Day 0 - The Opening Ceremony

Well today we travel on from Lancaster where we stayed with friends Ang and Jenny.

They are both doing a plasteting course and a far cry from educaction and teaching. I can certainly think of things that I would rather do in 6 weeks off but whatever floats your boat or trowel I suppose!!! Anyway was good to catch up briefly and we will see them again soon in Gretna.

On ths subject of Gretna we pop in to drop our civil ceremony attire off and have a final catch up with Laura who is organisiing things and after a quick late breakfast pit stop we head on up to Glasgow.

We make good time and as we try to locate the B&B we seem to have been bought round the back of some houses and flats to a car park. Mmmm well the AA directions don't seem to have bought us to the right place. It appears we may have the wrong post code and also struggle to find a road with a name on it making our job to locate said B&B quite a task. In fact it became a good 45 minute job to be exact. We found a couple of lovely park and even a camp site and after much driving up a variety of roads and use of maps, yes Miss O loves a map or three we finally see the road and hey presto the house and when we find the parking it is to our amusement back in the car park we started out on!!!

We are greeted by John at the B&B and are more than happy with our spacious room and his good humour and knolwedge, we are under orders not to lose our parking permit on pain of death and so we quickly unpack as we need to assess

our route into Glasgow for the Opening Ceremony at Parkhead homw of Celtic.

We head off and catch a train into Central. Hare as expected a queue process took over to take us out of the station and back round again in a loop back into the station to get the train out to the Stadium. From here on we encountered the Clydesiders, the volunteers who will ensure the games run smoothly. They are decked out in red and grey and have not been subject to as much ridicule as the Scottish Team attire which we see later on. From the station it is a long walk to the stadium as we are again taken on what seems a never ending route to the ground. We enter the stadium, the usual bag searches and airport security takes place which we were ready for based on our 2012 Olympic experience.

We have a cider and beer and try to find a food outlet selling  burgers but everywhere we go they have run out so we give the hot dogs a go (big mistake). Never mind we take our seats and join the masses and ever increasing anticipation of the ceremony. Well in advance we are biriefed on what UNICEF have planned for when all the athletes are in and enjoy the mix of music, fun and tongue in cheek humour that is all part of the show. The queen arrives to such huge applause it is celar she is still well loved everywhere. I enjoyed Rod Stewart and Jane enjoyed John Barryman although it was all rather camp and cheesy.  The athletes paraded to a mix of upbeat music ands the perfromers encourgaged their entrance. The palce was buzzing with excitement. The crowd was electric and wild when Scotland came in.The UNICEF moment came and it was amazing to be in the stadium at that point with all those phones being held up. The baton was a funny moment and Chris Hoy has now really earned his knighthood and it added humour to that moment. The red arrows flying over and the thunder of fireworks to close made it a night to remember.

The journey home from these things is slow and shuffly as we expected. We were lucky to get on the last train back to our stop and I was somewhat amazed that a lady knew where I was staying when I got our keys out of my pocket!!! Can my mind be read so easily??? She was actually staying where we were and she was from Oz, there were another couple who were form NZ who also got off at our stop so we walked wearily back to the B&B.

A very late start to begin our summer schedule. Lights out about 1.40am, and early start tomorrow for the hockey. Night all.