sent from: London, UK. destination: San Francisco, California, USA

As mentioned before, we took part in the St Crispins Day Night Ride (see #3.63 + #3.64). It started at night in West London and went through the center of London taking in all the major monuments + sights, from the Albert Hall, National History Museum, Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral… the works.
I cycle London every day. I know its joys… and its perils. One AM, as cabs tear up and down and crowds of drunk people stumble in the streets, desperate to get on the night buses (the trains and underground having long-ceased to run) is NOT the time to be cycling its main thoroughfares. It’s stressful and foolish. If the roads aren’t closed to traffic, cyclists should stick to quieter roads and back streets. But then you’d miss the sights… like the sight of a rear end of a bus that our friend on the ride met as she tried to avoid an accident and her brakes failed on the wet roads, sending her sliding into it. She was fine, but shaken.
London is not a cycle friendly place – not the way it’d like to think it is.