Monopoly board ride

[jefmcg]

So did you use GPS for the ride then, or not? I'm not for a moment suggesting, madam, that navigating through town cannot be done without a GPS, but [REALISM] this ride is complicated and I think would be a significant challenge [REALISM], what with one ways, etc, to anyone (which makes it an even better challenge). Also you are seeking to visit many sites, at least some which will be unfamiliar even to the hardened London rider. For the avoidance of doubt, I am a 'map' person, but a little bird tells me an 810 is ready for wrapping.

I got around london perfectly well without the aid of GPS for many years, and I wouldn't have had much trouble without it on Saturday. Of course, I'd need a map - I challenge any Londoner to know where Vine Street is without reference to monopoly, as it's just a series of back doors and wasn't even called Vine Street between 1940-72 - the monopoly walk was not an option during the era of swinging London.

Notably, the Garmin tried to lead us badly astray from the Strand to Bow Street and when tried to tell us that Bow Street was east of Aldwych, before shutting down. The route we followed from where the Garmin abandoned us to Bow Street did require my phone GPS, but the route I had wanted to follow (head West on the Strand and somehow manage a right turn onto the cycle cut-through to Covent Garden opposite Waterloo Bridge) would not.

I could repeat the route this weekend (while it is still fresh in my memory) without any maps or GPS, but just a list of places. I'd follow nearly the same route but visit Whitechapel Rd after Fenchurch St.

Also forgot to mention the tales of love from Saturday. @vickster gave directions to a drunk on Piccadilly and who returned seconds later to spend some more time with her. And I wasn't left out! On my way home through Brentford, a drunk stuck his head out of a passenger side window and said "I love you". Here we go, I thought. But no, he stayed polite throughout our conversation, and repeated his declaration of love has the car sped away.

And when a dropped my shopping outside a Holborn supermarket, a stranger ran up and gave me a bag-for-life.

All in all, a nice day.

Photos from last 3 stops attached.

 

[Pale Rider]

Londoners are not known for communicating with strangers, but they can be kind.

Last time I cycled there I happened on another cyclist who had suffered a minor fall.

Several pedestrians stopped to offer assistance, including one young lady who insisted on giving the cyclist her bottle of water.