Trip to Olympic Park: Venues and Art

After completely giving up hope of seeing any of the Games or visiting the Olympic Park before it shut down, I was given two tickets to watch Paralympic Swimming.  The Paralympic tickets unlike the Olympic tickets have an added benefit that you can both watch the Game you have a ticket for and tour the park.

I had a choice between athletics and swimming, but the latter fell on a day I could attend (the athletics tickets were for my sisters wedding day).  I only had tickets for me and hubby, which worked out well as the kids were at school that day.  I usually don't like to go places without the kids, but figured that Little Lady had been to the Aquatic Centre to watch diving earlier in the year with her school and Little Man to the Riverbank Arena to watch hockey both during the test events for the Olympic Park.  All three of the kids also went to the Olympic Stadium to watch the technical rehearsals for the Olympic opening ceremony a few days before the real thing.

So in the end I didn't feel too guilty and it turned out to be a lovely day alone with hubby, which made me realise sometimes you need some quiet time away from kids, work, in-laws and everything else, just to talk, laugh and spend quiet time together (it was nice having all of his attention to myself too!).

First glimpse of the stadium:

The orbit by Anish Kumar:

One of the live sites in the park where you can watch the various sports competitions happening around the park.

 This was my favourite venue within the Park - the velodrome used for cycling.

 The handball arena

The "RUN" art installation created by artist Monica Bonvicini, made from steel and glass