Another Sunday of missing church, but being out in His creation is good also. Mind you, the streets of London I think 'man' had a hand in building.
Yes it is that time of year again. The Mayor of London sky Ride! Big son is coming again. Getting him out of bed was a mission! Bags packed, Garmin strapped on and off we go.
We were going to use the led ride to London again, as I said last year, this is just so much fun, and we all met up at Bromley South. I did say to Big Son last year, that we didn't actually have do the whole ride around London, we could just find a nice spot to chill and relax and wait for the ride home. But I had my Garmin, I wanted to know how much of London was covered by the no cars signs, he was not impressed!
I am not good at judging how many people there are in a group, but here, take a look a just some of them behind me,
We were soon on our way. Up the road towards London Town! And I know that the ride leader knows how to flatten out the roads, a kind of serpentine effect, but I will know for sure when I upload the geeky stats, which so far I still not done.
Pushing through the traffic, stopping the cars from going along their merry way, with all their pollution pouring out of their exhausts. Some of the drivers did get irate, but most waved and smiled and just sat patiently.
There were a couple of incidents on the way there, a little girl kind of toppled over her handle bars, and got a grazed knee. But after a plaster a hug from mum she was soon back to riding. Then at the other end of the age scale, one of the more mature ladies fell off her bike, but she was ok as well. And then just to top it off, and to show its not just females that fall off their bikes an elderly gentleman had a bit of a topple as well.
We met up with the Crystal Palace led ride and converged into an even bigger group, we continued our ride into London Town. There were all sorts of bikes, little ones, big ones, trikes 'bents and one with a box of kids in the front!
We arrived in London, and after some congrats all round, and a reminder of what time we shall be all leaving it was time to explore London. But Big Son could only think of his tummy, and to be honest that was all I thought of too. We decided not to join in the Sky ride just yet, but to go and hunt down some grub.
We ended up in Convent Garden. We were crossing bridges that were not free from traffic, and boy was it busy! We had a lovely Sandwich in a pub, I believe its called the Punch and Judy, (bloody expensive though) I only bought out £25 pounds, and Big Son had already tucked into some of that at Bromley for an energy drink! We had both missed out on breakfast.
After being suitable refreshed we tried to find our way to join in on the sky ride. It didn't take that long. We started to ride towards the bridges and tunnels, and Tower of London. But by now it was raining! (Just as well we didn't want to chill in the sun) We got to Tower of London, and it was getting harder. I managed to persuade Big Son to take a picture, here take a look.
So after this we hid under some bridges, and then decided to spend the last of our cash on a cappuccino, we nursed that for about 2 hours before our ride home.
Anyway, I am going on and on again. (as usual) The ride back was just as good as the ride there, the marshalling was brilliant, the atmosphere fantastic and a few irate car drivers to make us smile.
Geeky stats for you. I did my usual 'forgetting to turn it off and on' but I think I have most of our moving time recorded.
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