Tourist trail to the Thames Barrier

On what was probably the hottest day of the year so far, Ben and I decided it would be a good idea to cycle through the centre of sticky, dusty, crowded London and out to the Thames Barrier. We'd barely made it to Chelsea before I was wondering whether I would over-heat and keel over. Ben offered helpfully 'Perhaps black lycra leggings were a bad choice...?'. He has a point. Still. Too late now.

We made our way through crowds of royal wedding tourists at Parliament Square, down the Embankment, over Tower Bridge, had a brief diversion off the standard tourist track into Deptford, and past the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Now that we'd run out of bridges I decided at this point that actually we'd be better off viewing the Thames Barrier from the other side of the river. Instead of a suicide mission through the Blackwall Tunnel we ventured instead beyond the Thames Barrier to catch the Woolwich Ferry; a free, amusingly brief, journey across the river with views of Canary Wharf and the Millennium Dome.

Back down the other side for lunch in the Thames Barrier Park.

We completed the loop on the North side of the river, making a last minute route change towards Bank and St. Paul's Cathedral which involved briefly cycling over a kerb in order to change lanes, resulting in me virtually falling off the bike as I remembered that bikes don't tend to go up the kerb if you just cycle at it. A few unglamorous bunny hops later and I was back on my way... Down Fleet Street, past the Royal Courts of Justice, down the Strand and back home, covered in a fine layer of sweat, pollution and dust. Nothing like a good 35 mile cycle in nice, fresh, clean air.