How close can you get to the Olympic Park without a ticket? A guaranteed way to see the Orbit, Olympic Stadium and Athletes Village is to take the daily Olympic walking tour around the edge of the park. In spite of tightened security and crowds, the tours are continuing twice a day throughout the Games.

The altered tour route for the Olympics visits the film studio where Danny Boyle is preparing the Opening Ceremony. It takes in the Stadium and the distinctive Aquatics Centre from a pedestrian gate and finishes up at Westfield Stratford City shopping centre, overlooking the Athletes Village.

The real highlights of taking a tour in Games-time are the unplanned encounters with Olympic stars, explains guide Victoria Herriott, who has bumped into the likes of Steve Redgrave, American sprinter Michael Johnson and legendary British Athlete Mary Peters on her tours.

“The atmosphere is great because there are athletes wandering around everywhere,” she says. “The athletes have all been moving in recently and they’ve hung their flags on their balconies so you know where different teams are staying. Last week, we met the American equestrian team with their trainer Mark Phillips, who is Zara Phillip’s father. My group were mainly American so they got the meet their own equestrian team and the father of the Queen’s granddaughter.”

The tours are led by professional Blue Badge tourist guides who tell the story of east London’s industrial past and regeneration, winning the bid and the build up to the Games.

Many guides have led tours of the park for years, from site visits for architects to trips for local schools. They launched the tours in 2010 when they realised the limited bus tours of the Olympic Park weren’t satisfying curiosity about the Olympic site. “We could see there wasn’t going to be much chance for people to be let into the park,” says Herriott. “There used to be bus tours but they were always sold out. It didn’t even begin to scrape the surface of the demand to learn about the Olympics.”

Guided walks take place every day at 11am and 2pm, starting at Bromley-by-Bow Underground station. Booking in advance is necessary in Games time. Have you been on a walking tour of the Olympic Park? Let us know your experience in the comments below.

If you were elsewhere, here’s a little round-up of yesterday’s London 2012 Olympics news.

The designs for the London 2012 medals were revealed. Designed by British artists David Watkins, the medals show Nike, the Greek Goddess of Victory stepping out of the Parthenon, the same as all summer games medals. On the back, there’s that 2012 logo, with the outline of the River Thames running through it, and a grid radiating out from the centre “representing the athletes’ achievements and effort,” according to the designer. The ribbons are royal purple: a nod to the Queen’s diamond jubilee.

They’re the biggest-ever summer Olympic medals (85mm in diameter), and rather heavy too, weighing 375-400 grams.

The medals are each made of:

• Gold medal: 92.5% silver, 1.34% gold and the rest copper (a minimum of 6g of gold)
• Silver medal: 92.5% silver and the rest copper
• Bronze medal: 97.0% copper, 2.5% zinc and 0.5% tin

The other big news from last night was the newly completed Aquatics Centre. To mark the completion of the final permanent venue for the London 2012 Olympics, Tom Daley, team GB’s big diving medal hope, tested the waters. Here’s a video of that jump, below:

Did you enjoy the One-Year-To-Go celebrations? Let us know in the comments below.

The London 2012 Olympic Park is really starting to take shape, and with just over two years to go until the Games we’re getting really excited! These photos taken in May show the latest progress at the Olympic Park.

The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are set to transform this part of East London with sporting venues, new transport networks and the construction of the UK’s largest urban park for more than a century.

As you can see the Olympic Stadium is progressing well. It has now reached its full height of 60m, with the roof and 14 lighting towers resting on 2,500 tonnes of steel tubing recycled from old gas pipelines.

The distinctive wave-shaped roof of the Aquatics centre weighs 2,800 tonnes, spans 160m and has a length of 120m. The roof structure is now in place and the centre is due to be completed midway through next year.

The Pringle-shaped VeloPark needed 2,500 sections of steelwork for its structure with a difference of 12m in height between the lowest and highest points. It looks so good that once you see it you’ll want to go back for more!

The structure of the IBC (International Broadcast Centre) /MPC (Main Press Centre) was completed in September after just ten weeks of construction. The 4,500 tonne structure features a 12,000 sq m catering village that will dish up 50,000 meals during the Games.

What do you think of these latest photos?

Although it was only publicised within Britain, in less than two months since London 2012 Olympics tickets registration opened, there has been an overwhelming response. London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe commented: “We are thrilled by the level of interest in our ‘Sign Up’ programme.”

The London 2012 organisers said that the majority of interest has come, as was expected,  from within the UK, with registrations from London and the South East making up 32 and 27 per cent respectively of the figure so far. And around 400,000 of the applicants have expressed interest in watching the Paralympics.

“What has been really interesting is that there has been significant interest across all Olympic and Paralympic sports,” said Coe.

“It should come as no surprise that the British public is so enthused by the prospect of world class sport coming to these shores, but it is pleasing to see that some of the lesser-known Olympic and Paralympic sports are also set to be well supported.”

Olympic tickets go on sale in spring 2011, with average price forecast to be between £40-£50 (US$60-$76).

Sign yourself up today at www.tickets.london2012.com and you’ll be first to find out when the sales process starts.

On Saturday, there are just 1,000 days to go until the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has released details suggesting more than 5 million people are now “involved” in the Games in one way or other.

So, if you’re reading this, chances are you’re either one of them, or you know someone who is!

Whether it’s the Inspire Programme looking at community projects, the Get Set programme in schools, the Cultural Olympiad, School Sports Week, or your company is working on the Games, it’s becoming clear than 2012 is having quite an impact.

So, tomorrow is time for London to celebrate this involvement in different ways:

• A Games-themed photography exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, called The Road to 2012, featuring portraits of people working towards the Games
• A spectacular firework display from the BT Tower tomorrow night, including a huge LED banner count-down message on top of the tower. (Watch this from London’s hilltops – Primrose Hill, Parliament Hill or on the BBC Lottery programme from 8.45pm)
• The London 2012 Corgi-made replica London bus goes on sale tomorrow in Hamley’s
• The limited edition adidas t-shirt, with pictures representing all the Olympic sports is available to buy here
• The Royal Mail’s 2012 stamps go on sale

With just 1,000 days to go, all eyes are on the next step: the aquatic centre’s roof is due to be finished before the end of the year…

But, alongside London 2012, we want to know what you’re going to achieve in the next 1000 days? Let us know in the comments below, tell twitter @london2012team, or visit www.london2012.com.