UT ECOVORE Boris-Bikes London
London Boris Bike Rack With Art Graffiti
It’s nice to be given the key to a city.
More specifically, I was given a key to unlock Boris bikes, one of several keys purchased by InterContinental London Park Lane for loan to guests interested in lower-carbon alternatives to taking cabs.
Boris Bikes in rack - London cycle hire scheme
Nicknamed after Mayor Boris Johnson, Boris cycle scheme, AKA Barclays Cycle Hire launched to mixed reviews a year ago. As a bike commuter preferring the freedom of pedaling where I want to go, I give it two bike-gloved thumbs up. And that’s speaking as an American constantly making mental and physical adjustments to stay on the correct side of the street amid very heavy traffic and bike lanes that sometimes disappear. Thus, I don’t recommend extensive in-city cycling for inexperienced folks with trailing tots. In any case, wear your helmet.
London Eye
Tower Bridge
The recently renovated elegant neoclassical-meets-mod InterContinental In Mayfair near Knightsbridge is a short stroll from a long rack of blue Boris bikes. Insert key, extract bike and go. For standard use, the first 30 minutes are free. There are 5,000 bikeshare bicycles and 315 docking stations across the city. The original membership fee was eliminated in December, allowing non-members to pay with credit and debit cards.
Since I borrowed a hotel guest cycle scheme key, I pedaled without clock-watching, on designated paths in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, past the changing of the guards, around Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, over the Thames, past the London Eye, to the Tate Modern, then across the Tower Bridge that’s often confused with London Bridge. I enjoyed random bits of street art including choice characters near bike racks pictured in this post.
Spitalfields marketplace
Cookbook Cafe Market Table Salads
Bikes are allowed on London Underground and new Overground A resident bicycle commuter mentioned using London Bridge Cycle Park, a staffed indoor bicycle parking lot with space for up 400 bicycles.
InterContinental London Park Lane became my go-to for food as well. Lauded as the “Best Hotel in the U.K. for Food,” its restaurants focus on sustainable farm-to-table fare. The Cookbook Cafe serves up nutty-good granola by morning and a lunch buffet of creative salads (robust greens, tangy beets, Kentish tomatoes), many geared to power-vegan appetites. Big windows face Hyde Park, but I only had eyes for the food.
Theo Randall's clementine sorbet. Get your own.
The InterContinental’s Theo Randall (restaurant and chef, an alumnus of California’s Chez Panisse) is so cheery that you can forget the rustic Italian venue won so many awards…until you dig into the food. Mine came from the helpfully separate vegan menu. Fresh strawberry puree, polenta with portobello and porcini mushrooms and wild rocket, wood-roasted carrots and fennel.
The landing of my dessert, Clementine sorbet, set off a chain reaction around the dining room. A novel instance of fruit trumping chocolate.
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