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August Bank Holiday Weekend  

The Challenge Cup Final at Wembley and a bike ride

We travelled to the Abbey Wood caravan site, which is near Bexleyheath, on Friday afternoon – possibly not the best plan, but the journey was fairly smooth until we got caught up in a Dartford Tunnel tailback, which slowed us down a little, but not too much.

 

We trekked across London to Wembley on Saturday to see Hull beat Wigan in the Challenge Cup Final – the man selling tickets at Abbey Wood station was extremely helpful and a return ticket was much less than we anticipated. The journey to Wembley is always good, because we meet more and more rugby league fans the closer we get and you can feel the anticipation in the air.

It was a great game to watch, and we had nice padded seats in the Club Wembley section (where we seemed to be with the non-playing Wigan squad, as well as some of their wives, girlfriends, children and parents - slightly awkward for on-the-day Hull supporters!) with a good view of the action.

On Sunday, we attempted Bike Ride number 28 – “An Eastern Excursion” from Lost Lanes South, which was a different way to see parts of London. We found some problems trying to read the map on Dave’s mobile phone and did a lot of stopping and starting to make sure we weren’t going wrong, so it took a lot longer than it should have. We didn’t help matters by picking up the route from almost the opposite of where it started and going the wrong direction around it. It was a good job it was a dry and sunny day!

We realise that we should have researched the route properly beforehand and taken a paper map with us – live tracking on phones can be very confusing! I’ve since discovered that Transport for London have a series of free printed guides of routes that have been recommended by experienced cyclists, and these would have been useful.

The best parts of the route included cycling along the Ridgeway to Woolwich (where we saw a lovely kestrel), along the Greenway to Stratford Park. The Greenway and the Ridgeway are footpath and cycleways constructed on the embankments, so there is a good view of the surrounding area.

Also, the view from the north side of the Greenwich Foot Tunnel to Greenwich Park was fantastic. We didn’t have enough time to visit, so I’m really keen to go back and spend a day in the Park and visit the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory too.

Links:

  • Lost Lanes. It's a great book, with thirty-six rides ranging from easy to very challenging and between twelve and 112 miles long, covering the south of England from the Isle of Wight to Diss in Norfolk. Buy it online from this website.

  • Abbey Wood caravan site – very nice, friendly site. Close to a rail line that takes you into the middle of London.

  • Transport for London free cycle route maps – order them from the website here.