The Queens Diamond Jubilee

2012 was definitely a great year to move to London. We landed right in the midst of two major celebrations: The Queens Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic Games. Whist we planned to escape the city during the games, we were on hand to witness The Queen's celebrations. A number of events had been organised to ensure that all those in London could be involved. One of the biggest was the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant where the Queen herself was to lead around 1000 boats down the Thames.

It was to be the largest such pageant for over 300 years, so of course we wanted to be part of the action. The weather leading up to the day was glorious. We experienced almost a week of temperatures within the mid 20's and we were looking forward to arriving at the banks of Thames to claim our spot early. That was until the day of the pageant, when the weather turned nasty! Constant rain and cold was predicted all day, but this did not deter us from seeing the Queen and at 7:30am we were on the Tube heading to Westminster to scope a spot.

To our knowledge, there was nothing to say that you could not bring alcohol, so we prepared ourselves for the long day ahead with some liquid courage that would hopefully help to keep us warm. As soon as we arrived, we realised we had a slight issue. They were not going to let glass bottles into the area, so whilst Shelley and I claimed a spot, the boys headed off to Tesco to find some plastic bottles to pour our beer and cider. After some drama trying to get even the plastic bottles in, we managed to start consuming the alcohol rather early. However, it was so cold that all we were craving was hot chocolate and coffee! We spent around 8 hours all huddled together trying to stay warm. As the day wore on, the usual rude pushy people tried to push there way through us, and there were a few words exchanged, but we managed to hold our ground for the most of it!

Just as the parade was to start, the rain cleared and although it was still freakishly cold, the mood of the crowd lifted. One thing I learnt that day was that the English LOVE their Queen. As soon as she came onto the big screen, everybody started to cheer... and push to the front! We watched from the big screen as the Queen and her family boarded their vessel and waited for them to pass us! Bless her, she must have been so cold! But she stood on top of the boat and waved the whole way down the river. It was hard not to get excited when she waved in our general direction. Even though they were far away, I can now say that I saw the Royal Family. It was really nice to see them enjoying themselves despite the cold. However, poor Prince Phillip ended up in hospital after!

At the end of the day, we were ready to get out of dodge! If you thought the crowds were hard to get through at the end of the Adelaide Skyshow, try getting onto the Tube after an event in London! And of course it started raining as soon as the parade finished... The only thing that made it bearable was knowing that in two days, we were heading to sunny and HOT Barcelona!!

 Our supplies!

The Queen!!!