Little Bike in the Big City - Day 3

Here's the wee fellow with his cousins, at Westminster, where all those posh chaps tell us what we can and can't do. What I definitely can do is zoom around the city, first on the Brompton and later on the Boris Bikes - more on that below.

Waiting at lights on the south-west of Hyde Park, I was asked for directions - and I was able to help! I almost feel like a Londoner :)

Taller Tower.

After beery chats last night, I decided to go to a different set of meetings today which was (eventually) a good idea. However! The meetings over today and tomorrow change locations, which I didn't realise. So, I went to the wrong part of town. The very annoying thing is that I was heading for the right location, then "double-checked" and got it wrong by looking at tomorrow's location. Doh.

Ah well, it worked out fine. After lunch I took the Brompton back to my hotel and activated my Boris Bike membership by phone, which was the best call-centre experience I've ever had. I got a key for the bikes about 4 years ago, and it's been on my keying ever since, but I've never used it. So it was great to finally get on one of these tanks! They really are heavy beasts, but the 4 (or was it 5?) bikes I rode today all worked so I think they got the design right. I saw a bloke in a van driving around and maintaining them so it's clear that they are well looked after.

With a working bike key in my pocket, I didn't walk more than a few hundred yards. The bike racks are all over the place, so you can just jump on - the only problem is finding the parking rack at the end of the journey, they're quite often hidden up side-streets. Perhaps there's an app for that...

Bear shopping at Paddington for Gordon later on, then "home" to the hotel for slouching.

Very, very good day :)