Summer Sundaes on Two wheels

Pootling round London with friends in glorious sunshine is what summers should be full of!

The deal of The Sunday London ride is that peeps can blast their way to Hyde Park Corner at whatever speed and route they like in order to then pootle about the Capital at conversational pace, stopping for coffees, cakes and fuel knowing that they can then blast themselves home again when it suits them.

The only thing that vaguely matters beyond that is that there is a destination and ideally someone who has half an idea for a route - although the details can change on the day.

 

 

A couple of weeks ago brought six of us to Hyde Park Corner with a plot to go to  Trinity Buoy Wharf to Fat Boys Diner. It's a place worth a visit - Trinity Wharf is the original home of the organisation responsible for lighting up the hazards, estuaries, channels and harbours of the British coastline which has saved thousands and thousands of lives. A fascinating and humbling achievement. It is also where Michael Faraday had his workshop. 

 
In my humble opinion, it's not a great route cycle - it's a bit desolate, large pot holes to hide a bicycle and busy roads full of stroppy drivers. But at least two of our group had never been there before so it was a bit of a must!

The 50s American diners car is a bit of a gimmick. Having said that the guy that runs it works his socks off, truly, to keep everyone fed and watered - and the breakfasts are goooood!

We met up with two more friends, saw a Banksy and sat enjoying the company in some shade. The next plan was to take the Emirates river crossing - a ski lift without the mountains. Some of us chose the ferry crossing instead and as we separated we went past a rather scary scene that looked like something out of The Bill. Except it wasn't. There had obviously been a violent attack earlier and those evidence numbers were in situ. The Boys in Blue have a very grim time.

 

The ferry was fab - we arrived just as it was closing and we sailed across to Woowich, past The Cutty Sark and regrouped by The Thames Barrier for another drink!

Back into London and a lovely afternoon in the scorching sunshine at Look Mum No Hands!

A fun day of a Sunday - great peeps as ever and hopefully there will be opportunities to go and look at other parts of London on a Sunday.

A week later we were the same but different group at Hyde Park Corner. This time we were doing a per ride ride - ensuring we were back at 11.30 to swoop up the ride leader (who couldn't be there earlier).

Five of us headed westwards - Hyde Park was full of runners doing a charity run raising money for Breast Cancer.

We rode up Milll-yan-airs Row all trying to sound like Dell Boy and weaved our way to Portobello Road them on to the Regents Canal towpath. I picked roads as I saw them - no Garmin or map required and we arrived at The Boathouse Cafe at 10.30 - plenty of time to sit and enjoy the day over light refreshments.

 

 

Back at HPC to find Gus looking like he'd been there for ages (hahaha!) then we headed west - I chose to avoid the A4 as A roads aren't a great deal of fun and I managed to pick a route for the second time in a day that not everyone had done before. 

The most shocking thing of the day was that I found two pubs that I've been going to for years that Gus has never, ever been to! The Old Ship was doing a Sunday Lunch with Yorkshire puss the size of only slightly deflated footballs!!

As we cycled down one particular road, it turned out to be much more of a Memory Lane for one of our group as they used to live here but hadnt been back for quite some time.  This just emphasised another magic moment of these rides - London is on one level so big that it has pockets of memories for all of us.  So much to see whichever direction you pedal.

A drink or so later and I headed east to meet up with peeps in Regents Park. The others headed west.

Sundays are a really great way to spend a day on two wheels in London! Thank you peeps!  The rest of my pics are here