Me and the Queen

Okay, I admit it; I didn't actually talk to the Queen. I didn't really see her, either. But, she did disrupt my Thursday evening run.

Today's route

I was supposed to do a 16-miler today and picked phoenix park to do it. I had planed a nice route circling the park inside its perimeter, but the Queen prevented that. Well, actually it was the hundreds of Garda keeping vehicles out of the park and stopping people from getting too close to the royal route. I had to improvise a little and took the modified route above.
It was actually quite nice. A cool evening, unusually few people in the park, and no traffic. Just the Garda, the Queen, and me ;-)
The Queen is here this week as the first British monarch in a hundred years to visit the island. The last visit was before Ireland was an independent republic. Next week, Obama will drop by! According to a local, security for the Queen visit will be tighter than for Obama. Some old guard IRA promised to cause trouble for the British visit, while no one here objects to Obama visiting. For him, the Garda will be on the lookout for foreign trouble makers. By the time the figured out where he is, and where on the map Ireland is, Obama will have come and gone.