Maritime Meanders

Bike riding on Tower Bridge

Picnic lunch

Old and new

Susie, Harry and Jane

Its typical London weather, grey skies and drizzling rain. I set off for today’s adventure dressed in hidden lycra and with a back pack. The tourist trail today is via a different mode of transport, a bike. The weather report says the drizzle with stop by 10am, we will see.

As I enter the shop the familiar smell of grease hits me and I procure a bike for the day. The usual crappy service from Sydney bike shops is repeated here. Are bike shops the same around the world?

Now its time to risk life and limb and ride along the Thames to Greenwich. Thanks to the Thames cycling culture tour I have a map to follow and lots of points of interest along the way to explore. The first major point for me is The Angel pub, visited by Captain Cook when preparing for his voyage to Australia. Yeah, finally something to mention Cook and even mentions Australia. Double points. On I go on bike path and quiet roads to see all kinds of maritime history. Where the Mayflower left to sail to America, where JMW Turner went to see one of the ships from the Battle of Trafalgar for his famous painting, more places Samuel Pepys visited and where Michael Caine was born.

Samuel Pepys is famous for the diary he kept in the 1600’s, you can even get his diary as an app. If you believe all the signs he supposedly went to every pub, dock and intersection in London, I am not so sure. I think people just like to add it onto the sign at the front door for gullible tourists.

Finally I make it to one of my favorite places, Greenwich. Time to lock up the bike and go into M & S to get a picnic lunch. Hmm, this is where the fun begins I figure out how to undo the lock but can’t figure out how to attach it. Do I risk it and leave the bike unlocked? Maybe not, everyone else has locked their bike. I cross the road and look at everyone else’s locks similar to mine and get and idea on how to do it. Back into my bike parking spot a bit of stuffing around and success. I can get lunch.

With a picnic hanging from my handlebars I pedal down to my special spot where I found the fossil in Week 1 and take a break.

The plan was to come back the same way, but I am feeling game and decide to cross the Thames and go onwards into new territory. To cross the Thames I enter the tunnel Jane and I found last year that goes under the Thames and was used by dockyard workers in the early 20^th century. Its quite fun to ride in the dark and damp tunnel and I can even ride into the lift and do a u-turn. Now that was a bit of stylish riding.

Onto Canary Wharf, there are masses of officeworkers out doing their lunchtime exercise along the route. They would give Ussain Bolt a run for his money they are the fastest runners I have ever seen. Make a few wrong turns but get back onto the right way and find where Captain Cook’s daughter, Elizabeth was christened.  The roads are a little bit busy but manage to find all the points of interest, feel like a modern day explorer with a pushbike.

Now there are a few more tourists around on the road, I turn a corner and see the top of Tower Bridge. That explains the tourists I am nearly there. Into the throngs of tourists I go, there is no way in Sydney you could ride a bike through this many people but anything seems to go in London. I do a lap around the Tower of London just for fun and then giggle as I make my way across Tower Bridge. It seems funny to be crossing this famous bridge on a Trek Hybrid with shifter gears. A quick sprint past Boris’s place and I am back to my starting point.

Time to meet Jane for the train ride to see Susie (Jane’s sister) and Harry. We have a totally yummy British feast of fish and chips with champagne and catch up on all the gossip. The champagne came from Royal Windsor Polo Club where Susie works. Harry is now officially taller than me, he has grown a lot in the last year. Susie had us rolling around with laughter giving us her version of our holiday.