I always wanted to
see the United Kingdom and in April 2013, I traveled there for the
first time. I had been to other parts of the world never got around
to visiting Great Britain. This past April, my husband and I decided
that it was time to see all the sites we had seen in movies and read
about in books. Our pre-arranged tour was the same week as a spring
school vacation week in Boston with the marathon being the capstone
event.
We arrived in
London and spent our first day getting over jet lag and touring the
city. The next day, our six day coach tour started. The first stop
was Leeds, a city in Northern England. We checked into the hotel
and turned on the television set. The night’s news story was
the Boston Marathon bombing. I couldn’t believe what I was
watching for my husband and I grew up in Boston and attended the
festivities for many years. The newscaster mentioned that several
people were killed, including a young boy, and many more suffered
debilitating injuries to their limbs. There were many unanswered
questions and the culprits were still at large. It was very sad news
day for us.
We continued
touring and met the other members of our group. They were from
Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other parts of the United States.
The small talk always had to do with what part of the States were you
from and when we said, “Boston,” the response was
something like, “So sorry to hear about the
bombing.” or
“We hope no one you know was injured.”
Each evening, after
a day of touring, we turned on the news. For several nights in a
row, the Boston Marathon was the hot topic. There were biographies
about the persons killed and injured and interviews with spectators
and family members. The Massachusetts politicians and law
enforcement personnel were assuring the citizens that a manhunt was
ongoing, an investigation was going to be held, they would get to the
bottom of it and hold the persons responsible accountable. There
were news bites about the perpetrators. There were facts about them
that were very chilling to me personally. They lived in Cambridge,
the same city that my husband and I were born in and still had
relatives there. Also, both Tsarnaev
brothers
attended the same high school that my husband graduated from many
years ago. As a teenager, I walked the streets of Boston and often
rode the subway near where the bombs went off. This nightmare hit
too close to home. Patriot’s day was not supposed to be this
way; it was a state holiday in Massachusetts, with Revolutionary War
reenactments, Red Sox baseball games and the marathon.
Six days after the
Boston Marathon, the city of London was scheduled to hold its
marathon. The BBC had a discussion about whether or not the London
marathon would be held or cancelled in the wake of the Boston
tragedy. Their concerns were well founded. The facts about the
Boston bombing were still coming to light and perhaps there may be a
copycat in London. The decision was finally made by the organizers
to hold the London marathon with stepped-up security.
Our tour ended in
London the day before the marathon. Sunday, we went to breakfast and
took the tube to downtown London. The streets were cordoned off for
the marathon with Virgin signs, the marathon’s official
sponsor, pasted all over the city. Before the race started, the
runners, with black ribbons pinned to their shirts stood in somber
silence for thirty seconds to show respect for the Boston victims.
The race started. The crowd cheered nervously. The cheers
weren’t the festive
ones like the previous summer’s Olympics. No one wanted to
say
it out loud but everyone thought, “Could
what happened in
Boston happen here, today?”
Even though, it was a
beautiful spring day with the Union Jack flying over Parliament,
commemorating the Queen’s 87th
birthday, no one
would breathe a sigh of relief until it was over.
On the banks of the
River Thames, tourists and locals were making the most of the Sunday
afternoon. People were viewing the city from the London Eye. Tourists
were taking pictures from London Bridge and visiting the
iconic landmarks. Boaters were recreating on the Thames. Of course,
spectators and visitors on the sidelines encouraged the runners while
praying for an undramatic finish.
The race ended with
Prince Harry at the finish line. He congratulated the tired and
exuberant winners as his mother, Diana, would have done. Security
was tightened up throughout the event and especially at the finish
line with more officers on the scene then previously hired. People
with large backpacks were stopped and inspected. After performing
his royal duty, Prince Harry excused himself to wish his grandmother
a Happy Birthday.
The tube ride back
to the hotel was a crowded, party-like atmosphere with runners in
spandex capris and t-shirts hugging their loved ones. Families were
going home after a beautiful spring day not thinking of the Boston
marathon less than a week earlier but I was relieved to end my Great
Britain vacation knowing that the London Marathon went off without a
hitch.
