please empty your brain below

lots lots of Orbit tickets available across the Paralympics...
Ah, your last paragraph explains why, having heard that they're releasing more tickets, I leapt eagerly onto the internet only to find that no, on the day I head to the Paralympics the only slot available is still about 9pm. Which considering I'm viewing athletics at 10-12.30, would commit me to an awful lot of aimless meandering around the park before my time came, and then a view of twinkling lights. Not worth £15 to me, sadly - and I expect that, as you say, I really won't want to go up it when it's just a random thing as opposed to being part of the festivities.

Shame, because during its construction I was working high up in Canary Wharf and got to view its progress day by day, looking forward to going up it, but... them's the breaks.
I also have a ticket to the morning session paralymics in the main stadium and an Orbit ticket for 8.30pm evening of the same day. Unlike mighty mouse in his comment I am looking forward to spending (another) day meandering around the Olympic park.
>>"Will you go down in the lift, or will you take the stairs?"

Seems a shame you can't slide down on a doormat.
Looks Great,whish i could of got a ticket up when im there for the paralympics.

P.S does anyone know if the Partner showcases will be open during the Paralympics (e.g the Beatbox,Hoping that they have a Paralympic Torch photo,not an olympic and that they still have those Bottles i only need that one know,becuase i have the special Torch Relay ones.)
We went up last week as the stadium was being prepared for athletics. They were doing mock 100m final announcements, predicting a Bolt win. Great views and well worth a visit.

Glad to hear they are selling more tickets. Like you, I think they have undersold tickets - we went mid pm and the tower could easily have accommodated at least twice as many people as were there.
I was in the park last Saturday and the queue for the Orbit was massive, it stretched all around the base of the tower and was estimated to be at least one hour queueing time, I was back in the park again on Monday with a ticket for the Orbit and the queue this time was pretty small and it took about six minutes to reach the lifts, the attendant told me that they had oversold tickets for the weekend and had learnt lessons from it, by the way visitors over 60 years old get a ticket for the reduced price of £7.
Hmmm
Bell-end?
Is that a technical expression???
Well, the Atomium in Brussels (the legacy of the world's fair) is still a popular tourist attraction, even if it's not quite close to the city centre and the immediate surroundings are not very exciting.
Took a trip up yesterday; good views but not sure it's quite worth the £15 each.

Bizarrely everyone I've spoken to about it is convinced there's a restaurant at the top. Not sure where that particular rumour came from.
Ahh... your posts and photos have made me very homesick. Keep it up, it's a bitter sweet kind of thing.
@ Andy

The upper deck will become a corporate venue for meetings and hospitality when it reopens with only the lower deck open as a public viewing platform.

When we went last week, it was so quiet we were able to completely disregard our appointed times and go up earlier and come down much later. Lots of kiddies enjoying the mirrors. Sadly the Cauldron had been moved by then, so we only saw the screen shots of it. Don’t understand why the flame was not made visible throughout the park – I saw in an interview with Laxshmi Mittal that he suggested at one point that the flame sit atop the Orbit, which whilst it wouldn’t have been the most aesthetically pleasing choice, would certainly have ensured that the Olympic spirit was visible throughout East London, like a beacon… missed opportunity..?
Oh and whilst I would certainly recommend the stairs on the way down, anyone with even slightly dodgy knees should avoid doing so… my poor companion regretted coming down this way not least as there was so much walking in the park to do afterwards. [And bizarrely the turnstile at the end is rather on the narrow side, some tall and large people coming after us actually struggled getting through.]

But I loved coming down the stairs, it was magical the way the perspective and scale changed from toytown-esque to human so imperceptibly. There aren’t many opportunities in London to walk down from somewhere so high.

Great photos DG as ever, whilst we had sun and blue skies on our visit, I actually prefer your rainbow shots.
To make it worse, I don't think the people in the lifts were Games Makers judging by your photo of the queue.

Same tops, but black trousers instead of light brown. That means they were probably paid for the privelege of doing very little!
@ andy, there was a restaurant at the top of the BT tower (then called the Post Office tower) when it opened in the mid 60s, but getting a booking for a table there seemed impossible. I did go up the tower though, amazing views, and I intend to get to the Orbit eventually.
Good to hear it is quiet and you can go up early and come down late. You could only buy blocks of four tickets so for my group of 7 at the Paralympics I got some at one time and more 30 mins later, but hopefully we can all go up at once.

I hope the BT Tower is in Open House again this year... would be nice to get up it at some point.
Went with kid and Dad on Sunday. Not great with heights, and didn't like it at all! My boy kept running up to the glass and pushing it...Maybe it's knowing your'e not on top of a building but a sculpture! Walking down wasn't pleasant and took forever.

View across central London was amazing though. You really appreciate how flat London is.

An attendant gave me a tip for the mirror - stand right at the back with your back against the railing and look yourself in the eye, then walk very fast towards the mirror.
Me and a mate pitched up without tickets at 9pm for a gander and we were told we couldn't get up without a ticket and they weren't selling any today. But come back in half an hour when it's quiet and we'll let you up, which they did and it was great. For free. It's the Olympic staff that make a lot of the Games a success and so much fun.
Great report...
You blog its a excellente help for who wants to visit London with a local prespetive.
If you are a resident within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets then you can apply for free admission tickets to the Olympic Park for tomorrow (Saturday 11/08/12) max 6 tickets per applicant, all you have to do is turn up at Cheviot House, Commercial Road E1 tomorrow morning from 9am with one proof of residence and they are giving them away on a first come first served basis.
Mournful footnote:
A brag about the Arcelor-Mittal tower is that it has been made with bits of steel from all over the world. And so that would include Mittal's mine at Omarska in Bosnia, which was the location of a torture/murder camp during the 1990s aggressions. Some people fear that there are still unrevealed bodies of murdered detainees at the site, and that it would be better to search for these and dedicate the important buildings on the site as memorials to the dead than to continue with capitalist commerce in the face of all too recent atrocity.










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