mmmmmm woke up at 1am wide awake, finally got back to sleep at 4am for about an hour, this is not going to be good. We had a list of things we needed to buy in London before we head off on the bikes again.
The view from our B&B
First priority was some warm bike wear i.e. waterproof and warm gloves as we have pretty much everything else. We caught the underground into the city and when we got there I felt like a kid at the zoo. London is a big city yet still manages to possess style and a good smattering of 'oldy worldy'.
We didnt set out to see the touristy bits as today was just for shopping but regardless I was impressed with every street we walked.
Having an issue with my iPhone trying to get a local SIM card to work so we popped into the Apple store to ask one of their gurus. I must say that the Apple store was huge and the bloke who helped me was very nice. Nevermind that the solution didnt work but I think that may be that I need to be connected to the Internet to perform the fix.....can you see the irony there :) It's a bit of a pain as it means we are using our very expensive Australian SIM to provide limited Internet connectivity. I spoke to a bloke at an Internet Cafe down the road from where we are staying and he is going to let me take my laptop down to connect to the Internet so I can try and fix the problem.
Did I mention that London is big?
We went into a store that sold tweed flat caps (imagine an MG convertible on a country lane). Sandy put her foot down and suggested I'd look like the tourists who come to Australia and buy Akubra hats.....they just dont quite look right with their sandals and socks. The flat cap may have to wait until I get my LandRover.
I learnt a new pedestrian crossing rule today; green man = walk, red man = walk carefully
Visited the coolest map store I've ever seen and after some foraging came out with the 'UK Cycle Route Planner' and a small British Road Atlas. We think with these two and asking locals we should be OK. We are now planning our exit from London which I think will take some doing. Staying an extra night might be in order to get the body clocks fully adjusted and then hit the road on Sunday. I'm hoping for some sort of meteorological miracle to bring about some warmer weather.
Every encounter with the locals has been extremely friendly, it's not hard to have a chat with people here. A chap in the map shop we bumped into took an interest in what we were doing and promptly started pouring over the maps to help our cause. The lady at the tube station spent a very long time explaining how the system works and our best options. Customer service is alive and well in London.
My first 'tube' ride...OK it wasnt that exciting for Sandy
The cycle commuters here put us to shame, these guys (and gals) ride hard. They dont ride among the cars, they ride with the cars. We stayed and watched a steady stream of commuters ride past the window of the laundrette and the pace would rival the Saturday group ride. Lots of styles of bikes but mostly flat bar road bikes. The one thing that all bikes have in common is full mudguards. I thought there would be more internal geared bikes but people it appears, ride for speed not endurance.
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