My final London trip of the month had us arriving shortly after the Royal Wedding started. Luckily we landed a bit early and the traffic into the city was almost non-existant. I've never made it downtown so fast. We got to our rooms about 1:15pm and 10 minutes later I saw the happy couple on television as they came out to have the first kiss and wave at the spectators.
My room on the 18th floor faced the Thames and Central London so I also got great pictures of the planes as they did their celebratory flyover. Talk about luck.... Nine times out of ten we are facing Earl's Court.... the ghetto side.
After the fly over, I quickly changed clothes and joined up with some of my crew as we made our way down to Hyde Park to catch some of the festivities. We did not want to deal with public transport, so we just hoofed it, which took about a half hour. We arrived first at Kensington Park and stopped for pictures at the Prince Albert Memorial.
One of our stews, Scott, decided to bring his son Jake along for the layover. What a "once in a lifetime" experience for him. Scott's wife was scheduled to work over on a flight the next day so Jake would actually be handed over to her and get a 48 hour layover out of the deal.
Hello! Magazine had placed little commemorative flags all over the city so I grabbed one to have on hand to aid me in my celebration.
Once we crossed over into Hyde Park and made our way over to the big screens, we were right in the thick of it. We saw so many happy people celebrating. Lots of people had brought blankets and made a picnic out of it. Jumbo screens were erected at the side of the park so everyone could watch the festivities live. Vendors were selling Pims (a gin liqueur), Champagne and Gin and Tonics as well as a wide selection of food items. We all spent two pounds and bought an official copy of the wedding program as a souvenir.
One of the funniest parts of the day was seeing all the ladies (and a few of the men) dressed up in wedding dresses! Talk about getting into the spirit!
One nice lass let me pose for a picture with her. I imagine she was drawn to my very cool English derby hat! And to think I was criticized by so many for making this hat purchase.
When we arrived at the park, they were rebroadcasting clips of the wedding, but then went live and we got to watch the happy couple leave the palace in their Astin Martin convertible. The crowd cheered!
One of the drawbacks of going out in public in London is the lack of toilets.... there might be a pay toilet every few blocks if you are lucky. I was happy to see hundreds of port-a-potties had been set aside for those people who had to visit the loo.
As we left the park and stopped by the lake for a photo, you might be able to see all the people in little blue paddle boats behind us. That would have been a fun thing to do if we had more time.
As we walked back thru Kensington Park we stopped at the Princess Diana Memorial, where a lot of people were relaxing and enjoying the fountain. The day remained overcast but we managed to avoid the rain and the temperatures remained cool.
The final stretch of the walk took us thru the public gardens at Kensington. With the warmer than average temperatures they have been having, the flowers were all in bloom and looking good!
The girls wanted to go shopping and look for "Fascinators", the funky hats all the women were wearing for the big day. Speaking of which, everyone in London was saying that Princess Beatrice's hat looked like it was sponsored by McDonalds.... just sayin'. Lee and I broke away and did some last minute souvenir shopping before heading back to the hotel. I did a little internet time in the crew room and then met up with Purser Scott for some beers and then great Lebanese food. I love hummus!
The next day as we were waiting for our plane to be cleaned, Aisle Scott (not to be confused with Purser Scott) and Cokie had to show off their royal head gear. Nice look, but personally I think Scott looked more like the Burger King.
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