Westminster Bridge to Thames Barrier - Day 12

Day 12 and our last day of the Thames Path walk starting from the heart of London at Westminster Bridge.  We set off along the Thames, first passing the London Eye and then past some of London's most iconic buildings.  We had 4 guest walkers with us today to help us reach the finish line, Shelagh's aunt Sarah, who lives in London and friends Adrian and Catherine and Leslie, who joined us during earlier stages.  Since we were walking through city the entire day, our packs were a little lighter today.

After passing the London Eye and the Ministry of Defense building, we passed the beautiful Somerset House from the other side of the river.

We also came across a massive flag pole along the south side bank made of a tree from British Columbia that was donated to the city of London by the Canadian government.

A colorful frozen yogurt  bus complete with tables and seating in the top.

The bottom of the national theater building turned into grafitti'd skateboard park.  The top of the building was aptly referred to by Prince Charles as a "carbuncle" on the skyline of London.

The famed home of Shakespeare, the Globe Theater.

First iconic building on the skyline of London, "The Shard."  No, the plane is not flying into it.

Tall ship parked near the Globe Theater.

The Shard peaking up from behind a section of London Bridge.

Covered roof joining warehouse buildings along the river.

Sculpture in the lobby of the building above.

Next iconic building on the skyline of London, "The Gherkin."

Next, the Tower of London, home of the famed Crown Jewels and the site of many beheadings.

And of course, Tower Bridge.

The skyline from Tower Bridge Bridge, showing buildings with some of the most unique architecture in London, "The Walkie Talkie" on the left, "The Cheese Grater" in the middle and "The Gherkin" on the right.

A few pubs along the way as we leave the center of the city.

As we were leaving the center of London we could see the skyline of Canary Wharf with its towering bank buildings ahead of us.  You can see Canada Place, developed by the Canadian Reichmann family, with its peaked tower in the middle ahead.

A closer view of Canary Wharf as we entered the neighborhood.

After passing through Canary Wharf, our next destination was Greenwich, of course famous for GMT, Greenwich Mean Time.  We even passed a brewery there called, "Mean Time Brewery."  To reach Greenwich, we passed through a foot tunnel that took us under  the Thames and into the heart of Greenwich.  The first site you see coming out of the tunnel is the "Cutty Sark" moored in the harbour.

We stopped in Greenwich for refreshments at a pub and grabbed some lunch at the local cider fest that was taking place that day.  We then forged on, passing the old Naval Academy (below) as we exited Greenwich.

A picture of local wall art.

I couldn't resist a photo of a typical East End neighborhood...I almost expected to see the Vic pub and Albert square form the famed soap, "East Enders"

Proof that beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

And finally, after 184 miles and hundreds of thousands of steps.....

The Thames Barrier comes into view!

We pause for the ceremonial end of walk photo.

Our groupies for today.

The familiar way markers.

A look back at the barrier gates.

As has become the ritual at the end of each day...a well deserved and typically British G & T!!!

That's it folks.....hope you enjoyed following our journey of 2016....where shall we wander to next year????

Richmond on Thames to Westminster Bridge - Day 11

A bit off a rough start today...Don suffering from a dreadful cold and I from a bit of over celebrating at the concert last night...we were a sad lot.  None the less...we march on.

Today we were to leave the country side as we trekked into London.  Our milestones today would not be villages but bridges and lots of them.  Our goal was Westminster Bridge, across the river from the Parliament buildings.

Some grottos below on the way out of Richmond.

First bridge on the way out of Richmond.

Now we really start to notice that the river has turned tidal.  You can see below that he tide was still moving out when we started our walk.  Within a few hours we noticed the current switch directions as the tide started to come back in.  For the last days the river has been roughly the same width.  Today we will see expand considerably as the tidal waters move in.

Heather walking under a rail bridge as we get closer to the city.

A small pub along the way with gorgeous window baskets.

After a brief tea break at "Mad's" apartment one hour along the trail, our group grows as we are joined by the rest of our concert goers of last evening.  Our "picnic organizers" live directly on the Thames and we were happy to take a quick break. We looked rather fresh in comparison and promised them that a brisk 17 mile walk would be the cure for them, so off we all went.

Next milestone.

The signs are starting to look familiar.

Cathy and Shelagh raise a glass at our lunch pub in Putney.

A picture of the Albert bridge below.  It was know as the "Trembling Lady" because it shook when used by soldiers from the nearby Chelsea barracks.  A sign warning troops to break step when marching over the Bridge is still displayed below.

Each bridge brought us closer to our destination, as the landscape turned to cityscape.

Some familiar sites start to come in view as we see the London Eye in the distance.

At the Battersea Bridge we switched from the South side to the North side of the Thames to avoid some detours.

As we arrived close to our destination we stopped at a pub to recharge across the river from the iconic MI6 building.

One of the few remaining telephone booths we've seen.

The famed Lambeth Palace which has been the historic residence of Archbishops of Canterbury since the 13th century.

Finally, our last bridge for the day, Westminster Bridge and the familiar view of the British Parliament Buildings.  The flag is flying at half-mast in respect of the people who died in the Bastille Day attack in Nice.

Big Ben.

Finally, our hotel!  It looks a lot different than the Pubs and Inns we have stayed until now along the trip, but here we are in the heart of the city at Westminster Bridge.  Checking in we experienced the (in)efficiency of modern computer systems as they took forever to check us in.  The small inns seemed to handle this much smoother!

Tonight we took a bus to the Exmouth market part of the city to a Spanish restaurant.  The weather was fantastic, mild summer weather we lots of bustling outdoor cafe's in the area.  On the way home we took an Uber cab to our hotel, weary again from the walk and ready to crawl into bed to rest up for our final day tomorrow.