Week 103: The Coronation!

Wow, this was a packed week. When I look back to write down what we did, I can’t believe everything was in such a small time period.

Monday was my parents last day here and we spent the day getting them packed up and ready to fly, and then had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants one more time, Corners.

Tuesday, they were off again. We drove them back to Zurich Airport to catch their flight home. We stayed busy the entire visit, but somehow didn’t get to do everything we wanted to do while they were here. Two weeks was definitely too short and it was a really long goodbye. We made the two hour drive back home and I was keeping an eye on their flight on FlightRadar. When they finally took off, I saw they were flying right over our house, so we were able to run outside and give them one more wave goodbye.

We spent Wednesday getting caught up on things around the house and Thursday, I headed to London. I was meeting my cousin Amanda, sister Alli, and friend Megan for a girls trip over the Coronation weekend. Amanda and I both flew in Thursday morning and we met at Heathrow Airport. We checked into our hotel and then headed out for a walk around London. We started near Westminster Abbey, which was already blocked off for traffic and had the media pens set up around it. It was super crowded, but we made our way through the crowd, past the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, and then across Westminster Bridge to the South Bank.

We stopped and had lunch at Giraffe and then continued on our walk.

We crossed back over the Thames on the Jubilee Bridge, down the Strand to Trafalgar Square. From there, we went around the Admiralty Arch (which was now closed for the coronation). Then, we walked all the way down The Mall to Buckingham Palace. People were already camping out for the procession on Saturday.

We crossed over some heavy bike traffic (and were almost hit by one, then around Buckingham Palace, past the Wellington Arch and Hyde Park Corner into Hyde Park.

At this point in our walk, we had already done about eight miles and needed a break. We stopped at the Serpentine Bar for a round of drinks by the Serpentine. While we were having our drinks, there was a brief, torrential downpour, where we had to take cover under umbrellas. Once it was over, we continued our walk through Hyde Park. We walked all the way to Kensington Palace, then back to our hotel in West Kensington.

By the time we had gotten back to the hotel, we had walked over 27K steps and over 13 miles. My feet and back definitely felt every step lol. We finished the evening with dinner at a pub down the street from the hotel.

Friday morning, Alli and Megan flew in. Unfortunately, Alli had a little trouble getting through immigration and got to our hotel just as we needed to be leaving for our Coronation Tea reservation. We quickly got her changed and ready to go, and then headed to the Mandarin Oriental in Belgravia, where we were having tea at the Roseberry.

The Mandarin, and the Roseberry itself, were so pretty. It was nice to have tea there as I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stay anywhere like that lol. The tea service started with a glass of champagne, followed by the ‘savory’ course, which was made up of several tiny, crust-less sandwiches. A few that I remember were coronation chicken, cucumber sandwiches, smoked salmon, and roast beef. We continued ordering several rounds of the sandwiches and while we ate, we ordered several teas served in fine china.

After the ‘savory’ course, we moved on to the ‘sweet’, which was made up of several cakes, as well as scones served with clotted cream and jams. When we finally finished up, we were surprised to be so full. Who knew eating all of those tiny sandwiches would fill you up so much?

We went back to our hotel and changed into more comfortable clothes and then headed back out again. We went back to Westminster and walked across Westminster Bridge again to the South Bank. The weather was gorgeous and we made sure to take lots of pictures.

We stopped at the London County Hall Marriott, where my friend Beth was staying. She had brought my folding chairs for the coronation and we picked them up and then took some photos from her balcony. She had the best view of the London Eye and Houses of Parliament.

Afterwards, we headed to Wahaca for margaritas and tacos to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

Saturday, we got up at 4:30 and departed the hotel by 5am. We took a taxi to the Goring Hotel, which was as far as could be driven that day due to road closures. We then walked another 20-30 minutes to the Mall and chose a spot to stand for the Coronation Procession.

St. James’ Park was already packed when we arrived. We chose a spot that looked pretty thin, but we were still about 10 rows back. Within the first few minutes, people left and shifted around and we moved up to about 5 rows back. We made ourselves comfortable and started the wait. We had brought food and drinks with us so we had our breakfast, Alli pumped, and we chatted with the people around us. Many people around us were fighting over space so we mostly just sat and kept our heads down. As we got closer to 11, people sitting in folding chairs, folded them up and we were able to move a little closer up, where we only had two rows of short people in front of us. Just before 11, it started raining pretty heavily and we had to put ponchos on. The rain really made everyone’s mood a bit more sour and people around us continued bickering over space.

As the procession started, people really crunched forward to see the carriage. We got some great pictures and videos, but it was pretty stressful with the crush of people. Once the King had past, everyone calmed down a little, but we had to remain standing as there was no longer room to reopen our chairs. We tried to watch the ceremony from my phone. About halfway through, I did take a break and go to the restroom. When I returned, I had a really hard time returning to the group as people really did not want to let me through but luckily I got back to my spot.

We watched the procession back to Buckingham Palace and saw the King and Queen in the gold state carriage, as well as other members of the family in their carriages. Princess Charlotte was really waving enthusiastically in our direction and it was a little surreal seeing them so close in person.

After the procession was over, we tried to make it onto The Mall to watch the fly past, but unfortunately never made it as The Mall filled up too quickly. We watched the fly past through the trees from where we were standing in the park.

When it was all over, we walked to Picadilly to catch the Tube back to the hotel for a nap. For dinner, we went to Piccolino’s in Mayfair.

After dinner, we had drinks at The Donovan bar and then stopped in a pub before taking a taxi back to the hotel.

Sunday morning, Alli and Amanda had early flights so they headed back to Heathrow. The weather was, of course, beautiful again. Megan and I went to the V&A museum. As many times as I have been to London, I’ve never done any of the museums, so now I can say I’ve at least been to one. The V&A has a collection of Raphael’s Cartoons and some sculptures by Rodin, which we enjoyed.

We stopped for lunch on Exhibition Road in Chelsea and then headed back to the hotel to pick up our stuff. We had a last drink in the hotel lobby and then I headed to Heathrow for my flight. Megan was staying one more day and she headed to her new hotel.

It was really special to be in London during the coronation and see a bit of history happening. It was definitely a different vibe from the Royal Wedding a few years ago though. At the wedding, everyone was happy and in a great mood. There was plenty of space to spread out and no one was fighting over where they were standing. At the coronation, everyone was bickering and fighting, and pushing and shoving. There were definitely more people trying to fit into a smaller space and that probably had a lot to do with it. Then, add in the rain and people were really sour. Maybe a wedding just inspires better moods? Who knows. Although it was a more tense atmosphere, we all felt incredibly lucky to have been able to go.

In addition to the coronation, it was a really great weekend! I really needed a weekend away from home and to catch up with my friends. I went home feeling super refreshed, despite how tired I was and ready to take on the next week. I hope we get to do it again really soon!