Greenwich to Hampton Court

Originally planned to include Greenwich Venues and Wimbledon, the timetable went out of the window with the regression to Teletubby Land and the team found itself hacking across London trying to get in to the Holiday Inn Kingston Slough without a particularly clear plan about how to go about it.

The Shard under grey skies - a long way to go.

So, we got to Merton, it was late.  The team disintegrated into 3 individuals all wanting to go in different directions.  It was not pretty, not good for morale and then ... Jake had a puncture - aaargh!

There was a garage just down the road, could we get it together and sort out how to mend puncture and get from Merton to Kingston in the failing light and impending rain?

Of course we could because we found Larry!  Larry had a 'mini bus', knew where to find the Holiday Inn on Portsmouth Road and took to his role of knight in shining bus like a duck to water!  We were initially happy to take directions, we were then offered the opportunity to follow him, he then proposed the full journey to Kingston before, eventually throwing in a trip passed Wimbledon for good measure.

In addition to his driving skills, Larry had great knowledge of just about anything and everything and was tremendous company.   

The team would like to wish Larry all the best in his quest to move from London to Somerset - he deserves the quiet life!

Greenwich Park - Venue 13

We were quite chilled about Greenwich Park, home of the equestrian events.  Such a large area, we'd surely just rock up and there would be a photo opportunity?

Ah, there you go you see - you never can tell.  Despite our best smiles, our best photo opportunity was outside the Maritime Museum but it definitely confirms our location.

Message in a bottle at
Greenwich Park.
Stands to main arena in background.

Jake was a little despondent but just as we were about to leave we bumped into some lovely gentlemen from the police and LOCOG who made our visit so memorable - as always, it's the people!  Thanks for applause for Jake as he left the Venue - very special.

North Greenwich Arena - Venue 12

You do know the North Greenwich Arena, really you do - (aka Millenium Dome, aka O2 Arena).  We could see the hedgehog from the corridor at the Holiday Inn.  We wondered whether that counted?

It is now an iconic sight.
However, anyone for cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks?

We visited it, in the daylight - it was still open to the public and loads of people were milling around - security didn't like our bikes much though.

O ... look it's the taxi about to get wet.

Royal Artillery Barracks - Venue 11

For some reason we hadn't got a contact at the Royal Artillery Barracks (RAB) and what's more, on the late night trek to Greenwich we had passed the Venue.

It was not a terribly popular move to back-track along our route to go and view the RAB probably an impressively grand barracks behind black and gold railings and impossible to view.

Some fine figures outside the Royal Arsenal

We did indeed see the smart barracks and the railings but we'd also 'spotted'  some strange polka dot structures beyond so kept pedalling.  Carefully avoiding making tyre impressions on the newly laid tarmac we located Kim, the Venue Manager.  What was in front of us was undoubtedly the funkiest venue we have seen to date.

May we present the funkiest shooting galleries imaginable.
Locally, it is affectionately known as
Teletubby land.

These fab buildings are made of the 2012 version of the Millenium Dome material and those round discs serve the dual purposes of air vents and frames to stretch the fabric.  Pink and blue buildings and qualifying rounds the red monster is for the finals.

Jake with Amy who explained all the
technical stuff so we could understand.

All in all, the team found this one of their favourite Venues partly because it was so unexpected and partly because it's just brilliant!