Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Rides and Touring => Topic started by: LittleWheelsandBig on 21 January, 2017, 01:15:17 pm
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A group of Thai folk are coming over to ride LEL in late July and sticking around for a few days afterwards, staying in Lee Valley Hostel. They'd like to visit some London tourist sights by bike on the following Sunday and I am planning on leading them round a chunk of Bill Carnaby's London Sightseer Audax route (permission granted).
I expect that some folk may take the Overground to/ from Bethnal Green station to minimise time in the saddle within what might otherwise be a slow-moving 80+km ride along both banks of the river with plenty of photostops. My thought is to go no further east than the Cutty Sark (possibly not that far east), though they might enjoy the cablecar. I am not sure how far up the Thames to go - turn back near Battersea Park or Vauxhall Bridge perhaps?
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Tourists always seem to like the Greenwich foot tunnel so you could ride through Canary Wharf and then cross the river at the Greenwich foot tunnel, view the Cutty Sark and then start heading back into central London from that point? If you're lucky both lifts in the Greenwich foot tunnel may be working. At least the foot tunnel doesn't involve the faff of getting people to pay, unlike the cable car.
If you went as far west as Battersea Park you could then cross Albert Bridge and head north to go view Imperial, the National History Museum, Royal Albert Hall etc. and continue through Hyde Park.
I can provide a gpx track for the Sightseer if you don't already have the full route.
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I can provide a gpx track for the Sightseer if you don't already have the full route.
Thanks but Bill will be providing me an updated route in Summer.
I figure that several tired LELers will be looking for not too much distance overall, considering they'll have to pack their bikes that evening for the next day's flight. Some non-Audaxing family members will be along too. I was thinking of Battersea Park (and Hyde Park, good idea) as being a natural western edge of the loop.
We'll probably be riding down to the Thames along the Lea Valley path or parallel roads, so the Greenwich foot tunnel will either be the first or last sight on the ride, other than the Olympic Park. I've been told that the must-do photo-stops are Big Ben, Tower Bridge and the London Eye.
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I quite like the cable car but the approach from the north isn't exactly attractive. If they've got any interest in engineering I like the Thames Barrier too, but it's in entirely the wrong direction for the more traditional tourist stuff ...