Getting some summer loving on

Getting some summer loving on two wheels in London

After being in London for over a year, I finally committed myself to finding a Barclays, otherwise known as the Boris bike, docking station and losing my ‘Bori-ginity’!

Getting some summer loving on

On one of the last warm and sunny Sundays of 2014, I fell in love with London all over again. I lost myself in a two hour cycle where all the sights and offerings of London’s riverbanks, parks and city architecture amplified themselves before me.

And it was all so easy and surprisingly ‘scare-free’ being the amateur and noticeably wobbly cyclist that I am. I would strongly recommend the below for a first timer’s day on a Boris bike:

1. Get onto the Barclay cycle hire website and find your closest docking station. You will be surprised at how many there are and find yourself picking between which two minute walk from home is more scenic.
2. Always check Accuweather on the morning of your adventure. Be sure to be a fair weather rider looking for times of sun and cloud as a bare minimum.
3. Put on your comfiest trainers / takkies and pack your essentials in an easy fold up bag (i.e. A beach bag or satchel of some sorts that won’t lose it’s shape when you strap it tightly within the Boris bike’s front side-less basket).
4. Once at your docking station, follow the touch screen steps on the payment machine. Remember that these can be tricky sometimes. Note that once you pay, a first receipt will come out; but you will need to enter your card again to receive the receipt with the bike unlocking code.
5. Pick your bike, fit your saddle height, enter the code and away you go.
6. Try beginning your ride along the Thames river. It is far less daunting for the first few kilometres having no traffic obstacles, buses encroaching on your lane side ritual and taxis racing past you. Rather glide along the riverbank as we did from Wandsworth Town Station to Battersea Park.
7. If you co-ordinate a route that has a park following your riverside ride, you will suddenly feel immediately European. Cycling beneath the paths arched in trees and lakes dotted with old bread crumbs and geese feels like something straight out of a Lonely Planet page.
8. After crossing over the Thames, be sure to embrace the excitement that you will soon be hitting the super cycle highway! The blue lanes for cyclists are clearly marked and make it easy for you to slowly ride along as you feel the adrenalin when a bus passes.
9. Do not panic as I did when you face a traffic circle. When you see it coming, remember all you need to tell yourself is to pretend to be a car. Suddenly giving way to the right makes sense again.
10. Follow the blue lane towards Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. Once you’ve beaten the crowds in Parliament Square, head back towards the riverbank and ride along Victoria Embankment towards Blackfriars Bridge.
11. Head into the inner city and meander around slowly towards Tower Bridge. I found myself getting a little tired at this stage but quickly found reprieve in the number of traffic lights the city. Catch your breath, stretch your calves and focus on your targeted docking station.
12. After an hour and a half cycle (roughly 15kms), we managed to dock our bikes at a station near Tower Bridge. There was no better ending than that of the poppies flooding in and around the Tower of London.
13. When first getting off your bike, walk slowly to remember what the ground feels like. When your balance is back, take a stroll back over Southwark Bridge and celebrate with a well earned thirst quencher among one of Borough Market’s street side restaurants.

A fit, healthy and dreamy Sunday! Thank you Boris, Barclays and London.