London

It was only 12kms to Harlow this morning and even though we had started early, by 8am we were feeling the heatMoreton. One of my favourite things about England are the lovely old pubsHarlow. Memorable by having some excellent cycle ways and one hell of a lot of dogsRoydon. Apparently mentioned in the doomsday book but I’m not sure why. It was important to us because it marked the point where we turn south to follow the Lee valley into LondonI was so busy looking at the marina and the old mill that I didn’t see the path off to our left that we are to followThis young lady (well comparatively) was travelling alone so we gave her a hand with the lock. A lot of people live permanently on canal boatsThis valley is one massive park with water activities all the way down it Yes I know I’m a grazer but the blackberries are ripe and beautiful !!hard to believe there is so much wildlife so close to London The national cycle route ,tended to wonder around a lot so a local advised us to just stay on the tow path all the way to the Thames. Great advise , saved a lot of time. Eventually we came to the Olympic park. This has been a really easy way to bike into London . It was just a shame that as we got closer it became grubbier . Just a stones throw from some of the most spectacular stadiums you’ll see, the canal is green and Deros are camped along the canal in tents or on old boatsHopefully they’ll clean it up one day. Just past the Olympic Park we got on a road that took us right into the centre of the citySafe and fast! It was so good . The Tower of London with Tower bridge behind. The riding down Oxford street to Hyde Park was too stressful so we walked a lot of it (hot ,noisey..did I mention hot !). Our goal was to get to Paddington station by 4pm as we thought we couldn’t take bikes on a train during peak time14 platforms , which one do we go to?( we were able to get on with the bikes. Mr Google was wrong ! )