The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

A few people have asked if we are seeing flooding in London like other parts of England. Even though I haven’t seen anything at our house or on the way to Victoria, I wasn’t sure what the Thames was doing. So today I waited until it was at high tide at around 1pm and took Milo for a walk, but the river looked normal as you can see here, which is what it always looks like at high tide (that’s a view of the rowing clubs in Putney, taken from Bishops Park). Of course, last Friday I was in Florida so I missed the excitement in south London and because of it, our friend Megan missed seeing the Rolling Stones in Budapest since Heathrow was a mess. That’s the worst personal tragedy I’ve heard of regarding the flood!  

On Saturday, we went to a party at Alex’s farm in Chearsley. There was good wine, food, music, we met lots of new people, and it was the furthest West of London we’ve been yet. The dogs had a good time too, as you can tell by Milo’s smile.  

Storing bikes in London is a challenge: no garage and most places have space in the garden, but you have to carry the bike through the house to get there. So I am considering a folding bike and Time Out London just provided a list of ones that look good. They are:

1. Airnimal Rhino – the only small folding mountain bike I’ve seen
2. Mobiky Genius – looks tiny!
3. Ridgeback Emissary
4. Bromptom M-Type (this is the one pictured here when it is collapsed)
5. Giant Halfway 7

I got to see the peleton of the 2007 Tour de France this morning! I stood on the foot bridge at Embankment and looked down one street as they came towards me and down another as they rode away from me. I have added another video from the prologue (below) and more photos from Stage 1 with the peleton. It started this morning at 10:25, so I got to the bridge (a good viewing point) at 9:55 but all the good railing spaces were taken, so I stood behind people. By the time the race started, the bridge was packed with people, but not for long since it only took a couple of minutes for the riders and their support vehicles to go past us. After I saw them, they only had 215 kilometers to go. See their web site for details of the Stage 1 route.

I took quite a few photos of the support vehicles, because I was surprised at just how many cars there are. Here’s a good quote from the Tour’s web site:

Everyone thinks of men on two wheels during the Tour, but few are aware of the cavalcade of around 1,500 vehicles that follows the riders up and down the length and breadth of France and beyond, including official vehicles, motorcycles, and tour buses, as well as 13,000 policeman and 2,300 representatives of the world media who all, in no small measure, play their part.

Today (Saturday) was the start of the Tour de France, which is starting from London this year. I naturally had to check it out even though I would prefer to be on the course on a cool road bike versus on foot in the crowd, but it was pretty interesting anyway. Today was actually the prologue where individual riders take a lap around the city and the fastest one gets to wear the yellow jersey on Sunday for Stage 1 of the race. Stage 1 starts in London too, so hopefully we can see the peleton, not just individual riders like today. Below are some short videos I took, but make sure to check out the photos too.  

We still enjoy seeing the cars that aren’t available in the US. The Fiat 500 is making a comeback, but all newly redesigned of course. Check out the video:

Comeback for iconic Fiat 500: Italians prepare for the re-launch of the Cinquecento, a compact car which Fiat says will become the iPod of cars.