I was born and brought up in south India. I have traveled to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. So never traveled outside Asia. London-edinburgh-london had been postponed due to covid. And when the applications were opened for 2022, I immediately applied. Visiting London was one of long cherished dream. My dream was of a tourist one, but never imagined I would ride through London in my bicycle.
We reached London heathrow airport and collected our baggage including our cycles. There was a viral video showing baggage mess at heathrow airport and what we observed was quite contradictory. There was absolute discipline. After getting our immigration entry seal, we went straight to coasta express and had our sandwich and burger. We could not assess whether it was costly or not. One pound is roughly 100 rupees. Our bill was 21 pounds. Soon after that we left using taxi. The taxis were very wide but only four seater. It was very spacious such that, We were able to put our two cycles in the leg room gap. It costed 14000 INR for reaching hotel at London, barking. There were two hotels with their names quite similar and very close to each other. We landed at the wrong one and unloaded all our baggage and sent the taxi after which the receptionist informed us that it was the adjacent hotel. We left our cycles there and placed our baggages at the correct hotel and came back to drag our cycles in a trolley. We checked in the hotel (Ibis London Barking) to realise prices have gone up but decided to stay there.
After getting ourselves freshened up, walked towards newham area. Visited the local shops and had burger for dinner at Howdys burger. Most of the shops were closed, Since it was already post 9:00 pm. However observed buses were running 24/7 and so many persons delivering food and goods using bicycle even late at night. We stayed at London ibis barking for the next seven days.
We used maps to navigate to the local shops. There were pedestrian lanes, cycle lanes and roads. There were marking on the roads where exactly a bus would stop. Four wheelers waited for us to cross the road. The sign boards were very clear and informative. The roads and lanes were spacious. Some of the lanes were designated for both cyclists and pedestrians. All these first sightings impressed us very much.
There was a high bridge very close to our hotel. The highway was one level above and the highbridge is even higher than the highway. From the highbridge the highway traffic can be observed and the city view also. The highbridge is for the use of pedestrians and cyclists only. The sunlight is available till 9:00 pm. So it was very nice to spend time in the evenings. All the streets were well lit. It was thoroughly an impressive experience on the day of arrival along with the excitement of the upcoming ride.
We googled and located some nearby places where we can go in the next few days without disturbing our cycling practice. London bridge topped the charts.
On the first morning ,We woke up late and the first thing we did was assembling our cycles. Soon decided to go to London bridge. Spotted Saravana bhawan on the way and had our lunch there. Soon we were riding in dedicated cycling lanes and felt very excited seeing other commuters using the lanes. No pedestrian / motor vehicle ventured into the cycling lane. There were dedicated signals for cycling lanes and each lane was designated with code just like for the highways. The cycling lanes were only three foot wide but still very useful to commute within the city. Within the city it takes same time to reach a place either by bus or bicycle. Soon we reached London bridge and observed London tower from afar. Cycle commuters were very high in number compared to Chennai as on 2022. Determined to promote cycle commuting in Chennai after my London visit. People were following the traffic rules sincerely and it was good to observe in first hand and acknowledge and appreciate it.
We then went to Evans cycle shop. And then to barrista café and returned to hotel. On the return journey to hotel , learnt some new things.
- There is a push button at zebra crossing, which can be used to inform that we are waiting to cross the road.
- There are cycling highways, where only cycles are allowed.
- There are cycling trails within the city for reducing distances and safe passage for cyclists.
- Even if the signal for pedestrians and cyclists is not green, most of the motor vehicles wait at the zebra crossing and signaling us to cross the road.
Someone contacted thru Instagram and our plan for next day evolved.
On day two, We went to London bridge again, but were late to meet the local cyclists. They were patient enough to wait for us and we exchanged greetings. During the brief conversation with them, we learnt about an online store ‘Argos’ where you can shop digitally and after payment the product will be handed over to you. We bought an egg boiler there and then proceeded to Tesco shopping complex only to spend next five hours there. Tesco was very close to were we stayed. We bought bread, eggs, salads, fruits. Packaged food is still evolving in India. London has got a whole lot of packed foods, ready to cook, half cooked, raw etc., in various combinations.
On day three at London, We cooked our own breakfast at our hotel room. The window appeared like a mini kitchen cabinet. We had purchased a sandwich maker also. We used coffee cup tray as plate and paper cups for coffee making. We rode to ilford to meet fellow riders. They have already left. We went alone to the start point, enroute met a Malaysian rider. We loaded our maps and started onward journey in the event route. Met motley crew riders on the way and joined them. Had afternoon lunch at Debden.
It was a very relaxed morning and We cooked our own breakfast at our hotel room. We were running out of clothes. Enquired at the hotel reception for laundry prices. It was expensive. We carried our clothes to a laundry nearby and window shopped in the barking area. We went inside vicarage field shopping mall and came out after four hours. Then roamed around roadside market, which became a regular hangout place. We shopped for groceries in the evening. Since we woke up late in the morning, decided to see how the night is at barking. A small river runs just behind the hotel where we stayed and from there few metres there is a castle and graveyard. The ruins are now a park named as ‘Abbey park’. The trees in the park were decorated with lights at night and it looked attractive. We made four sandwiches and went to the park at night and stayed there for sometime. After mid night we sat close to the river and enjoyed our time before returning to our room.
I woke up early in the morning and went for a walk alone. There was a highbridge nearby and that is very useful for pedestrians and cyclists to go to the other side of the highway and to east ham area also. After returning from walk I took bath and prepared egg sandwich for breakfast. We then postponed our scheduled tickets for further ten days. By the time we went into Tesco complex I was already bored shopping in the same place again and again. The hotel storage room is under renovation and so we had to go looking for storage space nearby. ‘Sturgard storage’ located within a km from our hotel was closed by the time we reached and could not even make an enquiry. While returning to hotel we went into a trail leading to ‘Beckton Creekside nature reserve’. The display board had some information regarding what to look inside the reserve. Reed bunting and Redwing can be seen in autumn and winter. Hawthorn is also widely available inside the reserve. Could eat plum fruits in the wild. We saw some people collecting fruits from the trees. Plucked apple from a tree for the first time in life. Overall had a great evening, which made us forget about our storage problem.
We went to Debden school by cycling and collected the collectibles. It was good to see so many cyclists there. We spent too much time in the school to meet and greet friends, which proved costly for us, since we were having some pending works with our luggage storage. We started around 3:00 pm and rode back to our hotel. It was Saturday and the storage solution store was closed by afternoon. Again we could not put our belongings in the storage. We fit our cycle with the gadgets and accessories which took considerable time. We were in dilemma where to put our things now and still decided to go for storage space and off we went to sleep.
Will write about m bicycle ride experience in next post.