The Royal Wedding

So the magical day was finally upon us when the current second in line the the throne of England was to be wed to the lovely Kate Middleton. Sentiment from the locals on the lead-up to the day was mostly along the lines of "Thanks for the day off" and little else, which took the wind out of our sails just a little. But while all the locals headed out of town (during the unseasonably good weather) we ventured inwards to Hyde Park.

There were, of course, the nutters who came into town to sleep on the streets along the path to the cathedral to catch a glimpse of the couple and the Queen. We had almost contemplated it, but by the time we arrived at Hyde Park we were told that the police had closed off the Mall to any new people.

So we settled in down in front of the massive TV screens erected for the event and joined in with the crowd, gradually drinking in a sedate manner. Don't be fooled by what you saw on the telly, because the only time the crowd really got animated was when the camera was on us. Even so, it was an amazing atmosphere and when the flags were waving about and the people were cheering it gave a real feeling of national pride.

It made me wish that there was something that could cause everyone in New Zealand to just get out on the streets and wave flags and feel proud to be New Zealanders, even if just every once in a while. Thing is, no matter what you feel about royalty, the British royal family are symbol of a nation and a reminder to the people of a time when this country was the greatest in the universe.

And that was the feeling of the crowd as we waited patiently for the carefully orchestrated events to unfold. I doubt I need to go into the details of what happened on the screen, as it was beamed live around the world. But there were moments there where the whole crowd of over 100,000 people (if I remember correctly) laughed and cheered and cried(?) together.

At the final moment, cannons fired confetti out all over the crowd and there was a flyover by some old WW2 fighter planes and some newer RAF ones (on their way to Libya?).

After the park, we headed away from where we expected the crowds to be and went to Regent St to see the banners that were strung up there. They do different ones every Christmas, with lights and everything and it's always spectacular when they put them up. From there we headed back into Westminster and down the Mall, which had cleared out considerably, except for the crowd still gathered around Buckingham Palace.

I'll end this one here with some pictures from the day. Next: Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath.

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