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Bicycles - The Ultimate Anti-Mobile Device Mobile Device - INCREASE RIDE TIME TO DECREASE SCREEN TIME

Bicycles – The Ultimate Anti-Mobile Device Mobile Device – INCREASE RIDE TIME TO DECREASE SCREEN TIME

Don’t (Can’t) Leave Home Without It

Smartphones are ubiquitous. You hear about how great they are and at the same time you hear about how bad they are on the daily. Think dinner table sessions where the dinner table is surrounded by glowing faces, hunkered down over the course of the meal. Think groups of friends in public doing the same. My latest iOS update has an app to show me how much screen…

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#cycling #cycling ideas #cycling inspiration #limit screen time #ride more #screen time

Paddington to Uxbridge SANS cars :O

I discovered an amazing new route to get out of central London completely off road.

Thinking about cycling out of London normally conjures images of pollution, cars, traffic and endless traffic lights. It won’t be a fun ride, I assumed.

However I was delighted to find you can get from Paddington station, all the way to the outer limits of the underground totally free of cars. Me and my sister took to the gravelled canals paths, bikes loaded with bags for our camping trip, and cycled all the way out without seeing a single car. It was awesome.

It’s easy to do. At Paddington station, head out to Praed street, take a left until you hit Paddington Basin- a moment ride from the station entrance. This is an attractive dockside with fountains, statues and trees, cobbled banksides flanked with tastefully hidden stores.

You can follow this basin as it becomes the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal. The gravel path continues for 13 miles, and then another 10 miles as it becomes the Grand Union Canal, finishing up near Rickmansworth. The route can carry on out to Hemmel Hemstead.

It’s an amazing route. Sure, it’s a bit slower than banging it out on a road, (it took us 3 hours) but it’s relaxing, beautiful and fun. It was lovely to start in the metropolitan area of London, cycling past the hip floating cafes and bars in Little Venice, to meander past council estates and factories, until we ended up out in the green, quiet countryside, the banks of the river brimming with blackberries and hawthorn, and the river full of herons, ducks and coots. It was super relaxing too; no navigation required; you just follow the snaking path of the canal, and keep an eye out for pedestrians.

There was no shortage of things to see either. Here are some highlights!

1) Little Venice. A beautiful selection of canals, with ornate bridges, boutique barges serving artisan coffee and food. It’s tranquil and idyllic, flanked by plane trees.

2) Canal Boats. My favourite bit of the ride was the sheer amount of boats along the canal. There were all types; traditional houseboats, converted lifeboats, dutch style barges, even one car-turned boat that was getting a lot of attention. It’s amazing to see how all the boat people adapt their boats to their lives; each boat was bursting with roof gardens, flower patches, veg gardens, tents, lookouts and hidey-hole seats. You can’t help but want to live on one.

3) beautiful arcitecture. There are some great bridges along the way’ check out the helix bridge and the little venice bridge. There is also lost of victorian buildings, and the Kendal Rise cemetery. (where coffins used to arrive by canal boat)

4) The nature. We saw herons, coots, ducks, swans, geese, magpies, crows, doves. foxes, badgers, rabbits... not to mention cute dogs. the further out you went, the more green the banks became and the more wild it felt. We especially liked the Colne Valley Regional Park, with it’s quiet reservoirs.

We cycled on from Rickmansworth up into the Chilterns, where we camped, and it felt like were miles from nowhere. How great to know it is only a short cycle from London!

#ride more #cycle #tour #london #wildlondon #explore by bike #bikelife