Thinking About Future Adventures

At the week-end we popped on a train up to London to visit the Telegraph Outdoor Adventure and Travel Show, combined with the Bike Show.  It was an interesting event and there was plenty to see and lots of information to be gained.  The above life-sized caravan was pretty impressive, built entirely out of Lego bricks and took 3 months to build. Its the sort of cute little caravan I'd like to go travelling with (but probably made from something more substantial than Lego bricks).

We've been thinking about visiting North Wales later in the year and knew there was plenty of beautiful scenery and outdoor activities to do there, but were delighted to find that there is even more going on now than we thought, as North Wales seems to be turning itself into the Adventure capital of the UK.  Mr Cocopopia posed for a photo against the background of Velocity which is the longest zip wire in Europe and the fastest in the world.  If we are feeling brave enough, we may just give it a go ...

A large part of the exhibition space was taken up by the Bike Show, covering all aspects of bike culture and new technologies.  There was a speakers' theatre with various talks throughout the day and we were lucky enough to be able to catch cycling heroes Sir Chris Hoy and Chris Boardman, who were both fascinating to listen to.

We didn't specifically walk around looking for freebies, but various items were handed to us as we walked around.  These are just a few items we found in our bags, once we got home (minus the 2 bottles of coconut and peppermint water we drank whilst we were there - sounds a bit odd but they were surprisingly refreshing!).

Before catching the train back home at London Bridge, we took a quick stroll to the river Thames, which was looking very grey and wintery.

Across the Thames from London Bridge

Outdoor Cafe on the Thames - too cold for sitting outside

We needed the fuel of a hot drink before heading home, and as it was too cold and damp to sit outside, we found a cosy cafe.  I was very content with my Baileys Latte, but Mr Cocopopia was disappointed with the size of the cake that accompanied his coffee.  But I told him it was a very special cake, as (if you can see what I can see) it had the face of Bob Marley smiling back at him ...