Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London - Great for the family

If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that I love to get the family out to explore new places. We don’t have to go anywhere fancy or spend loads of money, the fun for us is in the discovering something new and exploring where we have not been before.

Or in this case where some of us have been before. Last weekend on my birthday we headed along to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London. This of course is the home of the London Olympic games from 2012 and my husband and children all went to watch one of the Paralympic events whilst I was at work back in 2012.

They reliably inform me that whilst a couple of landmarks still remain and mean they can recognise this as the Olympic site generally the park has undergone such a massive redevelopment that is really is very different. One of the great legacies of having the Olympics here means that the area is very easy to access by public transport and there is also a massive multi-story car park, so you can travel in whatever way suits you. The Westfield shopping centre is also right on the parks doorstep and there is something there for everyone, what a wonderful cornucopia of shops, restaurants, street performers, fun activities and relaxing space.

First off there is no fee to enter the park and you can spend as much or as little time there as a you fancy. We arrived about 3pm and stayed until near 8pm and in that time we hardly even touched the surface of what is available, so I will happily go back again.

I often think that pictures tell a better story than words, so let me share with you some of the sights of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. First, the dancing fountains, which children were having so much fun with and there was plenty of bench seating around the outside for the adults. As the day was a bit chilly and we did not come prepared with towels our kids stayed pretty dry and had fun avoiding the water sprays!

The park itself is a visual feast, between all the enormous buildings that housed the games you have walkways that have beautiful planting and interesting things to look at - walls with blocks that turn, large wooden sun loungers and interactive areas where you can learn about some of the medals that were won by Team GB in the games.

Such a lovely birthday spending time with my family and I had the most delicious piece of banana cake and latte from one of the stalls selling food at the park. Of course they were not cheap, but I didn't really expect them to be here and JJ was super happy with his Nutella waffle, which set me back £4.00.

We found two good play areas as we explored, one right by the main heart of the park (close to the original stadium) and this had a variety of climbing areas, swings, slides, climbing walls and a fab sandpit.

The second one was a much further walk (down the canal, over the road and past the wetlands) on the north side of the park and by the time we got there it was deserted but we could see what fun it would be when there are lots of kids. There are water pumps which pump water down a big slope and you can build dams to stop the water. There is also a big rope bridge, sandpit, swing, wobble boards and balance beams.

As I mentioned earlier there really is so much to see and do here and it is a great place to be able to talk to your children about the Olympics and what they meant for this part of London. Next time we go and visit the 560 acre site I'm going to print off some of the trails for us to follow, there are kid specific ones, ones to follow the Olympic trail and an art one too.

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Can you feel the Olympic fever?

Today we spent a great day in our home town, we went in early and enjoyed a joint church service in the rain, then we had free homemade cakes and did lots of craft and played games, all without spending a penny. It really was lovely. The highlight of the day was supposed to be watching the once in a lifetime event of the Olympic torch passing through our town but that for me was the anti-climax of the day.

I keep hearing lots of enthusiastic chatter about the Olympics, people being beside themselves with excitement - you know themed parties, torch processions, a blogger friend even travelling back from her holiday in France to watch the synchronised swimming event and of course loads of blogs are littered with craft ideas, recipes and Olympic themed linkys. But I need to be honest, I just do not feel the excitement, sadly I have no real enthusiasm for the Olympics being held in London. It has been suggested that I am just 'bah humbug' and I'm told I should be proud and that it is a wonderful thing that will enthuse my children about participating in sport.

Really? How marvellous, I would love for my children to be really enthusiastic about sport, not so they can be Olympians, just so they are healthy and can enjoy their lives to the fullest. But I have to confess I am not too sure the Olympics will do this. Perhaps if some of the money that has been lavished on new sporting accommodation and associated services had been given to schools, local leisure centres or swimming pools to lay on some free or subsidised classes then there might have been a better chance for my kids. As it is I struggle to pay for sports lessons, the girls going to gymnastics costs me about £100 every half-term. I would love for them to learn to swim and have lessons, but where would that money come from?  Yes we could give less to charity but then for me personally it means something has gone wrong if we become so insular that just our family’s needs come first.

Anyway I digress, back to the matter in hand – JJ came home the other week and presented me with his homework. He needed to talk to his parents about their views of the Olympics and write a short passage about this. ‘Ekk, oh no’ thinks I, I do not really have much of a view about the Olympics or certainly nothing that positive anyway.

My overriding feeling is that far too much money has been spent on London hosting the games. Yes I know that a deprived area of East London has been regenerated because of it and that of course is a great thing. But, let’s be honest, it should have happened anyway, why did they have to wait for the Olympics? I do not believe that sport should have to sell out to Coca-Cola and Cadbury to allow people to have a decent standard of living accommodation. Not in the UK, not in this day and age.

I decided it was not wise to show JJ my lack of knowledge about current affairs and thus turned to Google. It seems that opinion is divided; there are plenty of people like me who think this PR exercise is a step too far and then others who really do seem to think it is the best news ever and has the potential to change the shape of things in the UK.

I was disheartened to read that many countries end up in a far worse situation financially after hosting the games. Ideas of grandeur getting in the way of rational thinking perhaps? I don’t want to be ‘bah humbug’ just for the sake of it, but in honesty I have no interest at all in competitive sports. I’m told I should feel a sense of pride when England win in a championship but in reality I may not even know it has happened.

I don't believe the Olympics will change my opinion towards sports, it would be nice to think that it might enthuse my children to try more things out but realistically I think it will all be forgotten by September.  How sad!

So how are you feeling about the Olympics?  can you feel that fever?