Changing

We had plans to be on a boat on the canals around the Olympic Park today. However, the torrential rain overnight - which put to rest my argument that it was beginning to look like summer - meant that the boats were inaccessible, and our journey was postponed.  But I thought it would be nice to go and see the park anyway as there wasn't any rain forecast for the afternoon. So we hopped on a train and arrived at Westfield Stratford just before 2pm.

I thought spending time in the shopping centre would be interesting as I haven't done it for a while. At one point, there was never a week when it wasn't necessary to visit one of the malls, but these days, it is very much the exception. We walked up and down, but I lacked inspiration. We went and looked in a few shops, but we didn't buy anything.

We also took a walk around the park. PY works in the area known as the International Quarter but was renamed Stratford Cross 2023. Much of it is still a building site as the developers finalise the Turing Building, which seems to be the next big opening. After a wander around the new commercial areas, we had lunch at Tonkotsu.

After lunch, we wandered into the park, down to Hackney Wick, and onto a boat, Milk Float, for a coffee. There was a bit of a breeze, but when we got a seat in the sun, it was warm enough to sit people-watching from the top outdoor deck.

Coming back, we found an area called The Great British Garden. It's a lovely, secluded garden area built for the Olympic Games. I wonder if access was allowed then? One of the oak trees in this garden was grown from the tree that Baron Pierre De Coubertin planted in 1894 to thank the citizens of Much Wenlock for inspiring the founding of the modern Olympic Games. It's a nice circular story.