Given the nice weather, it wasn’t surprising to be greeted with a good turnout for the Jubilee Greenway ride. Fourteen left Greenwich, though one went AWOL somewhere around the South Bank. ’Tis a mystery.
With a slow pace into the stiff westerly wind, it took us a while to reach the café in Upper Ground by the National Theatre, where we stopped for an exchange of fluids and early lunch. From the South Bank it was onwards through central London to Hyde Park, and then another refuelling stop in Kensington Palace Gardens.
The pace slowed again once we left the traffic in Paddington and joined the Regents Canal towpath. Camden Lock was heaving with Spanish tourists doing their Cool Britannia bit, but once we had cleared that trendy bottleneck, the canal-side riding was free and easy all the way to Victoria Park in Hackney. By this time the sun was low in the sky, and the light reflecting off the water and walls particularly lovely.
A path closure prevented us joining the Greenway at the planned point, so we continued down the River Lea to Stratford High Street, where one tired rider left to catch a train home. The rest of us continued on the Greenway to Beckton, where we left the path and spun through the various bits of Beckton Park toward the Albert Dock.
After crossing the Thames on the Woolwich Ferry, the Bromley contingent and a few others headed off toward Shooters Hill, while the remaining four rode the final 10 km along the Thames Path to Greenwich.
The Jubilee Greenway is proving to be a popular and appreciated Sunday cycling route.
Francis