In April, Kumiko continued the hectic travel schedule of the past month and went to Japan for two weeks. When she came back, she was surprised that London was still cold. While in Tokyo temperatures started to reach 30 degrees, London, in spite of all the blooming trees and flowers, doggedly insisted on hovering around 12 and dipping much lower in the mornings. And then, yesterday, literally from day to day it changed and we were under blue sunny sky with temperature in high teens. Every country seems to have its own unique indicator confirming that warmer times have arrived. In Prague, it is when you can spot little boys playing with marbles, in Tokyo it is when you get a cold tower instead of a hot one in a coffee shop and in London the pub population increased at least fourfold, spilling into the streets – an unmistakable sign – spring is finally here!

While Kumiko was in Japan, I stayed in London and rested. Even during Easter, and we had a 4 day weekend, I stayed in town. In a way. I started on my latest venture, that is walking along the river Thames from its source to the tidal barrier. Using the old tow path and other old rights-of –way, the Brits put together a 180 mile long walking path along the river. There are tens of guides on the market, showing maps, transportation and listing sights one will run into along the way. I bought one which divides the journey into 15 parts and started during the Easter weekend.

Living in Kensington, I did not start at either end, but rather went directly downhill to Chelsea and started my trip going down stream, roughly from the middle of segment 14. This part of Chelsea is steeped in history, every second house has a blue plaque – sign that somebody famous (and at least 20 years dead) had once lived here. This includes Sir Thomas More, who has a rather unusual stature right at the point where I turned left and started my journey.
(Click on the picture to see it full size, use a back button to return to this spot.) Within minutes I came to if not one of the nicest, certainly the most colorful bridge in London – Prince Albert. It was one of many bridges and buildings of note along the way: back side of Victoria Station, Tate Gallery, Parliament with the London Eye visible on the other side of the river, Westminster Cathedral, Cleopatra’s Needle and the list goes on.

Thames is strongly influenced by the tides in this area and that provided one of the more unusual sights. Several people, some old enough to be retired, covered in mud, digging deep holes on the parts of the river bottom exposed by the low tide. They were going over their excavations with a metal detector and I imagine this may be one of the better places in the world to find artifacts, maybe all the way to Roman times if they are lucky. Downstream of the City of London proper, lies a district of old warehouses where goods coming from all over the empire used to be stored. At one point, as business slowed, it became rather run down, but by now it is almost completely renovated, with many of the warehouses converted to housing. New apartment buildings line the river, many of them inspired by ships in their architecture. Some are more inspired than others. There is also the Canary Wharf (should be called Canada Wharf) which was built by a development group from Toronto and inside and out looks like a piece of Canada dropped on the other side of the Atlantic. Unfortunately, the whole area also inherited some of the North American flavor, it seems more sanitized, there are fewer shops, transportation not as good as elsewhere. This is perhaps why the cost of an apartment here, while still high, is 50% lower than further upstream.

Short distance after, we come to Greenwich, or to be more exact, Greenwich is on the other side of the river. We can see the Naval Academy and behind it on the hill the Royal Observatory. This is where the 0 meridian is. At this point we need to cross the river and we can do it under water, because there is a pedestrian tunnel. Greenwich itself is a pretty town with the clipper Cutty Sark on exhibit – an impressive sight. They also have the Gypsy Moth, which Sir Francis used to circumnavigate the globe in the 60’s.

From here on the path follows the right side of the river. This reach has not been re-claimed, still has working warehouses and factories and has a very different flavor from the more genteel part upstream. The path officially ends at the tidal barrier, which was constructed after a disastrous high tide in the 50’s. Apparently, there are tidal gates lying on the river bottom between the silver hen coops, which house engines that would lift them if an unusually high tide were to happen again. So, having seen how it ends, I was now ready to start walking in the other direction, to find out how the river starts.

I went back to Chelsea the next day to walk to the right, that is upstream, to finish the remaining part of segment 14. In a park next to Sir Thomas is a toilet for dogs. Somehow, this summarizes Chelsea these days. Along the way are several clusters of houseboats, some very large. I would like to give it a try, but apart form being expensive, Kumiko is dead set against it. I could not help to notice that almost all of the boat dwellers seem to love plants – the houseboats are loaded with flower pots. Could it be that they are all ‘mixed marriages” , sea wolf and a land-lubber?

The river is much narrower than what we saw the previous day. Along the way is the Bishop’s Palace, for a long time, and until recently, the residence of the Bishop of London. The building itself is not all that impressive, what I remember most are paintings in the chapel. Somehow I did not expect this style in the UK and especially in a Bishop’s palace. What would we call it? Hitlerjugend stones a man? The path now has a more relaxing character, passing through parks and green country side. Segment 14 ends at the distinctive and strikingly green Hammersmith bridge.

On the third day I could not simply walk down to the river and start walking. It was getting to be too far. I took the subway to Hammersmith and walked to the bridge where I stopped the day before. This is a reach of the river where rowing is taken very seriously. A friend who lives here and has an apartment overlooking the river tells me that just about every weekend there is a race. Even on a normal day there was a lot of boats out, some looked little more recreational, others with a coach following in a motorboat were dead serious. When you see the boats on dry land, you have to wonder how easy it is not to capsize. The path changes here and has definitely more rural character. But luckily, there is no shortage of pubs and so if one were traveling in the summer heat, there would be no problem staying supplied with drinks. There are still lots of larger boats, some working shipyards and what looks like old boats that people are fixing in their spare time. Some boats are evidently beyond repair. The path passes the famous Kew gardens, but they are on the other side and would require a day to visit properly. Civilization returns as we pass through Richmond. Pretty town, many people at work commute from here. Along the way is the Marble Hill mansion, which unfortunately was being repaired and also the Strawberry Hill, which I somehow missed. I did get to see the villa where the Indian magnate Tata used to live. Will have to make a separate trip to see the mansions I missed. Finally reached Teddington and took the train back to Victoria station.

So 3 segments done, 12 remaining. Next month we will have a busy schedule but I should be able to squeeze in a segment or two. Depends on the weather.