A fun day out climbing ‘Up at The O2’ & Wagamama for Lunch

A couple of weeks back I was very fortunate to be offered tickets to do some climbing up at The O2. I did think about this, is climbing a huge dome the sort of thing I want to spend a day doing? And then I thought why not? I love a view and it is something different for hubby and me to do. We booked it a few weeks in advance, to book you need to click here Up at The O2. I have never climbed anything successfully, I did go on one of those ‘crazy’ corporate team building day where you climbed telegraph poles etc, and I hated it ;-). But I am willing to give most things try.

Travel Into London – How to Save!

We dropped the boys to school and caught the first non-rush hour (;-)) train into London. Now I keep thinking, get the Twotogether Railcard but alas I have not done it yet. So we got 2 travel card for £22 each. The railcard would have saved us 14.66 and it only costs £30. So its worth getting if 2 adults regularly travel into London.

The Outfits!

We trained/tubed it to North Greenwich, it took us 1 hour 15 mins to get there, just in time for the 11 o’ clock safety briefing. When you buy a ticket you have to arrive at the time allocated, our time was 11:15. Safety briefing, bless them, they tried to make as fun as possible, and our guide Richard, did his best too. All helped by his attractive face and friendly welcoming manner.

We got dressed up into our climbing gear, either full on suit or jacket, climbing shoes and harness. Tied hair back, emptied pockets. The only thing you were allowed to take was your phone. It is sponsored by O2 after all! Your suit or jacket had a special phone pocket;-)

The Climb-no photos allowed until you get to the top!

A few safety checks and official photos (that we did not buy!) and then you start the climb. It is basically like climbing a really steep bouncy hill. It was actually quite hard work, the going up bit. And you also had to manoeuvre the safety harness thing which moved along a wire. It had safety gauge thing every maybe 10 metres, to slide through at a very exact angle of 45 degrees! I got stuck maybe 30 times;-) So it wasn’t easy as maybe it sounds. It was a gorgeous sunny September day so I got really hot too 😉
As you climbed it got less of a gradient and easier as you got closer to the viewing platform at the top of The O2. This was the cool bit where we had a good amount of time to properly examine the London skyline. There was really great drawings and information around the perimeter of the platform telling what all the landmarks were. And Richard our guide knew a lot as well.

The Descent & Exit

After about half an hour we made our way to the bottom, a lot quicker was going down. And actually steeper, but by then confidence kicked in and we were at the bottom within 5 minutes. It was super safe as we had these amazing climbing grippy shoes, you were going nowhere. We quickly got out of the harnesses (very tight on the private parts, much to hubby’s annoyance then relief as it was taken off) and wondered through the 02 to find Wagamama for lunch. We passed a lot of lovely restaurants all open every day for food, all the likely suspects like Pizza Express, Gourmet Burger Kitchen etc. But we also had lunch vouchers for Wagamama, so we headed there, just outside the front of the 02.

Wagamama

Love Wagamama, it was my first experience of Pad Thai as a student back in 1996, so I have always have a soft spot for the place. And I always get Pad Thai when there. We order pork belly buns, pork ribs, spicy chicken curry and Pad Thai, along with an apple and avocado juice, a bottle of bear and a prosecco. It always arrives randomly at Wagamama which I am fine with, hubby not so! Food, drink and service was all really good. And no they didn’t know I was reviewing the food and restaurant!

So in summary a great day, maybe for you and hubby/partner. Kids can go but they have to be over 10. It will be a great thing to do when the boys are 10, I know they would love it. But it was a really nice thing to do with just the hubby as we got to have a proper conversation! And we were back home in time for the school run at 3:15.

I was given the tickets to ‘Up at The O2’ free of charge, regular price per ticket is £28. We received lunch vouchers for Wagamama to cover the cost of the food – £30. We paid for drinks and left a generous tip.