Greetings from London where the games will begin shortly. Today was a get started early and wait in line day, Started about 7:30 this morning along with the rest of the incoming Nikon crew – the 14 of us had to get rail passes for the high speed rail. Each rail pass required a passport photo so some had to stand in line to get their photo taken. As you can imagine all this took an hour but once we were ticketed it was time for the 7 min train ride. A happy group until we learned that the 7 minute train ride was then going to be followed by a 20 minute train ride to the location to get our credentials. Nor did we have any idea that we would be in line for 2 hours getting processed. Then the 2o minute ride back followed by a mile walk to the bus and then 30 min on the bus. It’s the little things that get to you on the first day. It gets much better after this is out of the way.

While I was in the Main Press Center today I was speaking to some of the local people we have hired to assist during the games. A conversation came up about the Harry Potter book series. Jokingly I remarked that I didn’t see Platform 9-3/4 featured in the books – It is where the train to Hogwarts leaves from and in the same station that we caught the train from this morning.

On my way back to the hotel I decided I would track it down. After asking several of the police officers and getting an array of weird looks – I was told to just follow the signs. The first hint that I might be on the right track was this photo below. I knew I was on the right track.

This was looking promising and I knew that I could not go home without a photo of Track 9-3/4. There is someone in the family that would not be happy knowing that I was that close.

This one’s for you Jen!

On the way out I couldn’t resist a photo of the new part of Kings Cross Station. It is a beauty – maybe the only decent photo I took today.