Le Tour à Londres

The Tour de France came to London today, and along with thousands of other people, I popped down from my office to Embankment to have a look (helmets helpfully identified - I don't think otherwise you'd be able to see them in amongst all the people!). Where we were standing you could also feel the District line trains rumbling under your feet - a very strange sensation.

As you can see from my photo it wasn't that great a spot (although being under the trees did save us from the dreary London drizzle), and they all came whizzing through so fast, but it was fun to see and leaves you with a renewed appreciation for their athleticism (hoping that it's natural, not artificially enhanced). 

It also brought back memories of the last time we saw the tour in Lourdes - can't believe that was six years ago! Time is seriously flying...

Love London Go Dutch

Even though London is officially in a drought, it hasn't stopped the heavens opening this past fortnight, giving us some of the wettest and chilliest April weather on record apparently.  However, that doesn't stop hardy cyclists like Adrian and I, who've been getting out and about and on with our business cycling through the streets of the city in our wet weather gears.


This Saturday we joined an estimated 10,000 other London cyclists who took part in a central city bike ride to raise awareness for cycling safety.  While the situation in London is incredibly advanced compared to Auckland (recently suggested as one of the worst cities in the world for cycling - now that's not something to be proud of), with lots more cycle lanes and bike parks, it's not so good when it comes to big intersections.  I cycle through several of London's most dangerous intersections on a daily basis on my way to and from university, and let me tell you, there's always an exhalation of breath when you know you've made it across in one piece.  The 21 year old cousin of a good friend of ours over here was also recently killed by a lorry while cycling (in broad daylight, wearing fluro), so the situation really does need to improve.


The bike ride was part of the London Cycling Campaign's initiative called 'Love London Go Dutch' which aims to make London as safe for cycling as the cities in the Netherlands and despite the rain, wind and cold, was good fun to be part of.  There's a video of the event here (can you spot me??) and some great photos on this Flickr stream by beenbrun, including this one below showing us all coming up Piccadilly:

The London mayoral and local government elections are coming up, so here's hoping it made a difference!