The BNY Mellon Boat Race

Watch the thrilling race between Oxford and Cambridge universities on the river Thames. The BNY Mellon Boat Race is one of the world’s most famous sporting competitions and sees two teams of eight rowers competing over the Championship Course between Putney and Mortlake. It’s free to watch this exciting annual event, and as well as standing on the riverbank, you can enjoy special celebratory events in Bishops Park and Furnival Gardens. 4.30pm, 31 Mar

Sacred Tarts at Barts, Smithfield

Enjoy alternative Easter treats at Barts Pathology Museum, which is hosting a special pop-up cake shop on Saturday. Taking place from 11am to 7pm, Sacred Tarts is a Christian-themed cake shop and show which offers topical confections such as cake popes, cupcake saints and stigmata cookies. You can also enjoy a holy spirit or two from the Miracle Messiah bar. 30 Mar

The Harlem Globetrotters at Wembley Arena

Basketball legends the Harlem Globetrotters are bringing their family show to Wembley Arena this Saturday as part of the “You Write The Rules” tour. The brand new team, which includes their first female player for two decades, will be demonstrating their skills and entertaining the audience with amazing tricks. Tickets start from £14.25. 30 Mar

The Wandsworth Common Beer Festival

Head to the magnificently eerie Royal Victoria Patriotic Building by Wandsworth Common for one of London’s most popular beer festivals. You can sample more than 120 real ales here, alongside a variety of ciders, perries and English wines. Food and live music are also on offer, and tickets are £4. 27-31 Mar

Park in Progress Tour at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

Take a peek behind the scenes of the Olympic Park transformation on this fascinating tour. Not only will you get an exclusive insight into what the future holds for the site, but you will also take a trip up the ArcelorMittal Orbit, from where you’ll have a great view over London. Tickets start from £15. 29 Mar – 6 May

If you were inspired by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, here’s a video to remind you of all the excitement. But it doesn’t end here – there’s a host of fantastic new major events coming up at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and across the capital. Find out more at visitlondon.com/events.

Last year set the bar pretty high for events and attractions in London, but 2013 is shaping up to be just as exciting. Here are some highlights you can’t miss this year.

View from the Shard

When? From 1 February

What? The opening of the Shard – that spiky new building that you can see from all over London. You can visit the viewing deck on the (deep breath) 69th floor, where digital telescopes will fill you in on the various parts of London you can gaze at.

Why? It was Europe’s tallest building, until November last year when a tower in Russia inched ahead. But height isn’t everything – the Shard is iconic and will give you giddy views of the city from 40 miles around. If you’re feeling brave, head up to the 72nd floor – it’s partly open air and the highest point you can access.

New London Dungeon

When? From 1 March

What? The London Dungeon is moving to a new home at County Hall, due to building work at London Bridge station.

Why? The move to the South Bank means a refreshed and more scary dungeon – there are 18 new spine-tingling shows to watch, and a virtual 3D Brian Blessed will sentence you to death as Henry VIII.

The Coronation Festival

When? 11-14 July

What? Dust off that bunting from the Diamond Jubilee, it’s the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation, which happened a year after she became Queen. To celebrate, Buckingham Palace is hosting an exhibition featuring more than 200 companies who hold Royal Warrants of Appointment – the mark of recognition for companies who have supplied goods or services to the royal family. There will also be two evening galas celebrating music throughout Her Majesty’s rein.

Why? The goods on show will be the best of British – officially. And it’s in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, need we say more?

RideLondon

When? 3-4 August

What? A brand new cycling festival through the streets of London. RideLondon is made up of three events: a 100-mile road challenge beginning in the Olympic Park, a family fun ride around London landmarks for up to 70,000 cyclists and a city centre grand prix for women’s elite, junior cyclists and hand cycles.

Why? After Bradley Wiggins rode to glory in the Tour de France and then won the Olympic time trial, the appetite for cycling in London is huge – 50,000 people have registered for only 20,000 places in the road challenge.

What are you looking forward to this year? Let us know below.

The Games might be over but there’s still plenty going on in the Olympic Park.

Free bus tours began this week, offering a great chance to witness the park’s £292 million transformation into a new cultural hub and green space for London, before it reopens in phases from summer 2013. Here are some top things to spot on the trip:

1. Dismantling the Venues

The park is currently a huge construction site – or, more correctly, a deconstruction site. The world’s largest McDonald’s has been dismantled, as has the Riverbank Arena where Olympic hockey was played. On the bus tours you’ll be able to spot temporary venues being removed as well as athletes’ training centres, security areas and temporary seating stands or “wings” being taken to pieces. 

2. South Park Plaza

The area around the distinctive red ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture is being transformed into an urban park the size of 16 football pitches. When it’s finished, the new South Park Plaza will boast fountains, a climbing wall, a 12-metre wide tree-lined boulevard and “garden rooms” created by planting designer Piet Oudolf. During the Games, this space was the first part of the park most visitors saw after entering through the Stratford entrance.

3. Planting the Park

It was already a park to begin with, but over the next year or so the amount of open space in the Park will be doubled to a whopping 252 acres. The planting project includes 4,300 semi-mature trees, over 100,000 new shrubs and almost one million bulbs, which will all be watered by a park-wide water system. Even today the park has plenty of wildlife – you could see swans, ducks, cormorants and coots.

4. The First Neighbourhood

The Basketball Arena is one of the largest temporary Olympic venues ever built, and will be deconstructed between now and next autumn. The entire building can be recycled – from the seating to the floor – and some parts will head over to Brazil to be used at the Rio 2016 Games. Once the area is cleared it will be the site for the first new housing neighbourhood in the park, Chobham Manor.

5. The Stadium

Of course, no trip to the park would be complete without a glimpse of the iconic Olympic Stadium where athletes like Usain Bolt sped to victory this summer.

Tours run on Wednesdays, Thursdays and some weekends, until the Park begins to open in phases from July 2013. To book, email parktours@springboard-marketing.co.uk or call 0800 023 2030.

As well as the thrilling Paralympic action, there was plenty going on around the Olympic Park when I visited for the first time yesterday. I was impressed by the architecture and landscaping, pop-up performances and art installations.

Do you have any great pictures of the Park? If so, make sure you add them to the Visit London Flickr pool.

The show opened with a set featuring iconic London landmarks. I spotted:

• The London Eye
• St Paul’s Cathedral
• The Gherkin
• Battersea Power Station
• Tower Bridge
• Royal Albert Hall
• And last and but not least Big Ben (out of which appeared Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill!)

This section was accompanied by artists from top West End show, Stomp.

We were then treated to a journey through British music with a focus on artists from the last 50 years including The Kinks, George Michael, Queen, Tinie Tempah, Jessie J, Kaiser Chiefs, Liam Gallagher, Take That and The Who. You can explore the rich tradition of British pop music at the British Music Experience or revel in Queen’s music at We Will Rock You!

The Spice Girls’ performance proved particularly popular and fans can look forward to a brand new musical – Viva Forever – premiering in London in November.

The ceremony also celebrated fashion with appearance of top British models including Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell. You can find many top British designers in London along with some of the world best shopping districts. Fashionistas should also head to the V&A and Fashion and Textile Museum.

There was an injection of comedy with Eric Idle’s rendition of ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’. You can enjoy this and other Monty Python classics in popular musical, Spamalot.

The Olympic flag was passed to Rio ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games and London’s Olympic Cauldron extinguished in a dance sequence starring Darcey Bussell. You can discover more about the cauldron at the current Thomas Heatherwick exhibition.

The athletes thoroughly enjoyed the show and Team GB were celebrating their success. I can’t wait to join them for the Our Greatest Team victory parade in London on 10 September.

Now eyes turn to the London 2012 Paralympic Games from 29 August until 9 September, which promise to be another impressive display of sporting prowess and courage. Beyond that I look forward to the legacy of London 2012.

What was your favourite moment of the London 2012 Olympic Games?

We love this replica of the Olympic Park made from LEGO!

You’ll find this faithful reproduction (even down to the wild flowers!) at Visit Denmark’s “Imagination” exhibition, open until the 12 August at St Katharine Docks.

Other highlights of the Imagine Denmark exhibition include a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale world, more LEGO activities and a special visit to the docks by the Vikings complete with five Viking boats. Imagine Denmark is one of the many National Olympic houses open in London for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Read about more about the National Houses here

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.

It’s just ONE WEEK to go to the London 2012 Olympic Games. Here’s a great video, showing the development of the Olympic site, and some of the stories of the people involved.

For more London videos, check out our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/visitlondonvideo

An array of inspiring artworks has popped up across London’s Olympic Park. Highlights include Monica Bonvicini’s 9-metre tall RUN sculpture and Ackroyd and Harvey’s History Trees – giant rings engraved with phrases about the area’s local history hanging in specially planted trees.

You can find out more on the London 2012 website or download the Art in the Park brochure.