It's powerful to stand in line for 14 hours to see a coffin.

We retired after a few minutes

messenger and voila!

London stood in the long line to see Queen Elizabeth's coffin, and after 7 minutes it broke.

He spoke to Brits who had been queuing for 12 hours and more and realized they weren't crazy, they just wanted to be a part of this big thing.

It would be great if they sold hummus at the end of the line

Salon associate, courier and voila!

to London

09/18/2022

Sunday, September 18, 2022, 5:10 p.m. Updated: 6:54 p.m.

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On video: Hundreds of thousands stood in line for hours to say goodbye to the Queen on the last day before the funeral (Photo: Reuters)

My grandfather loved hummus.

is very.

But he hated queues even more.

This is the reason I never managed to get him to dine with me at "Abu Hassan" in Jaffa.

No matter how much I tried to convince him that this is the pinnacle of culinary creation that Israel has to offer, he refused to stand in the short line at the entrance to the old institution.

"We didn't drive the British out of here to stand in line for hummus," he summed up the matter with his characteristic lightness.

I was reminded of my late grandfather as I entered the end of the monstrous queue that took over the south bank of the River Thames in London.

Hundreds of thousands of people have passed through this line, which stretches for about seven kilometers on average, since last Thursday.

Those who reached the end, after waiting for long hours (sometimes over 24 hours), can say that they saw the coffin of the late Queen of England, Elizabeth II.

Hours of standing in line to see a cabinet for five seconds.

There is not even hummus at the end.

Personally, after seven minutes in line, under the cold London sun, I packed myself up and left the line.

It turns out that my grandfather, who fought the British in his youth as a celebrated commander in the Echelon, knew what he was talking about. There are probably a million differences between Israeli culture and English culture, but it is not impossible that the biggest difference between us comes in the way we treat standing in lines. Just remember last June, So all the news releases and the pages of the newspapers opened with reports about queues in the National Guard.

Not a natural disaster, not a war, not a political default - just people who had to wait two or three hours in line at the counter on their way to vacation.

The news broadcasts dealt with the issue non-stop.

The websites offered tips for saving time in line.

"This is how you will pack trolleys with clothes for two weeks and avoid the queue for luggage delivery", offered excited tourist magazines.

Nimble businessmen began to offer VIP routes at the airport for hundreds of shekels to bypass the queue.

No one thought to offer the requested tip: arrive early and be patient.

What, we're British?

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Mainly busy with "being there".

Queue for the Queen's Cabinet, London (Photo: Amit Salonim)

Queuing is part of being English.

Part of the myth.

Like drinking tea, gossiping about the royal family and controversial dental hygiene.

To be sure, this is not a fairy tale.

Last June I stood in line at McDonald's at Earl's Court in London.

After five minutes of standing in line that felt like an eternity, I politely asked the guy before how long he'd been waiting.

He looked at the clock and answered without blinking: "About an hour."

I gave up the meal.

The English pride themselves on their mythical ability to stand in line.

In their eyes, this is evidence of politeness, courtesy and above all, patience.

In the eyes of the rest of the world, this is naivety, or translated into Israeli: suckers.

It seems as strange to us as the strange concept of driving on the left side of the road.

The most famous tournament in the kingdom is held every year at Wimbledon.

Thousands of people, and sometimes even tens of thousands of people, take a place in the wee hours of the night, bring light refreshments and heavy beer, and wait for hours until they open the gates to the most prestigious tennis tournament of all.

Not everyone will enter.

In fact, the majority will not enter.

Entrance to the complex is on a first-come, first-served basis, where the wealthy ticket holders do not have to stand in line but simply enter.

In other words: people line up at Wimbledon not to watch a tennis match, but to be a part of something.

Standing in line is the event itself for them.

You can look down on it and see it as herds, but that would be a superficial point of view from an outside observer.

Those who happen to be in London in June are invited to come and see the happy queue at Wimbledon.

"Commoners" who took time off from work spend time together with family and friends under the warm London sun, and just feel like part of something big.

Some will manage to enter the compound and will also eat strawberries in cream - but even those who won't, will be able to say that they were there.

And so, it seems that almost all residents of London, and perhaps all citizens of Great Britain, are busy in recent days with "being there".

From the outside, you can look at it with cynicism.

Millions of people mourning a 96-year-old lady who passed away peacefully.

I wish for all of us.

But behind the cloud of cynicism hides a very simple and even moving human solidarity.

Some will say that there is also a position here and a display of power.

A reminder to the incoming King Charles who is the true sovereign in the United Kingdom.

The mobs loved his mother, but the mobs are also the ones who executed King Charles I.

His trial, by the way, was held in the exact same place where Queen Elizabeth's coffin is currently placed.

The British Parliament presents an up-to-date map of the queue on its social pages.

You can see the length of the queue and the average time it will take whoever is currently joining it to stand until they reach the queen's cabinet.

I join the end of the line at 13:30.

According to the latest update I will cover seven kilometers in 14 hours.

At best I'll get in line at three in the morning.

There's no way I'm standing that long for anything, but the chances of me doing it to see a coffin are even lower.

More in Walla!

"Security nightmare": Leaders from around the world are flocking to London for the Queen's funeral

To the full article

part of the English being.

Signage for the Queen's Palace, London (Photo: Amit Salonim)

And yet, this huge human caterpillar slowly and patiently drags him along for miles.

Hundreds of thousands of people have passed this way in recent days.

The latest estimates speak of 750,000 people who will pass by the coffin until the funeral tomorrow.

The sight of the masses eliminates any cynicism.

There are no "crazy" people here, but completely normal people.

Some are young, some are old.

At the weekend there were people who stood for more than 24 hours.

Some of them understand for sure that there is no sense in standing for so long just to look at a closed closet for a few seconds.

But they want to be there, they want to be a part of it.

And also: they want to send a message.

This is the order of the hour for them.

A bit like, apart from thousands of differences, Israelis who volunteer to continue serving in the reserves even though they have reached the age of exemption.

While there are many reservists who manage to avoid service and obtain exemptions, there are still those who feel an obligation to be part of this infrastructure of Israeliness, even if it means spending long periods away from home and family.

We don't call them "crazy", and we certainly don't call them "suckers" (sometimes they call themselves that) - we call them "the beautiful Israeli".

To a similar extent, this is how the British see those standing in line in London.

They do not contribute to the security stability of the country like reserve servants, but they preserve an ancient British tradition.

Their loving attitude towards the late queen is beyond that of subjects in a monarchy, but more like grandchildren who get to say goodbye to their grandmother.

The feeling is that this is almost a family line, and this family has hundreds of thousands of faces.

The long line contains all kinds of types, but they are all there for the same reason - to be there when it happens.

There's a whole group of black nuns there, there's an Indian couple who came all the way from New Delhi to attend the event - and there's two young guys handing out trivia quizzes to pass the time.

The feeling in the air is that of a festive and happy happening, it's almost hard to feel that this is part of the farewell events for a national symbol who has passed away.

A feeling of a family turn.

Signage for the Queen's Palace, London (Photo: Amit Salonim)

It was probably the longest line in history, and the people standing in it are proud of that fact.

The encounter with the Queen's coffin is not really why they came there.

"Thirty years from now we will be able to tell little Sarah that she stood in line with her grandmother to see the Queen," says a new mother named Alicia who came to the line with her baby and her older mother.

The grandmother, by the way, said that she stood in line to see Winston Churchill's coffin which was placed in the same place.

"Even then there were thousands who came, but we didn't stand that long because there were no security checks at all. It wasn't as organized as it is now, we just came, headed to the closet and moved on," says the proud grandmother, who could have taken advantage of the shorter queue that was intended for the disabled and elderly, but she said she prefers to experience this moment together with everyone.

That's the whole story.

The masterly order in which the Torah takes place is not self-evident, certainly to a person who comes from a country where "order" is a rude word like Israel.

It is not possible to "reserve" a place in the queue, and the only way to get to the end is to stand all the way.

The British take care of this by handing out numbered wristbands, these allow those in line to go out for a moment to the bathroom or to buy food (however, some have stood in line for over a day) - but polite ushers prevent people from cutting or being absent for a long period of time.

To be fair, it doesn't seem like anyone would have done it even if there were no ushers along the route.

When you move away from the queue, it disappears in the memory.

London continues to exist as a large and vibrant city with a once-in-a-century historical event taking place in its heart.

And suddenly I hear a loud scream.

A woman breaks down and screams "NOOOOOO" in pain.

But then I look and see that it is a young woman who discovered that she missed her bus.

Her cry sounded foreign in the exemplary politeness of the British, who are each digesting the end of the Elizabethan era in their own way.

Thirty years from now each of them will remember exactly where they were when this era ended.

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