Sunday

Sunday began as it meant to continue with showers on and off. Still warm enough, in fact hot, when the sun came out. We decided it was time to culture up the trip. We set off into town and visited the Tate Modern gallery, the primary interest was to see the Damian Hurst collection. It was quite interesting showing the evolution of his work. I was particularly keen to see the sharks in tanks and the cows that had been cut in half. Some of the other work was entertaining like the huge glass box full of flies with blood and a horses head in one part, disgusting really. Another live exhibit was a room which had started with a load of chrysalises and was now mostly full of butterflies. Interesting visit, I think I find Banksy's work more like art.

We then found a cafe for lunch and watched part of the women's marathon on TV. After that it was time to head out to the Olympic park. This time we caught another tube line to the West ham station. Then had a 20 minute walk to the entrance followed by a 30 minute walk to the velodrome. In between there was a massive down pour. Luckily we were able to duck into a souvenir shop and kept mostly dry. We got to the velodrome about 1 hour before the event and it was hot and sunny by now so we got a beer before heading in. Our seats were great on the opposite side of the track the start finish line but only a few rows back from the rail. The racing was very good with the mens individual sprints through to the selection of the semi finalists, the women's sprints through to the selection of the quarter finalists and The last two events of the omnium. We got to see Natasha Hansen from New Zealand ride quite a few rounds eventually being eliminated.

We then headed back into town using the Javelin train service which is from the Stratford International station to St pancreas in 7 minutes. The change to Kings cross underground to Oxford circus where we went and had a quick Italian dinner and then outwards to Ealing. Our friends Teva and Merryn were back from their holiday in Provence and it was great to catch up. But first we got to watch the men's 100metre final on TV which was convincingly won by Usain Boult. Sam Webster managed to score a ticket to this special evening session of athletics, must have been great to see live.

Then it was time to  crash, the days are rushing by not to long before that long flight home.