spirit Bear at the opening ceremonies also evokes the wild polar bears that roam...in northern Ontario and further north all across the Canadian Arctic.

The imaginery of orca whales/whales, red salmon then transformed into the First Nations spiritual and artistic iconography, is VERY Canadian Northwest Coast. I realize salmon is found in Atlantic Ocean. But salmon here has a long cultural & spiritual significance to First Nations ..the image of salmon infiltrates the legends, major traditional cash crop/source of many things for the First Nations..which then in modern day transfers to our smoked salmon (hot smoked salmon as done by the First Nations, candied salmon, salmon jerky, etc....) Then if my memory can recall, the transition to the rainforest soaring heights of the Douglas fir trees, etc. Again, very, very Northwest Coast British Columbia..something alot of visitors want to see in our parks, wilderness, etc.

The allusion to CAnadian vast prairies as a sea is very much harkening to a whole genre of art and literature where prairies represents freedom of spirit, openness and all those romantic visions of Canada ...which is similar to the U.S. with their prairies Midwest. Not sure if we saw buffalo, caribou and muskox images in the opening ceremonies. I haven't seen live muskox yet since they hang out wild in the Arctic and probably might find a zoo in southern Canada just too stifling-hot. But hiking in the Canadian Rockies and driving through there, we have encountered wild black and brown bears, several caribou at different times, herds of wild bighorn sheep with curled back tusks...

it's all real too..I don't what to say. Alot of the European countries do not have the large wildlife anymore ..like what Canada and U.S. have in some regions. Nature truly rules Canada and our pscyhe. That includes the weather. It is vast, humbling and a person could be killed /lost in the wilderness if they don't have proper skills. People have to be rescued from our local mountains if they don't know the hiking trails,..only 20 kms., from our home..same mountains that I can see from our home right now. Black bears occasionally visit the backyards of people in th suburbs. In my last job, I worked in an area where there bears that did encroach our construction site.

Which probably explains why we have sprawled out suburbs in own large home lots and love our cars too much.

Most definitely the opening ceremonies to me, did convey a strong sense of vastness of Canada and regional differences. Celtic stuff is in Eastern Canada, as you may know.

I did like the use of the drum motif built into the stage set, where singers Nellie Furtado and Bryan Adams (both are from Vancouver) sang and whenever they danced, the drum floor vibrated. And carrying over the drum motif later on.
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They have recently cancelled 20,000 tickets for some of the events due to weather causing unstable viewing areas.
http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/newsid=43329.html
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The construction mess in your area...5 years..well I can relate to that. It wouldn't be surprising in Vancouver, it'll take at least 1 yr. for the temporary structures to be taken down, grass resodded, etc.
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Some of the country pavilions have been boring and not much to offer. More promoting trade /biz opportunities or offering liquor and snacks. Only one pavilion that I've seen that didn't rip people off with inflated prices..(Ontario pavilion did offer reasonably priced glass of wine..at least 15 choices to highlight wine region of Niagara-on-the-Lake). After seeing huge lineups for B.C. pavilion, I kinda gave up.
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Right now it is spring like. Some cherry trees have even started to bloom. Sunny. The city looks real beautiful on days like this..just like the postcards.

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We will be going to women's speedskating shorts next week.

On a different day we will also be going to the women's hockey game playoffs. Did I mention, that one of my nieces, 8- yrs. old is enrolled in ice hockey this year? I think she didn't want to be left out from her 2 brothers also in ice hockey.

When I grew up, we knew of no girl playing ice hockey. Certainly there were no girls' ice hockey teams in town. Things change. Canada's women's Olympic hockey team captain is a mother of 2 children, I believe she is in her early 30's.

http://fourhostfirstnations.com/discover-aboriginal-peoples/ About the 4 First Nations bands (or groups) that cover the Metro Vancouver area.

http://www.hellobc.com/NR/rdonlyres/196F50E4-DC25-4CEF-9E49-89B6EC18011C/0/BC01.pdf Map of British Columbia with all cities and major towns noted. Just going 100 kms. north of Vancouver, is Whistler which is wilderness with a ski resort town. Plus 2 little towns for next 200 kms. north. That's all.. Of course, people come internationally to go mountaineering in full winter gear and boot ice crampons and ice sticks.

Areas where there aren't any towns, means it's mountain ranges (we have 3 mountains ranges that run north to south) with some mountains ranking 2nd in height to the Himalayans. Or it's flat desert scrub land..which is similar to parts of California/Nevada. That's where our wineries and vineyards are.

When planning a biking trip across Canada, it can be a planning exercise in some areas --hardly any choice of roads. And becoming strong enough to ride 100 kms. for whole day ..until getting lst corner store, gas station.

Last Saturday I met a woman from a women's cycling Internet forum. SHe is the mother of a competing Olympic athlete son (ski jump and nordic ski race combo). She lives in Thunder Bay, Ontario which is over 1,500 kms. north of Toronto. I asked her about the limited highway situation. There's still only 1 highway that crosses from province of Manitoba into northern Ontario, in her area. If there is a major road accident or heavy snow, it shuts traffic between 2 provinces at the northern end...a serious problem for transport trucks, etc.

It is a well-used highway in an isolated part of Canada.

My Gosh this was FUN reading..

We are following the Olympics from Sweden..where we have GOBBS of snow, by the way, Vancouver isn´t it just the way? When you want it..it´s GONE!!!!!

Anyway..this thread makes it so much more ALIVE somehow!!! And we, Swedes, have some gold,too! But not where we thought we would

Hugs and Greetings

This makes me feel so much closer to the Olympics, plus I feel like I"m getting a history lesson to boot.

WHen are you going to the speed skateing? And is the woman cycler youmet only in town because of the Olympics?