Since Christmas I haven't been out on BBB much partly due to the holiday season itself and the crazy weather we seem to be having in London. So I was in desperate need of a decent ride but nothing too
strenuous in between the the heavy rain and high winds.
I heard about a ride with the LCC called "Lions of London"
London is unique in the number and variety of its lion statues. If you ask Londoners how many such lions they think there are, they usually say, 'There are four in Trafalgar Square' and they pause . . . then 'Oh yes, there's also one by Westminster Bridge.' In fact there are many thousands more, from the oldest and snootiest to the cheekiest and saddest.
We set off on Safari to find these and other lions, from private homes to Rugby grounds from bridges to gateposts they overrun the capital, how many would we find.
Expect to visit the city, Barnes, Chelsea and possibly Twickenham, although this is a social ride and will be modified on the go to suit the majority.
We will lunch, Lions are not freely available, so we may have to settle for a Giraffe!
Well with that I thought why not. Checking the weather the previous night I finally decided to join the ride. A few people where going to meet up at City Hall & then head down to Cutty Sark Gardens.
One of the riders even came on a BMX bike, yup and he kept up pretty good I might add.
I took the lead as I don't think anyone had a great idea on how to get to Cutty Sark Gardens so I put our destination into my trust Garmin Edge 800 and took the lead. Not long after we was at the Cutty Sark. Turned out thsi was a popular meeting point for cyclist as we saw a few other groups of riders and actually asked a few if there we're going on the "Lions of London" ride.
Finally found out group which turned out to be about a dozen in the end.
Having met up and told a rough outline of the route/place we would be visiting we headed off.
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Crossing Tower Bridge |
Our first lions
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White Lion Court |
Some small lions, had to really look hard to find them.
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Near St. Pauls |
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Plant/Flower pot |
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Ofcourse Red Lion Square |
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Near St. Pauls |
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Near St. Pauls |
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Side Entrance to British Museum |
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Meow |
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Getting some history on this site |
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Sam K being VERY silly as always. |
Just as we was leaving I spotted this Falconer with 2 falcons flying around the square. You could get right up close to the falcons to and not a pigeon in sight LOL
Well we had done a good amount of riding and I was thinking at this point it was time to head home. The weather had been pretty good but the last hr or so the temperature dropped so thought best to be heading homeward back to "The HiVE"
Me and Gus U live not far from each other so we decided to head back together, we did get a little lost, well not lost we went around about route back to East London but it was good to put on some extra miles.
A good interesting and VERY different kind of ride.
Garmin Data:
LCC Lions of London Tour