London Wild Life

Today we went back up to London to test ride another pair of bikes. The one I really wanted and the model up from the one I test rode last week. The difference was chalk and cheese: the Norco was faster from a standing start, coped with bumps better and the breaks were better. The Cannondale was a good bike but it was more mountain bike/urban than the Norco and consequently it was noticeably slower. The Norco isn't a big brand in the UK so it cost less than the Cannondale and had consistently higher quality parts to boot. Going round the block at Waterloo was fun as I kept having to cycle into a heavy head wind...

After picking the bike, we paid for it and left it in the shop while we spent a few hours in London - having made the effort to go there. We went down on the tube to Canada Water to look at the sports superstore there - we got a few things and then grabbed lunch. We decided to walk back towards Waterloo to see what we could find. On the way we spotted this heron in the canal, it was fishing and wasn't paying any attention to passers by and blippers...

We made it as far as Bermondsey before we gave up (it was raining and windy at times) and made for the tube back to Waterloo. We pretty much followed the cycle route and it was well worth the effort.

We then went back to the shop to collect the bike and walked into Waterloo station to catch our train out of the big city and back to familiar country...