In the evening, I headed east to go inside the Olympic Park for the first time. The Olympic Park is absolutely massive, and it’s packed with people. Despite my complaints about access before, I now completely support London 2012’s decision to limit tickets to those who just wanted to walk around. There are two analogies that I like to use in describing Olympic Park.

First, it’s sort of like Six Flags on its busiest day of the year, but instead of roller coasters, you have sports arenas.

Another good way to imagine it is to picture a stadium before or after an event when you have a flood of people entering or exiting a building. Now picture five stadiums all either letting people in or out at the same time, and you get the idea of just what the crowd is like.

Olympic Park is home to the Olympic Stadium, along with the venues for swimming, water polo, field hockey, team handball, basketball prelims, track cycling, BMX biking, the Main Press Center, the International Broadcast Center, and the Athletes Village (the latter three aren’t open to the general public). Other highlights in the Olympic Park include a large outdoor concert area with a video board showing events and ArcelorMittal Orbit – a large public art structure that requires advanced ticket reservations to enter. The locals have said it looks like The Eiffel Tower if it were put in a microwave.

Also in Olympic Park is a McDonald’s, which one person told me is the world’s largest. Ironically the same person complained about the poor selection at this world’s largest McDonald’s, claiming there were only five menu items. I didn’t bother to go in.

more>>