Several months ago, just after the royal family announced the wedding date of Prince William to Kate Middleton, I was over at my friend Lori's house indulging in a few glasses of wine. She then told me that she had just booked a hotel for her and her daughter in London for the Royal Wedding...my first reaction was "why in the world would you do that"? I mean, the crowds, the chaos, the CROWDS! She then suggested that Rowan and I come with them. After a quick mental list of pros and cons, I decided that it was an opportunity we couldn't miss to make some wonderful memories. I accepted, and that is how it started!
Kate and Will were not the only ones making important preparations, WE had to decide what to wear, and what the girls would wear, and most importantly we had to think "strategy".
After a longer than anticipated train ride we arrived in London on Thursday evening and took a taxi to our hotel. We had our first taste of the royal wedding chaos driving by all the people camped out in tents on the sidewalk! Some had been there for days just to catch a glimpse of the couple during the processional. It sort of reminded me of the news footage from Justin Bieber events where the die hard fans camp out just to catch a glimpse of the cutie. But Bieber-Fever had nothing on Will and Kate!
Friday morning, the day of the wedding, we set out with our master plan in place. To simply head over to the processional route and keeping walking until we found somewhere to stand. We had decided we would do no camping out, and no dragging the girls out to stand around for 8 hours in a crowd of people where the only means of entertainment would be to see who looses their marbles first.
We never got to the processional route - the police had decided to block off all roads leading to the processional route because of the huge numbers of people already in there, something that no one was expecting. After several tries to get up to the route it was obvious we were not going to get to see the processional. What now?
So, perhaps despite better judgement (!), we decided to do the UNTHINKABLE! We headed to Trafalgar Square. It was that, or going back to the hotel and watching it in HD, but we had come to London to experience the wedding! It is hard to explain how we felt walking there, more like floating in amongst the huge crowd of people. At one point, I imagined it was like a pilgrimage, everyone carrying on in order to get to this a monumental destination.
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| Pilgrimage to Trafalgar Square |
I put Rowan up on my shoulders, and bless her, she waved her "Will and Kate" flag and wooted and shouted with the crowds! She then described to me Kate's dress and what was happening in the ceremony. Although we couldn't see much ourselves, it was wonderful to feel the excitement and hear the church bells at Westminster Abbey! At least for awhile, until I realized Rowan was not as light as she once was and then I just couldn't shake the image of my vertebrae seizing one by one down my spine. Adding insult to injury, I was starting to hate that f*&!# in' flag as it continually swat me in the face.
Remember the planning of what to wear? It may start out like "what to wear in case I end up on television", but next time I shall think about what is most practical with a 7 year old sitting on my shoulders, death grip around my throat, mussing my hair, and with each smack of a flag removing bits of my makeup.
In summary, my blistered worn feet and exhausted daughter were worth every second of this experience! We will both remember this event forever, and remember that we survived Trafalgar Square on the day of the Royal Wedding!
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| View of crowds at Buckingham palace from the London Eye |
The kids and I were glued to the tv from 4:30am onwards. So amazing that you guys were there to experience the excitement it in person!!
ReplyDeleteSee you soon!!!
Michelle