queenwatching

(Warning: photo-heavy entry today)

So I did, indeed, see the Duke and the Queen yesterday.

I decided to take off work in the late afternoon to hang out with the other eager Royal-watchers in front of the Royal York Hotel, a few blocks away from our apartment. I got there half an hour before the Queen was supposed to arrive, had some interesting conversations with the people next to me. One woman had taken the day off work to Queen-watch.





In the picture above, I circled a little boy in a kilt who was obviously hoping to meet the Queen. More about him later.

The first sign of anything exciting is when the hotel staff roll out the red carpet:





...and polish one of the hand railings in front of the hotel:





The Duke of Edinburgh arrives without much fanfare. The crowd claps, but he doesn't react, just heads straight into the hotel. Must have been a hard day:





The hotel staff rolls up the red carpet, puts it away.

More waiting. The media shows up. A CTV guy starts wandering through the audence. "Anyone met the Queen before?" he yells. One woman at the back of the crowd puts up her hand. "Me!"

He makes his way to her with a microphone. He says something, and then I hear her reply, "OH! I thought you were asking who hasn't met the Queen before."

I'm standing on the stone wall of a planted area in the median. A Global TV camera guy asks if he can climb up beside me. I say sure. I ask him if I can take his picture. He says sure:





Hey! Just noticed you can see part of my reflection in his lens. :-)

We've been waiting about 40 minutes. The Queen is about 15 minutes past schedule. I chat briefly with a teenager standing on the wall on the other side from the Global TV camera guy. The teenager is trying to look cool but I can tell he's excited.

I'm watching the little boy. He's getting restless:





A nicely dressed woman starts handing out flags for people to wave when the Queen arrives. I want one badly. Should I abandon my prime viewing post to get one? Better not. But what if she doesn't come over to our area of the crowd?

But she does, yay! The teenager says, "Hey, very cool!" when he gets his flag. Here's mine:





The waiting crowd is also restless but hyped. An older woman in front of me on the street is so excited she feels compelled to shake the hands of the policeman in front of her. He is highly amused:





Several guys with earpieces start strolling up and down the street, watching our faces. The hotel staff roll out the carpet again. The street is blocked off.

A murmur of excitement. The Queen's coming! Two motorcycles zoom past first, everyone cheers, followed by important-looking cars. One of the important-looking cars stops in front of the red carpet. A Canadian Mountie steps up and opens the door for the Queen, salutes her.

I had expected a more fragile-looking woman, one who needed help getting out of the car and across the carpet into the building. Instead, I'm surprised to see a remarkably cheerful and smartly dressed Queen step out of the car, turn to wave and smile at the crowd.

She starts heading into the building, but then someone must say something, because she turns and sees the little boy being escorted towards her by his father. The child is clutching a bouquet of flowers and wailing, tears pouring down his flushed cheeks. He's not a happy camper.

The Queen takes the flowers from him, and the boy is borne away in the arms of his father, doomed to listen to the story of how he cried for the Queen many times in years to come, I'm sure:





Later in the evening, the Queen and the Duke attend the Royal Gala Festival at Roy Thompson Hall, which is across the street from our apartment building, and are greeted by the Prime Minister of Canada.





Here's a photo I took from my office window about half an hour before the Queen arrived:





The organized bit of crowd to the left are the Bands of the 48th Highlanders of Canada and the Governor General's Horse Guards (no, I have no idea what Horse Guards are).

Curious, Jeff and I go down to check it out. The band is playing right in front of our building!





We see Prime Minister Chrétien arrive, then the Queen and the Duke. A bunch of tenants from our building are on the front steps, some with babies, some with camcorders, some with babies and camcorders. :-)

Then all the dignitaries go inside, and Jeff and I go back to our apartment for dinner and to check out the performance that's going on inside Roy Thompson Hall, broadcast live on CBC television. When it's over, we go downstairs again and watch her leave. She gets a huge cheer and applause from the crowd.

So I got to see the Queen three times today! Right in our neighbourhood, too.

And now I have to add another item to my "What I Will Miss About Our Neighbourhood When We Move" list: having the Queen and the Duke drop by for a visit.

Links/News:

One year ago I saw an intellectual property lawyer and packed for California.

Two years ago, I gave my Turkey Bowl report.