London biking day one

First I must say thanks to my brother Jeff and his wife for fixing us up with an incredible room for two nights. We are staying at the Trafalgar Hilton. The complementary English breakfast was superb. It was my first intro to the ham like bacon and excellent sausages along with plenty of fresh baked bread items and great jams.

One of the first things that I noticed when we got to downtown London was the cramped and seemingly chaotic traffic. The day has now come to get out and give a try to this new adventure which is obviously more dangerous than my most extreme mountain biking trek or any other urban biking trip so far.

Ye Ole Mitre..Classic pub. Incredible beer

We then headed out to London Cycle Tour Company to get our bikes. We tested and selected bikes, headed out and hoped to survive the experience. About a mile from the bike shop Jodi had a blowout. I fixed on the sidewalk and we headed back to the bike shop. The tire itself was faulty. They replaced it and we were back on our way. We planned to ride up the Thames and cross under the river via the underwater pedestrian tunnel. We stopped for an excellent pint at a pub called the Angel. I had a draft Sam Smiths Stout. We drank them looking out of the pub window at the river then rolled on. We also stopped at a couple of outdoor markets. The first was a food market with an incredible selection of local breads, meats vegetables and breads. It was a display definitely unmatched anywhere in the states.

The Cutty Sark

Soon after the trip took a turn for the worst when Jodi's new camera fell from her pocket. I was behind her as we were crossing a bridge in fairly heavy traffic. Knowing it was her new prize posetion, I tried to scoop it up. It was then that I discovered the the front and rear brakes were reversed on English bikes. It caused me to wipe out in the middle of the road. I jumped up and snatched the bike out of the road before I got run over. The camera luckily survived but my left wrist wasn't quite the same after its encounter with a London street. London traffic is pretty scary. Buses buzz by seemingly inches from your head. It's really amazing that someone isn't run over every few minutes but the London drivers seem to keep a keen eye out. As if the one brush with English traffic wasn't enough I later , on a very busy street, almost most completely flipped the bike trying to avoid another cyclist. This time I wasn't so lucky. I seem to have sprained my right wrist, hit lt left wrist again and banged my knee pretty good I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see how they all work. Luckily no one was right behind me so I didn't get run over. The bike took the worst of it though. Luckily we rented a tool kit and got it rideable again and rode a few miles for another pint and fish and chips at a pub.
Along the way we saw Tower bridge, Tower of London ,London Bridge, the Cutty Sark,1000s of cool flats buildings boats and ships. Hopefully my wrists and the rest of me and the damaged bike will make the ride to Buckingham Palace tomorrow before we catch our 1:30 train to Ipswich.

Coming soon .....grocery stores, beer and food report. Maybe a fashion report as well if I can get a few photos. Londoners really like to be stylish. On the down side, most of the music I've heard people play here is bad American pop. When you hear Whitney Houston in a pub ..... Something is wrong.

Jodi beside some sculpture by the Thames

Odd art on the Thames...or maybe it's a weird antenna