Coulsdon Common

Avenue Verte, Day One: London Eye to Horley

We cycled down to the river and then to the London Eye for the official start of the Avenue Verte cycle ride to Paris. Cycling in London doesn’t seem too bad  - though I suppose we did start relatively early – and we were soon whizzing along the river on one of the bright blue Cycle Super Highways, crossing over Waterloo and Lambeth Bridges (I think), then along Millbank and back over Chelsea Bridge, We cycled over Clapham Common and Wandsworth Common and stopped for a lovely brunch at a hipster café in Earlsfield. Then we did the Wardle Trail, Farthing Downs and Coulsdon Common*, amazed to find that, technically, we were still within the confines of the city of London. Later on, we stopped at the Inn on the Pond for a ginger beer before cycling the last few miles into Horley, where we checked in at our guest house and went to the local Wetherspoons for tea…
 




*That’s what my notes say; apologies for any liberties taken with actual geographical details.