Travel: Fun and Games: The eyes of the world will be on London this year. Our special issue opens with a bloggers' guide to the hidden highlights near to the main Olympic venues

• Published in: The Guardian (London)
• Main Author: McCloskey, Chloe
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: London (UK) Guardian News & Media Limited 21.01.2012
• Subjects: Wick, Hackney
• ISSN: 0261-3077

Starting on Morning Lane in the middle of Hackney, grab a bite at Railroad (120-122 Morning Lane, E9, 020-8985 2858, railroadhackney.co.uk). The menu features seasonal food from various cultures, but that's not the only draw: they hold readings and gigs in the basement space and have a tiny bookshop. If you're after artisan sandwiches and cakes, Chatsworth Road in Lower Clapton offers great options. Our personal favourite, Cakey Muto (25 Chatsworth Road, E5, 020-8533 5788), serves cakes (obvs), Mr Hair's Brighton pies and zany art. There's also a great market here on Sundays from 11am-4pm. Greenwich off the beaten track has an almost rural feel, with country lanes, secret vistas and leafy hollows. Exit Greenwich Park by St Mary's Gate and turn left past the Spread Eagle inn. Left again is one of Greenwich's oldest byways, Crooms Hill. It snakes along the edge of the park, via C Day-Lewis's blue plaque and the world's only Fan Museum (12 Crooms Hill, SE10, 020-8305 1441, thefanmuseum.org.uk), past a summerhouse built by 17th-century scientist, inventor and architect Robert Hooke to, eventually, Ranger's House (Chesterfield Walk, SE10, 020-8294 2548, english-heritage.org.uk), an English Heritage property which houses the Wernher art collection of oddball treasures. Back in the park, don't miss party-loving Princess Caroline's sunken bath, all that remains after her husband, George IV, razed her house in a fit of pique. Even if you don't make it as far as the Barrier, walking round the Thames Path's peninsula section you'll see everything from Long Good Friday-style desolate wharves to wildlife havens and millennium art - a sliver of ship called Slice of Life, Antony Gormley's Quantum Cloud and my personal favourite, a throne made from flotsam and jetsam near the Yacht Club. I'm not sure there will be much to see at the end of the new cable car across the Thames (completion permitting), but the ride should be fun. If you can't face the O2's chain restaurants, try The Pilot Inn (68 River Way, SE10, 020-8858 5910, fullershotels.com) nearby.