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It started as a light dusting on Friday afternoon...
...and by Saturday morning was coming down so heavily that it looked like the Antarctic out there. Roads, totally abandoned by drivers, were taken over by pedestrians trying to battle their way home.
The neighbourhood bikes got a good covering...
Over in Victoria Park local kids had hours of fun coming up with creative snowmen and snow women...
...whilst the birds got cold feet on the semi-frozen lake.
Some brave souls had ventured out on two wheels, picking their way between the abandoned cars left by the sides of roads, or careering down the icy un-salted side roads...
...but most of all this was weather for walking. With the snow quickly turning to frozen ice, the Tube network suffering severe delays, the bus timetable totally off-kilter, and only the brave and the stupid daring to drive it was a pleasure to be out and about on two feet. With Gatwick, City and Heathrow airports all closed walking along the canal in London's East End yesterday was as quiet as being in the countryside. We were surprised to find the canal tow path had been gritted, and had no trouble getting to London's Olympic Park in Stratford where the 2012 stadium lay under a thick layer of snow...
Quiet, beautiful and festive, for me the snow this weekend has been a real treat; natural noise pollution and traffic speed reduction measure rolled into one - all I need to do is order some studded tyres for the bike for next year and I'll be set!
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...and by Saturday morning was coming down so heavily that it looked like the Antarctic out there. Roads, totally abandoned by drivers, were taken over by pedestrians trying to battle their way home.
The neighbourhood bikes got a good covering...
Some bikes coped with all that extra weight better than others...
Over in Victoria Park local kids had hours of fun coming up with creative snowmen and snow women...
...whilst the birds got cold feet on the semi-frozen lake.
Some brave souls had ventured out on two wheels, picking their way between the abandoned cars left by the sides of roads, or careering down the icy un-salted side roads...
...but most of all this was weather for walking. With the snow quickly turning to frozen ice, the Tube network suffering severe delays, the bus timetable totally off-kilter, and only the brave and the stupid daring to drive it was a pleasure to be out and about on two feet. With Gatwick, City and Heathrow airports all closed walking along the canal in London's East End yesterday was as quiet as being in the countryside. We were surprised to find the canal tow path had been gritted, and had no trouble getting to London's Olympic Park in Stratford where the 2012 stadium lay under a thick layer of snow...
Quiet, beautiful and festive, for me the snow this weekend has been a real treat; natural noise pollution and traffic speed reduction measure rolled into one - all I need to do is order some studded tyres for the bike for next year and I'll be set!
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8 comments:
Beautiful pictures of what must be a real mixed blessing of a weather event. I love the dual noise-and-traffic damping effect of a heavy snowfall.
Dottie in Chicago (of Let's Go Ride A Bike) rides most days on studded tires on her Dutch bike and she says it's a wonderful experience.
I was beginning to think all bicycles had been abandoned because of the dusting, but you did show one picture of someone walking, not riding, a bike.
Not used to snow there? :-)}}}
It's quite the novelty, Abram, and after the cold nights we've had here (-19 in Berkshire yesterday!!) it's not the snow that is so much a problem as the ice. More snow predicted for tonight, too...
more photos can be seen at my blog, which you can see if you click on my name, mark is free to use them on here if he wants, but just thought i would let people know for people that want to see more photos or read about journeys, like that, hope this is cool mark, thank you
Thanks Kevin, great pictures - looks like you really got hit with the white stuff bad!
Best,
Mark
thats ok, thanks for letting me post about it and as i say feel free to use them photos for this blog, and yeah it was real heavy over the country parks, around the towns though was mainly all slippery slush and ice which was not too nice, but all part of the adventure i guess
A nice review of snow and cycles! I am from Pennsylvania and will be visiting London soon...I wonder what are the best (least congested yet interesting) bike routes in the City? I am very curious to ride around London but also concerned about the right/left traffic pattern switch. Any recommended routes?
Hey Ben, drop me a line via the contact form on the 'About Me' page and I'll email you some ideas for cycling round London - there are some great traffic-free routes if you're worried about riding on the correct side of the road ;-)
Hoping the snow has cleared by the time you get here!
Mark
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