6.5.2011 Ride: London, Day 1

Waking up to the first morning in London.  All went smoothly on the flight over and I was successful in getting in a bike ride yesterday after I arrived.  More on that in a moment.

Back tracking to the beginning of the trip.  The first leg of my flight was to Detroit.  Our flight seemed representative of just how depressed that city is as there were only five people on the plane. I assumed that that had to be an anomaly or else the airline would quickly cancel Detroit as a destination from the Fayetteville area.  However, flying into the city, even from the air, there was a vacant quality to the metro area of Detroit as car traffic appeared very light.  Landing, there were plenty of planes parked at the gates but I was struck by how quiet it was inside the terminal.  When I found the Departure monitors to check on my flight to London, I did several takes in disbelief of what I saw, or didn't see...

On 10 monitors, only 5 flight departures listed.

Escalators in Detroit airport

London was certainly a different story.  Fortunately, coming in on a Sunday, the traffic was relatively light and taking the Underground from the airport to Downtown with a suitcase in tow was not a problem.  On the train, I struck up a conversation with a woman who was traveling with her family.  She was living in Ohio but was born in DeQueen, Arkansas.  Who would've thought.

Arriving in a new city for the first time was fun but, of course, I was eager to get on a bike not only to get my daily ride in but to experience London by bike.  I met up with Carol and David at the hotel with plans to meet the mother of one of Carol's students for dinner later in the day.  In between, they would walk around Kensington and Hyde Park while I bike rode.

There had been some very light sprinkles all day but nothing much to worry about.  However, when we caught a taxi, it was raining harder.  The cab driver dropped me off at a bike station near Hyde Park while he took Carol and David further on.  I was somewhat familiar with how the bike stations worked from when I used them in Montreal.  This was good and bad as it took us over an hour in Montreal to navigate their system.  I was hoping I would not have a repeat situation of that here in London and I looked online beforehand to try and become as familiar with it as I could.  Alas, easy access was not to be.  The trouble seemed to be in the units being able to read my credit card.  I tried for 40 minutes, in the rain, to get the system to work, running my card over and over, walking from one station to another in the hopes of finding a unit that liked my card.  I would have success in bits and pieces.  First getting accepted by the system but then failing to be read to get an access code for a bike.  With time running out, I started walking towards where we were to meet for dinner resigned to the fact of needing to ride much later that evening.  On the way, I passed another bike station and tried again. Success!

A casual ride through Hyde Park was appealing but time was running out and I needed to meet up with the others for dinner.  So, this was Baptism by fire as I took to the busy avenue in the rain on, what was for me, the wrong side on the street.  Riding on an opposite side of road is not difficult in itself but it's watching out for the cars turning that creates the challenge as cars seem to be coming out of the oddest places.  While I'm juggling that, I'm also trying to find the road of our host in a city that does not have well marked street signs.  And, it keeps raining harder. 

Fortunately, I recognize a street that has a bike station that I had planned to park the bike but, for the life of me, I can't find the street I'm looking for...Adam and Eve something.  I circle around the block a couple of times trying to locate it and ask a couple of people.  The man from New Zealand was, of course, no help but even a local who was familiar with the streets around there never heard of Adam and Eve Street.  "Is that a bar?' he asked.  Sounds like a good name for a bar, I thought.

Back on to Kensington and I stared at Argyle St., where I planned to leave the bike.  I turned around and spotted a very narrow alley.  Hopping on the sidewalk, I walked closer and there, posted on the brick wall of a building, Adam and Eve Mew.  Riding down, I spotted two familiar backsides, Carol and David.

On Adam and Eve Mew, off of a very busy Kensington Rd.

We found the residence but no one was home and no lights were on.  While Carol and David tried to figure out what was going on, I continued riding.  Back on Kensington and off and on side roads that were much quieter.  Sometimes it was hard to tell if I was headed down a one-way street, especially since all the cars were parked in the same direction.  But, I quickly discovered that the direction of the parked cars had little bearing on whether the street was one-way or not. this landed me in trouble one time as I turned down a street to three lanes of cars all headed in my direction.  That was a one-way street!

Two way side street.

 By the time I found myself back on Kensington with full traffic, I felt like a veteran of big city riding.  

 

I was able to squeeze in a full hour hour of riding before needing to head back.  Exactly how much I rode is anyone's guess but based on other city rides I will venture about 8 miles.  

A couple strolling down Adam & Eve Mew.

A VERY wet puppy after my ride.  Fortunately, our host had some dry clothes for me.

Isabelle, Carol and Angelica, our very gracious hostess for the evening.

Angelica gave us a small tour of the city and then treated us to a great mushroom-risotto dinner by candlelight since the electricity was out.

As it turned out, it was a good thing I got my ride in before dinner because we did not get back to the hotel until close to midnight.  I'm hoping for better success with accessing a bike today.

Today's Ride:  62mins.  8 miles.  65 degrees.  Rain.  Miles YTD:  3,457.69