Day 35 - Thames and Friends

There was no rush to get started today, but when I did I walked to Clapham Junction so that I could invest in another memory card for my camera at a camera shop I had checked out on the way “home” last night. One does use a bit of storage when one shoots in RAW mode!


From Victoria Station I made my way past Westminster Abbey, Parliament House and the Tower of Big Ben to the Westminster Pier. There I bought a ticket for a “Hop on, Hop off” river cruise that would take me all the way to Greenwich and the Thames Flood Barrier about an hour and a half downstream.

I have to say that there is something rather endearing about a travelogue of the sites along the Thames that is delivered in a Cockney accent. The chap giving the commentary on this occasion was entertaining (the pub called The Grape is where a bunch of them were the other night) as well as informative (who knew that one of the bridges was built by 80% female labour), and the accent just set it off nicely.

At Greenwich I hopped off to have a look around – not all the way to the Observatory though, saw that in 2008 – briefly checking out the town and the markets (not nearly as big on a Wednesday as on the weekend). I then hopped back on the next boat that went all the way down to the Thames Flood Barrier, built at a cost of more than £500 million to prevent London being flooded by freak tides. Just by way of comparison it has been estimated that it would cost £1 billion just to restart the London Underground if it were ever flooded.

St Pauls and Millenium Bridge

I called again at Greenwich on the way back for a spot of late lunch and to have a bit more of a look around the diminished weekday markets. Ideas of wandering further abroad were scuttled when it started to shower, though it had stopped again by the time I boarded the boat back to Westminster Pier. Once back where I started I set off on a walk that took me first across the Westminster Bridge, where there were a number of “hawkers” enriching themselves at the expense of the gullible willing to play variations of the pea and thimble game. (Despite the title of this blog, I was not one of those tempted!). I continued along the South Bank river walk to the Millennium (pedestrian) Bridge, across that bridge, then back along the North Bank river walk to Embankment Station.

This is where James Forbes had arranged for us to meet, along with Paul Tolchard, at 6:00pm. As it happened, James was about 30 minutes late because he thought he had arranged for us to meet at Temple Station. (It’s OK, he works for JP Morgan). Fortunately Paul was on time, so he & I were able to start catching up with each other’s news while we waited for James. It must have been about 12 years since I had last seen Paul (when working at ATO Bankstown), and about 8 or 9 years since I had last seen James. Both now live and work in London. Once James arrived we adjourned to a nearby pub for a few quiet ales. In due course we supplemented these with some “pub grub” since we couldn’t be bothered going to look for something else nearby. It was an interesting evening of tall tales and true as we remembered former colleagues and related experiences of living in London.

James and Paul

Alas, some poor suckers had to go to work tomorrow, so we had to call it quits about 9:30pm. I accompanied the guys across Charring Cross Bridge as they made their way to Waterloo station for their respective train homes. After farewells I continued along the south bank walk until I was opposite the Houses of Parliament. There I was able to take a few night photos of the lit up Parliament and the Tower of Big Ben reflected in the river. I took a few more long exposures from the Westminster Bridge itself with the lights of the traffic to add effect.

It was getting reasonably late by now, so I caught the tube the two stops from Westminster to Victoria (rather than walk) so that I could catch an overground train to Wandsworth Common. With Bob already at the kennels (ahead of Janelle and Chris’s departure for a week in Istanbul early on Friday) I was able to sneak in without disturbing anyone. I was even able to have a brief chat with Sam via Facebook before turning in.