6th day: Walking in London.

Today I started out walking along the Thames. First a bus to Kingston, then a nice 6 miles (10 km) walk downstream to Richmond. Strangely enough, a former gravel source next to the river was filled in with rubble from bombed out buildings during the second world war, and the final result today is a very varied and interesting wildlife area. I almost felt lost in there, for a long time only occasionally seeing civilisation across the river.

Fortunately I reached Richmond when I did; I had to hurl myself into a flower-shop because I hadn't heeded my friend Jonathan's warning and taken an umbrella. It didn't exactly start raining, it was more like the Thames river all of the sudden just started flowing vertically.

Learning from my near error, I decided to follow the next tip of Jonathan. I found the tourist information and asked for the brochure to London Walks. Unfortunately they hadn't got the winter program yet, but I took a chance and picked up the summer program.

Taking the tube to Monument station was no problem, but once there I thought I'd walk to Bank station. I was told to go "down" King William street. Unfortunately, going downhill turned out to be 180 degrees wrong, for some reason. Fortunately, this meant I got a trip across London Bridge. It's a modern rather boring structure, but who cares when the view of the neighbouring Tower Bridge is so nice. When I finally got the direction right, finding the statue of Wellington outside the Bank of England was quite easy.

I shared a few hours of "London by Night" with a small group of friendly foreigners, a bloke from Winchester and a very knowledgeable guide. Very interesting, I got to see the "Gherkin", the "Toast Rack", and many other strange buildings. I definitely think I'm going on a walk tomorrow as well.