A lovely Christmas Day cycle ride today, and much bigger than I expected – my rough count got easily past 100, which made it almost a mini-Critical Mass as we streamed through the streets.
Most of the scant traffic was tolerant – helped perhaps by the festive air – we had a white dragon, an official ride Christmas tree on someone’s back rack (well it wasn’t a very big Christmas tree), and many Santa hats.
It was billed as through the sights of London but mostly acquainted me with bits of South London – Bermondsey, Rotherhithe and Peckham that I’ve never previously met: well we did see the “iconic” Peckham library.
Handy to know that the pub on the Thames outside the Tate Modern is open on Christmas Day, and packed with refugee tourists who’d come to realise that spending December 25 in London hadn’t been such a great idea since nothing at all is open.
The riders I spoke to ranged in origins right across continental Europe, with quite a few Americans, a couple of Scots, two New Zealanders, and even the odd Englishman – although most of those left early for family responsibilities. The youngest must have been aged about one, and as for the oldest I won’t estimate, although they must have had a free bus pass for a while.
A fine institution – I’ll probably be back next year.
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