LIBS 2004 is alive and well

[Peppermint]

Getting there is quite easy by road. Even though yesterdays AM weather was biblical the treck down the M11 was easy enough.

Parking is signed by the AA. Park and ride is £5.

There are plenty of boats grouped logically.

The chandlers are handy for the "black stuff" stand which as usual has it's share of pretty barmaids and it's throngs of imbibers.

Following that the loo's are ok and plentiful too.

Restaurant and snacking stops are easy to find along the central walk. I can see them becoming more fraught on weekends but there are some to be found on the outside of the building. In fact going to visit the boats on the water, access is initiallysignposted from the powerboat hall, but requires you to head through the orange door for a coffee shop.

Boats on the water works pretty well provided the weather cooperates and the crowds stay indoors.

You are going to walk miles (well 6k's was expected to be average) and the air conditioning is a bit patchy so be prepared.

The venue works for me and seems to have allowed more boats to come along.

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[milltech]

I suppose it's a little disappointing not to have the balcony view or the perspectives offered by the high ceiling in EC2, somehow the boats seem more hidden than they did at EC, you can see them, but not from a distance.

However I agree the layout is logical and the wide aisles should make traffic flow OK. Yesterday was preview day and we found it hard to find anywhere to have a sit down lunch, or to sit down "full stop". There seems to be a limited number of seats for any purpose so busier days may be testing.

Access was OK and transportation effective, but it is a long hike across town with a change to the DLR at Canning Town.

Parking must be quite limited, my pal came by car with stock for customers and was told the car park was full and was sent off to the park and ride which killed off part of his day. For the car parks to be full on preview day the space must be very limited.

Exhititors complained about the lack of restaurants and any kind of evening activities in a doubtful area, there's nowhere you can walk to from any of the site hotels, so you must travel to eat and drink unless content with hotel fare. I did hear that a new hotel opened the day before the show and is completely empty, so there may be deals. It wasn't of interest to me so I regret I have not remembered its name.

Watersports pool apparently leaked and will not re-open until Monday, but again I did not get that far to see for myself.

The afloat boats worked well, I thought presentation was spoiled only by the cooking smell from the mobile burger bars. The two do not sit well together, go there first before depositing you coats in a cloakroom!

<hr width=100% size=1>John
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