ER EX 06.1

Drive around central London for fun, your kidding right ! ?  Well no I’m not and what’s more this is the second time we have done it.  In 2004 Bob Paine West London Area Coordinator realised an almost unique opportunity to do a drive around the City to see the sites on the New Years Bank Holiday which with the New Years day falling over the weekend meant the Bank Holiday would be on the following Monday with no congestion charge and probably very little traffic.  So the first Central London Run duly took place on 3 Jan 2005.  And as it happens the calendar afforded a similar opportunity in 2006 to do the very same thing on Monday 2 January.

So in the end 10 cars from the Eastern Region, all but one with the rather important navigator, headed off down the A12 to the meeting point in the middle of Hyde Park where we met up with a whole load of other members on a chilly but dry day.  The route had been altered a bit from last year and after Bob Paine’s very comprehensive and vital briefing 30 cars headed off from the Park with route instructions in hand. 

The route this year started around Knightsbridge and along the way took in Parliament Square, Buckingham Palace, The Embankment, St Paul's Cathedral, Canary Wharf, the most enjoyable Blackwall Tunnel (guess why ?),  finishing up in Greenwich Park.  The majority of people then headed off down the hill into Greenwich for lunch where almost by a stroke of luck the local Wetherspoons turned out to be the ideal venue.

We all completed the run although not everyone by the intended route, but then that’s all part of the fun.  A thoroughly entertaining day out for which we have to thank Bob once again and how he actually puts the comprehensive route directions together I have no idea.  Will we be doing it again ?  Well the bank holiday actually falls on New Years day itself until 2011 so Bob thinks he has got a few years off now, we’ll see about that.

Photo Album and press cutting.