So, you've just enjoyed the Beijing 2008 Olympics and now have to wait four years before you visit London's Olympic Park? No way, you want come over and see London's park immediately in order to avoid sporting withdrawal symptoms - and thanks to London Landscape TV you can. In this special edition of LLTV, filmed Monday, 25 August 2008, I head over to the London Olympic Park so you can take a good look. However you should be warned: it's a bit of a building site. OK, a LOT of a building site! As I pan the HD camera across the Olympic park you'll notice.. tower cranes, bulldozers, large piles of extracted ground, concrete skeletons, and some excellent arty hoardings ... I think you'll agree there is a 'small' amount of building work to complete before 2012. Well, at least you can say you were virtually here and you've had a real sense of the beginnings of the London 2012 Olympics. I'll be back from time to time to film the work as it progresses so you' ll be familiar with the Olympic Park before anyone else. I'll also make myself known to the London Olympic Organising Committee and see if I can get some 'insider' footage on your behalf as the buildings rise from the ground. Meanwhile I better do some training. Cycling is my sport and that Chris Hoy fella is pretty good with his three Golds... and he's 31 and fit. I'm 43 and cycle about one day a week for a few hours. Hmmm....

No decent visit to London should be complete without enjoying a visit to at least one great football (soccer) match. London is home to many top clubs - Arsenal (as we have already seen in our journey), Chelsea, Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United are all in the Premier League and all have a huge international following with great stadiums in which to savour the atmosphere. There are plenty more clubs too - take a look at the listing at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_in_London for more information. But this is London Landscape TV so you get to visit the greatest, most famous home of football in the world - Wembley Stadium. The stadium has just been completely rebuilt into a state-of-the-art venue hosting top football cup finals and semi-finals, as well as major concerts. In this visit on Sunday 10 August 2008, Manchester United played Portsmouth in the Football Association (FA) Community Shield. This game was doubly significant as the Community Shield celebrated its 100th birthday at this match. Now unfortunately video equipment is not officially allowed into the ground - and my pro Sony camcorder would be a bit obvious - so I used my discreet compact 'cyclecam' camcorder for this episode. Alas the picture and sound quality is some way below what you would normally expect from LLTV so please accept my apologies and we'll continue our journey in high quality and high definition from next week. I hope you you get enough from this episode to enjoy the atmosphere and get a sense of the size of such a great stadium.

At the end of the last episode we had arrived at Highbury and Islington station. For this part of the journey, we head south from this station down Upper Street finally arriving at Angel station (featuring the longest escalator in the London Underground network). Between these two stations, we take in the sights along Upper Street which is essentially the heart of Islington. Churches and parks, old shops and public houses, and traffic and people. We even walk through the antiques shopping 'mall' not far from the tube station. Islington is a very pleasant part of London and well worth a visit. Follow the journey using your desired online mapping service such as Google or Live maps, search for 'Islington' and look for Upper Street noting Highbury and Islington station at its north end. I walked south on the west side of the road down to Angel station at the bottom end of Upper Street.

Summer In The City 2008 kicks off at Highbury, an ornate part of north London with terraced houses built in beautiful Italianate villa style. I'll describe road names here so you can follow the journey using an online map if you desire. We start at the junction of Highbury Park, Highbury Hill and Leigh Road, looking north towards the village then at the tall Highgate Clock and church at this junction. We then walk down Highbury Hill looking the beautiful italiante villas with their former glory of big houses complete with servants bell. The camera pans 270 degrees finally pointing down Martineau Road (say hello to the telephone engineer - someone has to work!) and then at the giant 'ARSENAL' 3D letters in front of the walk from Drayton Park Rail station to the Emirates Stadium, new home of Arsenal football (soccer) team. The stadium is a giant complex, and comes complete with cannons. The military connection (the name, and the cannons present in the team emblem) is based on Arsenal football team's original location in Woolwich where military weaponry (including cannon balls!) were made. We leave the stadium and head down Hornsey Road to Holloway Road, taking a look at the tube station which was surfaced in tiles and opened in 1906. We then walk south along Holloway Road and look at the unusually shaped London Metropolitan University's "Graduate Centre" building designed by the internationally renowned architect, Daniel Libeskind, whose portfolio includes the Jewish Museum in Berlin, and the redevelopment of the World Trade centre site in New York. Finally we take a quick glimpse of the Church of St. Magdelan and St. David before arriving at Highbury and Islington rail and tube station before we turn right next week and walk into Islington.