We took the train to London’s Waterloo and started by crossing Westminster Bridge, then via the Palace, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens to Paddington and Little Venice. Lunch on the canal in Maida Vale. Onwards through Regent’s Park to Camden Town, The Angel in Islington, Victoria Park in Hackney, then to the Olympic site. Crossed the river vie Woolwich Ferry, then back along the river to Greenwich, Tower Bridge, Southwark, and back into London.

We had just missed our train, with the next one almost an hour away, so we pushed on, across Waterloo Bridge, through Covent Garden, down Shaftesbury into Piccadilly, through Hyde Park and into Paddington, where trains run every few minutes.

55km (Waterloo to Waterloo), and a very nice trip on a very gorgeous day. Too bad so many people were about, in spite of the World Cup match England : Germany. The tour is more like a steeplechase in large parts, dodging pedestrians and other cyclists, and having to slow down to walking pace or even less.

It’s not perfect for cycling, but it got us all the way into the East, even beyond the Thames Barrier, with sights on many famous and infamous London highlights. Very good!

(Photos are being uploaded as we speak: http://gallery.gauweiler.net/cities/London/Jubilee%20Greenway/)

I didn’t, but according to Transport for London, it’s imminent: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/15459.aspx. I had heard about the cycle hire scheme (see here for details), and can only hope it doesn’t fall victim to vandals. Too bad the cycling superhighways are up to five years away from completion. We should have introduced those a very long time ago.

(Today’s image should have been a little video. It shows an animation on a big display that we saw somewhere – was it the Canary Wharf Shopping Centre? We took four different pictures, and http://picasion.com/ turned it back into an animation for us.)

Does it make sense to mount brand new street lights that follow a 130 year old design?

Yes, it might, wherever there is similar heritage to protect.

Hanwell, however, is no such place. If anything, Hanwell should display an air of Modernism and a forward-looking attitude.

A clean, elegant, modern design could have done a much better job at improving the looks of Hanwell Broadway. Note that I didn’t even discuss the fact that the chosen light use outdated luminaries technology, and are ill-fitted for modern street lighting control, supervision, and energy management systems. Surely, thinking beyond heritage design would just be asking too much.

Something tells me that this was bound to be a disaster, and guess what? It is.

The paper writes don’t fret. The children love them, but I wonder how much they paid those children. And, shockingly, those designers. Apparently, it’s all got to be a whirlwind mix of 3D rendering software and Teletubbies, rendered into larger-than-life plastic figures (and merchandise).

Maybe I don’t know what makes the 21st century’s children tick, but I thought a mascot ought to be something loveable. I guess that’s not true. I guess the truth is that the mascot ought to be good for merchandise and printing onto goods (within a sponsorship logo).

Anyway, I took a peek, and find one worse than the other. Check out the BBC’s Olympic mascots through the ages, or The Independent’s breakdown of Olympic figure heads. In my opinion, there are two clear winners, ahead of the field by orders of magnitude: 1972’s Waldi (Munich), which is said to have started the whole craze, and 1932’s mascot (Los Angeles), which doesn’t appear to be listed in most lists of historic Olympic mascots.

You’d think they should know by now to ask me first.

This past Sunday, we took the train to Paddington, then walked up Edgware  Road to elegant Maida Vale, then along Regent’s Canal through the Zoo and into Camden Lock and the markets, where life is as abundant and as colourful as life can be. Browsing the markets, a drink somewhere, then onwards to Tottenham Court Road, from where the Central Line brought us back home.

A lovely afternoon city walk at any time of the year, but preferably on a Sunday, so that traffic is reduced and Camden Lock Market is open and busy.

Here are some pictures from this past weekend.