On August 19th we were invited by the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games to take a tour of the site that will hold the London 2012 Olympics. The tour, conducted by Morag Reavley of LOCOG, was both thoroughly enjoyable and a great insight into what the Olympics might be like. The work being done at the Lower Lea Valley site is truly inspirational, and being there amongst the rapid progress being made really does get the appetite whetted for a bit of Olympic action. The bus journey around the Olympic Park was very informative, but there were a few highlights in particular we thought we'd share with you: The stadium, already well on its way to taking shape, is a very impressive structure. It will be holding the athletics of the Games and will, as with most Games before, end up being the centre piece of the events where other activities such as the opening and closing ceremonies will also take place. From what we saw, it will make a worthwhile jewel in the crown and will serve its purpose with great aplomb.

What really caught our eye however was, what will become, the Aquatics Centre. Whilst still in the infancy of its construction, this building will have as its pièce de résistance a curved glass roof, formed to be the shape of a mantra ray or wave - indicative of the watery contents housed within. The promotional material we were presented with on the tour gave an impression of how this will look and - if it turns out anything like how it's envisioned to - we can't wait to explore the finished article.

With about four and a half thousand people working on the Olympic Park (excluding the six thousand working on the Olympic Village - which will house the fifteen thousand athletes due to attend during their time in London) the project is obviously of immense scale. But it's not just the obvious erecting of buildings that requires effort. There were many more behind-the-scenes aspects involved in the preliminary stages - what the London 2012 team called the 'demolish, dig, design' phase. It was the detail that went into this phase that really grabbed our attention. So much work goes into the planning of the site and the Games, which, more often than not, people never get the chance to hear about. Covering two and a half square kilometres (that's the size of three hundred and fifty seven football pitches sports fans), the site of the park used to be almost half covered by landfill. Five hundred tonnes of the rubbish that used to reside in this landfill was filtered every day so that anything that could be recycled or used on site was so. Not only this, but London 2012 arranged to clean over a million tonnes of soil to make it suitable for use. And the green factor of the games goes far beyond this; the London 2012 team are trying to make these the most environmentally friendly Games ever. All the buildings will be repurposed after the Games are finished, as much of the local wildlife as possible is being sustained (with two thousand newts relocated  from the park site to the Waterwork Nature Reserve - lucky newts!), and the local neglected waterways have been completely revitalised to create new habitats for the wildlife of the area. Given that we're quite partial to a bit of environmental consideration ourselves, we were delighted to hear that the good people at London 2012 aren't overlooking the impact that the Games will have on the local area and London as a whole.

It's undeniable that wherever they go, the Olympics are of great cultural importance, and the Games coming to London does not mark an exception to this. The Olympics have come to London twice before (in 1908 and 1948), but this time, they are inspiring a lot more than just sporting greatness. They have already given rise to the Cultural Olympiad  - a showcase of British culture and artistic talent (have a look at Artists Taking the Lead for a taster of what this involves) - and their reach will undoubtedly stretch further as the beginning of the Games encroaches upon us. The 30th Olympiad kicks off on July 27th (1070 days to go as of today... get counting) having recently crossed the 'three years to go' boundary. The folks at London 2012 are 'thinking of tomorrow today' with their approach to the Games and we're getting pretty geared up about them too having been partial to a brief glance into the wide world of Olympic wonder.