It’s Sunday the 19th of April 2009 and the sun is beating down on my balcony. It seems like the perfect day to go on a bike ride, or better still to take a guide bike tour around London.
I have always thought that visiting London is best done on foot, but in reality, this is great for micro-visits, and adventurous types who never feel like they are in the realm of getting completely lost. Moreover, time and effort is expended in walking for the value return in distance, conversely you can ride around London on a bike, safely if you know where to go, and actually encompass a lot more in distance. You could easily ride from one side of central London to the other in half a day or in just a matter of a few hours, but you certainly couldn’t walk it in the same time. The walk from Putney Bridge to Richmond alone is some 12 miles and 4 hours hike.
So how do you actually discover a side to London that you wouldn’t otherwise without traipsing around on foot? Well a good friend of mine, Ian McPherson, has started Spoke ‘n Motion. The operation provides small groups of 10 or so, courageous bikes the opportunity to discover Central, South and East London, by day and by night. I must say, the “Sights at Night” bike tour of London is a great ways to see the city, and ends with a boat cruise of the Thames and a post-ride tipple at a pub of your choosing.
Highlights of the tours Ian provides include, but are not limited to: Tower, London and the Millennium bridges, HMS Belfast, the Clink Medieval Prison, Southwark and St Paul’s Cathedral, as well as Westminster Abbey, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the South Bank Arts Centre, the London Eye, Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament, and of course the quintessentially english, Eerie Victorian gas-lit streets.
Though the cost of a ticket, starting from £16.95, is on par with any of the guided bus tours around London, after 5 hours of cycling around town you will certainly feel like you have fulfilled your vacation exercise requirements, had a fun, exciting, interesting and most certainly safe and friendly time, and most importantly, felt like an integral part of the tour, rather than just another bum on the seat of a bus or a boat.
So what are you waiting for? Get on over to Spoke ‘n Motion London Bicycle Tours and book a bike tour that will make your trip to London a memorable one, not least because of the crazy British foldable Brompton bikes they provide you on the tour.
Web-head & art collector, living in East London and huffing on the fumes of the planet since '78. Here are my thoughts.
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