For my birthday my sister booked me onto an East End Cycling tour. So it was on a bright Sunday morning after having gone to Proms In The Park that I set off from my sisters flat in Bayswater on my bike to Islington. The sight of the large number of bikes chained up gave away where we supposed to meet up. After having a cup of tea we set off. Quite a varied bunch of people with a wide range of bicycles including one person who had hired one for the day.
Cycling along the canel path our bikes produed a strange rumbling sound. It took me a while to work out what was causing. What gave it away was the abbreviation CEGB on the concrete slabs making up the nice canel path. Obviously it along the canel are running electricity cables in a conduit under the canel path. A little less exicting than I would have like to have thought.
On our way we passed one of the house used as the home of the Channel 4’s Big Breakfast. Quite strange to think that it was on TV when I was at school over ten years ago but its still a feature. The area behind it has been ear marked for the Olympic games so its rather quiet location may well disappear with all the new development going on.
Arriving in Canary Wharf by bicycle was a novelty as I’ve always turned up there in the past via the tube and the DLR. Got a better feel as to that there is something there =
rather than just offices.
Going past the ExCeL centre was quite interesting for the warships moored up with the sea cadets out in their dinghys sailing past it. Guess it must have been an arms fair =
about to start there.
We had a stop off at 3 Mills Island which is now mainly a television study. Unfortunately whilst we were there one of the group who had popped off to Tesco’s had his bike stolen sadly.
The Lunch stop was at an old American Diner imported from the US at the old Trinity House training and maintenance site. More fascinating than the diner was the homes that had been built out of containers. Quite strange to see containers with windows in them for a change. Some were balanced quite precariously. On the other side of the river had a good look at the Dome at eye level.
Final stop of the day was the The Narrow Boat for a drink before heading back home.
Have to say chatted the most to Sue, an accountant living up in Wandworth and working in Lambeth. Certainly the most interesting of the lot and quite a keen cyclist. Unfortunately for me she’s already got a boyfriend. Ce la vie.
An interesting day revealing parts of London that I didn’t even know about.