Olympic Park (sneak peek)

I work at the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) which is located in the Olympic Park in London's East End near the Stratford Tube station. The park is huge, and contains many of the competition venues including: Aquatics, Waterpolo, Basketball, BMX Track, the Velodrome, Field Hockey, and Handball. It also includes the Olympic Village, the main Olympic Stadium (used for Opening and Closing Ceremonies, plus all the Track and Field events).

I'll probably get a chance to walk through the whole park at some point, but I just stepped out the back of the IBC this morning to see what I could see...

Let's start with the IBC itself, always a giant building, it hosts all of the rights-holding broadcasters from around the world:

This year the IBC and MPC (Main Press Centre, for print media) are combined in a single large complex (with a restauant, bar with live music at night, a McDonalds, a post office, gift shop, UPS store, barber, medical center, mini-mart, and massage).

From a pedestrian bridge at the back of the IBC, I can see a few of the competition venues, like Riverbank Arena (Field Hockey):

Turning to the right, I can also see the Velodrome:

Looking the other way, I can see the main Olympic Stadium:

Not quite as spectacular as the stadium in Beijing or even Athens, but maybe it will look nicer when I get a chance to get closer.

This next photo carries a bit of a "spoiler alert". It's located just beside the Olympic Stadium. I'm not going to say what it is, but you can probably guess. Looks kinda ugly to me, but maybe there's some amazing gimmick that will make it look nice...