Whilst is a British way of saying “while”, though now that I think of it, I’ve never actually heard anyone use it before. Maybe on the BBC. Anyway, the Mrs. and I did not travel all the way to London just for the purposes of coffeeneuring, we had tickets for the NFL game at Wembley to watch Buffalo lose to Jacksonville in person. Also, we hadn’t been to merry ol’ England before, and wanted to check it out before our little one shows up and keeps us under house arrest.
We stayed on the South Bank right next to the London Eye, which it turns out, is just a giant Ferris Wheel. As our luck would have it, the night we decided to ride in it, it broke down for half an hour keeping us hostage at 200 feet with a pod full of friendly strangers. Not that it happens frequently, but I would recommend using the restroom before boarding, just in case. Especially if you’re pregnant.
We walked all over London, scouting out areas we wanted to see and places to come back to, with a little random wandering mixed in there. We watched a rugby match in a pub over fish and chips (and mushy peas), strolled through several of the city’s parks, popped on by the British Museum and shielded our eyes to the giant strobe light that is Piccadilly Circus at night. We rode the tube around, tried to figure out which bridge was called what, and spotted Her Majesty feeding peanuts to a squirrel. (One of those things isn’t true).
When it came time for coffee, we took a couple Santander bicycles, or Boris Bikes as they are affectionately known, and rode along the Thames from Waterloo to the Winchester Market. It being Sunday, and also daylight savings the night before (not to our knowledge, of course), there was nothing there. So we settled for some coffee at the Caffé Nero close by. The Mrs. got a yogurt and I had a scone with clotted cream, which sounds disgusting but was in fact pretty tasty.
London was a great time, and it was refreshing to be a tourist in an English-speaking country for a change. It’s tough to say whether or not the city is bike-friendly, because one the one hand there are a good number of bike lanes and we saw plenty of cyclists, but on the other hand, a lot of those bike lanes were pretty awful. I will say that I finally understand why Bromptons are so popular, however, as you’re unlikely to fit anything larger than an umbrella with you on the tube.
- Bicyclist Abroad
Coffeeneur Quick Stats:
| Location: | Caffé Nero 3 Cathedral St, London, UK [website] |
| Date: | Sunday, October 25th |
| Drink: | Coffee |
| Distance: | 3.25km / 2 mi |
Welcome to London mate, glad you enjoyed our city!
ReplyDeleteYou're right, it's hard to know whether it's pro cycling or not. On the one hand the bike hire idea is a brilliant idea, especially as it's so cheap. But on the other hand the traffic is horrendous and it will be interesting to see what the new raft of cycle paths in town does.
When you come back next (hopefully not too far away!) there might be much better infrastructure in place to make cycling even more fun. If you want any recommendations of bike friendly places to check out in London next time feel free to give me a shout via http://bikesy.co.uk/contactus .
All the best Jake and safe travels.
Tony.
Thanks, Tony. We'll definitely be back to London, there is just so much to do there. And thank you, that's a generous offer-- I'd love to get some pointers next time we're in town.
DeleteCheers!