I’ll start with the end of the story, although I know, it’s kind of stupid to sell the end of the book and then want or hope that people will read it. But I don’t want to keep you in suspense…
I was in London for the Coronation of King Charles, but I didn’t see the King! Not even a bit, not even the shadow of the crown, on the way from the Palace to Westminster or back. Nothing at all, not even for a second. Although I chased him for millions of seconds! (I think they should have a coronation every day. My phone tells me that I have made almost 29,000 steps!)
You’re going to tell me: “well, my dear, you got face to face with Tom Hanks, Richard Gere put his hand on your shoulder, but you weren’t able to, at least, see the King on the route, if not sit inside the cathedral, pretending to be an aristocrat?!?”. Well, no, I wasn’t able to do this.
I just took a picture with the King where I found him, on the street:
But the day was an adventure, I must admit.
THE CORONATION OF KING CHARLES
I suddenly decided to go to London, as having been there 30 times as a crazy tourist, I couldn’t have missed this particular opportunity.
I didn’t have high expectations to see the King up close, I imagined it would be crowded, but I swear I was sure that, at least on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, I would be able to see him.
I came prepared, having everything: phone + external battery (to make sure the phone doesn’t run out in the most important moment), wind protection for the phone (yes, the Chinese invented that too hihi), DSRL camera with infinite card space… and I did even better: I took another lens, so that I could capture even the pimples on King Charles’ face!
You get into the festive atmosphere from the airport, and on the subway, morning people full of enthusiasm and all kinds of accessories are already heading towards the center.
I have the coronation “kit”, received from my friend Mira, so I am overwhelmed by emotions. I will meet the King!!!
I get my first shock when I arrive at the hotel: in the lobby, I see none other than Camilla, the Queen consort.
It seems that she is also shocked by my appearance. No, she doesn’t know me from TV . It’s just that I look like I got hit by the royal train.
The woman is too cool, all dressed up for this occasion. I guess she knows that she will be the star of the day anywhere she goes, because everyone will want to take a picture with her. Like me, by the way…
I don’t know what the Queen’s schedule is, but I’m in a hurry to get to Trafalgar Square, then go towards Buckingham Palace, to see the real Queen, next to her King. That’s my plan.
At 9.30 AM I’m already in Trafalgar Square.
Well, what do I see??… Iron fences everywhere, basically the iron curtain has been installed in London.
You don’t have the slightest possibility of taking it to the cross-road where Charles is going to pass towards Westminster. There is only one open way, which we all take, like sheep.
I have no worries, we are going in the direction of the Palace, as we are well informed, but on a parallel road. And I wait from place to place to see where we can turn left, towards Buckingham.
It’s fun to see so many people. Cheerful people, each one equipped with whatever he/she bought for this special occasion. I’ll show you several people that I met during this day which promises to be very interesting:
I admit that I photographed some of them on the run, but I took pictures of most of them, those who made efforts and put their imagination to work to equip themselves in a unique way today, having their full consent.
Not only did they not mind, but they even came together especially to pose for me.
I also met a citizen who certainly doesn’t care about the King and the ceremony hihi.
Instead, others took full advantage of the huge number of people in the street to promote their activity. I’m referring here to some religious organizations – I don’t know what else to call them – with people scattered all over the route, handing out leaflets, but especially “banknotes” of 1 million pounds with the King, which everyone happily took, believing that they were a souvenir from the coronation. Only then did you hear that the message on the back should also be read – a message about Jesus, about the Bible and I don’t know what religious podcast.
Even if you want to go online where these people invite you, you can’t: I can neither call, nor send pictures, nor search for anything on the Internet, nor receive any calls or messages. The network is caput! All of them are, I tried them all!!! Yeap, we are not used to not being connected non-stop to the world. There you are, it can happen. (A reality that, as I was going to find out, lasted for 3 days and 3 nights, like in fairy tales. It was only on the 4th day we went back to normal with the networks.)
PEOPLE ON THE ROUTE
It is full of law enforcement officers, “guides” and police! And surely many agents walk among us…
I see on some people’s vests that they specialize in “crowd management”.
Television crews are everywhere, broadcasting the hottest news from under the cold rain.
And we still keep going… From time to time, I, like others, stop to ask the police when we turn left towards the Palace, and the policemen keep showing us to go straight. Something like: “you go that way, we will tell you when to stop…”
I lose my enthusiasm when I see that, at a certain moment, instead of the left, they direct us all straight to the right!!!
What are you doing, man?? This is the other left, I want to go to the correct left! But there’s no one to get along with.
Some guys take parallel streets, thinking they will find a way, but the law enforcement officers in the street explain to us, those who are still listening, that the secondary streets are blocked – you take one, you go back to where you left from. So we go with the flow.
The road to the Palace is right behind us 🙁
A few clever traders put out various products for sale, some modern, some older: coronation flags, hats and umbrellas with the flag of the United Kingdom, medals with Charles or plastic rain coats. Of course, at prices you wouldn’t normally pay for them. I refrain from buying… Even if it rains from time to time, I don’t need any raincoat. I’m wearing a waterproof jacket, I also have a small umbrella so, even if I left my plastic coat in the room, it’s all right.
And we go, we keep going, and the crowd gets bigger and bigger. We could really start a revolution here!
While thinking about this, I see some protesters on my right.
People are marching with the message “NOT MY KING”, fraternizing with the police, who are there, shoulder to shoulder with them, making sure this thing won’t take an ugly turn.
I would take a nice turn when I reach Green Park – the place from where I had the fastest access to Buckingham Palace in the past. But not only is access to the park prohibited, but the police also remove people from there.
I have my press ID with me, it crosses my mind for a moment to see if they would let me inside the park with that, but I don’t present the slightest guarantee that I came “to report from the scene”: I’m dressed in tracksuits, with a jacket for walking on mountain paths, with shoes for tourist walks. So I go on with the crowd and here I start to feel my first disappointment: the signs placed here and there on the route no longer say “Towards Processional Route Viewing”, but “Towards Screen”. Really?? I could have stayed at home in the armchair to watch “a screen”.
Yes, but who would miss walking for kilometers in the rain/sleet/shower, plus stepping in puddles, plus suffocating in the crowds?…
I’m beginning to regret that I left that rain plastic in the room. The shoes can’t cope with all the rain, I feel like I’m swimming in them. But there is no turning back. Literally! 🙂
Look, I’m seeing King Charles!!!
Another Charles, unfortunately, the King of France, who once lived in this London building.
We find out from the law enforcement people that, organized as we are going in one direction, we will end up in Hyde Park. What?!? We are getting further and further away from Buckingham, f@&*k!!!
And we walk, and we keep walking, crossing boulevards, until we enter the park I mentioned.
I don’t know if you have ever been to Hyde Park. It’s huge, man. And don’t think that the wonderful screen we are pushed towards is at the entrance. A woman from the Forces of Redirectioning and Dizziness of the Crowds shows us where to go.
On the way, I enjoy people who are one more inventive than the other, eager to convey messages through the costumes created for this occasion.
I judge the remaining distance after… the sound: the fact that I still don’t hear anything that resembles a live transmission makes me feel the roots of despair. It is clear that the screen is basically at the end of the world!
“How long until we get to the screen???” a lady desperately asks a girl in a vest.
“Another 10 minutes of walking”. We are doomed! And so are our feet, of course, while the head is hit by yet another shower.
A few of us cut it short on the horse road, giving a brown tint to the shoes, then we take it through the wet grass, and when the voices from the live transmission begin to be heard, I, for one, feel like I’m approaching the finish line of a marathon!
HYDE PARK
We got there!!!
No, not at Buckingham Palace, not at Westminster, but… at the Screen in the park!
Us in front of the screen, Charles in front of Westminster Abbey, as I can see through the heads and the umbrellas.
It’s full of people here! Everyone tries to find a place where they can see a bit better, but nothing guarantees that, because people carrying umbrellas keep coming.
There is a lot of booze per square meter, which everyone tries to protect as best as they can. Because not everyone wants a summer spritz made with rain drops…
Drinks, food and small children are all hidden under the umbrellas parked on the blankets. A lady even warns me when she sees me moving from one foot to another: “be careful, there is a child under this umbrella next to you”.
People came like for a picnic here, with boxes and baskets of food, with folding chairs and blankets of all colors and materials, to watch the Coronation while eating some fish and chips.
There are many nationalities here, from what I hear around, and some even made an effort to dress up for the occasion.
And, even if others didn’t make an effort, the flag became, out of necessity, a good clothing element for them… I don’t know if it keeps them warm or how much it can stop the rain, because I see a lot of people wet from head to toe. Or, to put it right, down to their panties, baby!
What can I tell you? That I’m constantly scolding myself that I left my plastic raincoat and some rubber boots to put over my sneakers in my room??? I won’t tell you that.
I go through the wet grass to a booth where they have the Official Coronation Program. I see the Queen in line to pee… Well, she’s human too… Then I turn to the King on the screen.
THE CORONATION OF KING CHARLES
And the ceremony begins, with its important moments, with shots of all those present in Westminster Abbey.
If I were to go by the reactions of the public in the park to each appearance or action on the screen, I know who their favorites are: William and that little one, Louis, and on the opposite pole, Harry and Camilla, with slight growls received…
Watching the ceremony, I think I stretched my neck by a few inches for life, which is not a bad thing. It’s hard to see the crowned heads with so many umbrellas and camouflaged heads.
Do you see any umbrellas??? You would say that the rain has stopped, but it hasn’t!
What actually happens: with the advancement of the coronation ceremony, the world has become more focused on the screen, and therefore any open umbrella blocks the view.
So that, beyond the show on the screen, a funny show begins on the lawn: if someone passes through the crowd with an open umbrella, everyone behind him, on a fairly large radius, starts shouting: “close the umbrella!!!”
As soon as that person closes the umbrella, the applause start. Invariably, whenever I hear a roar of applause from one side or the other, I know it’s not from the coronation, but from the fact that someone closed their umbrella, following the public’s request…
There was a funny reaction in the park when the Archbishop of Canterbury took the Royal Crown and headed towards Charles.
And I had a revelation, don’t laugh: I felt… just like we do at Easter, at Resurrection! Because, after the Archbishop put the crown on the King’s head and said: “God Save the King”, the whole park said in a chorus: “God Save the King!”. Impressive!
And that’s it, after I “took the light”, I took the way back, without suspecting that the return will be even harder than coming here.
ROAD CLOSED
You can’t imagine how much the police made us go round and how much the fences confused us!!! All the roads I knew from previous visits were now just traps: you took one street or another, and then you went back to where you had left from, then went around more and entered yet another trap. Basically, from Hyde Park I could have arrived in France faster than at my London hotel.
And we realized one thing: the authorities did nothing else but put us all in a big “reservation”, in nature, so that they won’t have to worry that we could populate too many areas of the city, which were difficult to control. Because I wondered why the hell they didn’t install more screens on the route, so that you could stop if you could no longer walk and watch the ceremony from where you were.
I don’t think that was their plan, but to send us all to one place, if it was already “fully booked” on the King’s route. And so, we stayed on a meadow with a screen, toilets, tracks with food, first aid point and so on, where it rained cats and dogs.
AFTER THE CORONATION OF KING CHARLES
Just two or three hours after the event, I start on that road that I didn’t have access to when I should have had.
Although the fences are still standing, there are some small openings where you can pass.
I make selfies and take pictures of the places so well known to me, which now are “costumed” for the Coronation.
There are still a lot of people on the street that leads to Buckingham (The Mall). The King is still in the Palace, considering the raised royal flag.
In order to compensate for all the loss today, I take pictures in all the places where I know the royal couple have passed and I keep doing this until I get to the Palace.
I somehow go against the tide and envy everyone, because they probably saw the “people of the day” in the flesh and blood.
Left and right, beyond the small fences, you have a clear picture of the fact that some actually came here a few days before and lived on the sidewalk until today, day and night. Abandoned tents, fisherman’s chairs, clothes, sleeping bags, not to mention containers, bottles, boxes, umbrellas…
I wonder how on earth they went to a toilet, because I think that none of them risked losing their place!
Some still use their chairs to take pictures from a height.
In the square in front of the Palace, the standers specially installed for the ceremony were clearly one of the VIP places. Who could have stayed here?… I am definitely, officially cursing them :). Those people saw the carriage coming and going, they also saw the balcony well.
Me too, I can see the balcony well now, only there is no one there…
One thing: while I was coming all the way here, in front of the fence, the King has already left the Palace! The Royal Flag at the top has been replaced with the United Kingdom Flag.
Damn, he could have stayed a little longer, to give us, the latecomers, a surprise.
The tents reserved for the press are full of TV crews, journalists ready to go live with the planet. I look for ours, but I don’t see them.
Some are on break, others are on air.
If King Charles is not at the Palace any longer, I am finally making my way back to the hotel. I’m like a robot after so much walking. And with wrinkled feet because of the very wet shoes.
I stop at a store that sells rain-resistant shoes, but not before noticing the fact that on the famous advertising screen in Piccadilly Circus, there is a huge picture from the Coronation. Cool!
By the way: Your Majesty, you owe me a pair of Asics!…
CORONATION LONDON
From the time I came until I left, I liked to observe how London prepared for the Coronation.
In shops, museums, hotels, restaurants, on the streets, in markets or train stations, I saw how people mobilized to decorate the places. Some even made an acrostic poem.
The city is garnished, several shop owners did their best in arranging their own spaces.
The bars were not left behind either, especially since the world will clearly drink a glass in honor of the King. Or two. Or three…
CORONATION SOUVENIRS
Without exception, all the bookstore windows I passed by had books about Charles, the Queen, and even children’s books with “Prince Charles” in the foreground. Taken out from forgotten places, for sure.
To celebrate the Coronation, people created (or just put out) various souvenirs, some useful, some edible, some just trinkets in the house. To be honest, I expected to see a lot more, I was actually slightly disappointed.
On the other hand, something surprised me: the day after the Coronation, first thing in the morning, I found in a store postcards, mugs and kitchen towels with images from the Coronation! God, how fast they moved!!!
I bought them, of course hihi.
Otherwise, not much in the shops. Everything I found, I photographed:
I’ve seen King Charles around London in all forms, at all ages and on many types of products: I’ve seen him as a doll, on the flag, I’ve seen him on mugs, biscuit tins, kitchen napkins, t-shirts, on postcards, I even saw a Lego in life size. And in a lot of photos and posters!
I liked the street more than the souvenir shops. On the streets, where you didn’t even expect it, you came across something related to the King or the event.
At the intersection at Marble Arch, a huge crown cut my path. It’s lucky, I told myself, especially since it’s no longer crowded in the area. So I didn’t miss the opportunity to make a selfie:
But I became a Queen a little later… If I had known that I would wear the crown on my head, I would have bought from a gentleman the live ermine that he was walking around the center of London, so that I could have a royal touch :).
It went, however, without the ermine, especially since I became Queen not at the Palace, but at a restaurant hihi. There, the owner has put a royal chair and a basket full of crowns at the entrance, for customers who want to become King/Queen in an instant. I wanted this:
And, speaking of my collection of mailboxes, I stepped with my waterproof shoes on the monogram of King Charles III, which will soon appear on mailboxes, British passports and official buildings.
I walked almost 29,000 steps on Coronation Day! In order to see the King in the flesh on May 6, 2023. I didn’t see him… On the other hand, my flesh and bones ache, ma man :).
It was a memorable day. For me, it definitely was!
NEWSPAPERS ABOUT THE CORONATION
The next day, I went to the newspaper shop first! I shocked the seller when I bought a bunch of newspapers that couldn’t even fit on the counter… She was one step away from closing the shop after I left.
I bought newspapers 4 days in a row. Many for me, some for my friends. (And I would still have taken more, if I could have found some, because they were sold like hotcakes.) I got muscle fever by carrying them every day!
When I packed my luggage, I weighed them, out of curiosity, but also out of the need to know how to divide them in my suitcases: I have 19.55 kg of newspapers!!!!!
So, what can I say at the end of my visit to London: Long live the King! He really made me exercise! :))
