But last week I heard one I'd never heard before, and, *gasp* never done. "You can't call yourself a Londoner if you haven't ridden a Boris bike" a lady scoffed on the tube. Barclays bikes, or Boris bikes as their fondly known, are bicycles available to hire across London in an attempt to encourage more commuters to cycle. And it was something I had never done before. Eager to put this to rights (and cure a hangover) Pippa and I headed over to Hyde Park to check it out for ourselves.
The concept is simple. Pay £2 for your bike, and then you're charged per the amount of time you spend cycling, and if you return it within half an hour its free! So we cycled around Hyde Park, to the serpentine gallery, where the summer installation is still available to visit and well worth a visit, and then we headed into Kensington for a cycle around the palace gardens.
If I was a more confident cyclist, or had any balance whatsoever, then the Boris bikes would be the perfect way to get around London. For now however, I think this Londoner will be keeping to cycling off road.
