Back to the Thames River walk

London. 09 June 2014.

We’re a mere 10 minute walk from our sighting of the Tower Bridge in London. Our first day in London began as a day that was classified as a pleasant day here and towards afternoon, Monika said, ‘Let’s go out.’

And thus began our Thames River walk again after a gap of four years. So we walked on Jamaica street for some time, crossed the road to get on to Mill street and a heavenly aroma of coffee being brewed in some eatery. This walk on a cobbled street took us back to 2010 and I said, ‘Well, there will be a ramp ahead and then as we go through the door at the other end, we will get our first view of the river.’

Monika smiled. As we emerged on the river walk, our level of exhilaration was peaking. It is always an exciting moment to reach the river and look up and slightly left to see the famous Tower Bridge of London peering at you and all the other tourists walking or sitting in cafes and pubs that are all along this walkway.

One of the first buildings one comes to is the Design Museum and it took us barely 10 minutes to reach this place.

Calico Court to Design Museum. London

‘The design museum is here some time only now,’ said Monika, ‘It is being shifted from here.’ This was sad and Specky and I resolved to go in another day before this shifting happened. The installations ahead were the same as before but I decided to give the first one a closer look and captured this spider’s web… obviously this web isn’t there since 2010 but its network probably allows the resident spider to look at the design museum daily. Lucky spider!

You can see the installation behind Pushkin and Sangita… this place is in front of the Design Museum, London. Pic shot in 2010

The same installation… in 2014… close-up… and with a spider’s web

Yes, we stopped and smiled at the Tower bridge too… and then I asked Monika, ‘There seems to be a larger number of constructions on the other side of the river.’

She said, ‘Yes, and the two new buildings you see in the distance are the Walkie Talkie and the Cheese Grater.’

‘What a combination of food, technology, and architecture!’ I said. It was at this point that Monika told us the story behind Walkie Talkie (I’ll write about it in my next post, so be sure to read it). She also pointed out later the mystery behind the massive black cloth covering the façade of this towering building.

View of Tower bridge as we walked towards it on the Thames river walk… the Walkie-Talkie is certainly not adding to it’s aesthetic value. Pic shot in 2014

Pic shot in 2010… the Tower bridge is not plagued by the walkie-talkie…

The Thames river walk is a path that takes you along the river and we walked past the Tower bridge, the London bridge, the Southwark bridge, and then the Black Friar bridge. Next to it is the Millennium walkway. We walked up to the Tate Modern. There are other bridges ahead and we did not cross any of the bridges that I mentioned… on doing that one enters that section where some of the must-sees of London are situated.

The area around the Tate Modern gallery is which is known for bustings or the performers… so you can have jugglers juggling or bands playing or people dressed up as characters or any other form of outdoor entertainment done with an aim to earn money.

As we walked from the Tower bridge to towards London bridge building to our left is the London Council building… the place that controls the 32 borough Councils of the city. I remember we had gone into it in 2010 and even watched the Councillors debating an issue. This place also has a massive city model inside… will talk about this building too in a later post.

A series of installations in front of the London Council building…

Irresistible to pose with one of the fat ladies here… though my aim is to reduce my weight by at least 20 kg in these 2 months

Yes, before I forget, we did go to the Burrough Market (8 Southwark St, London SE1 1TL) too and did a slow survey walk of the place… too tempting as the aromas wafting from each of the small outlets here are exotic and the visuals of food stuff from Baklawas to Turkish Delights to German sausages to fresh fruits and vegetables… it is difficult not to fall in love with this market that is filled with delicious and tasty local farmers’ produce as well as imported supplies. This walk of ours was more of a cursory reminder of all that we had seen and done in 2010 so we were actually rushing from one stimulation to another before turning back to go home and have some delicious sausages in caramelised onion sauce served with jeera potatoes…

The first day here in London is slowly putting us onto a track that we are only going to love… and share as blog posts.

Some more pics clicked on the first day…