At the fourth attempt, we finally took this walk last Wednesday. Weather, tube strikes and me not feeling well, had stopped us before, but we had the perfect day all round.
My friend and I met at Waterloo station and took the Jubilee Line tube to Canary Wharf, where we changed onto the DLR to Greenwich. The walk on the map is classed at around two miles. It was nearer five!
Greenwich is an interesting place in its own right, with the Navel College, National Maritime Museum, Queen’s House, Cutty Sark and the Royal Observatory. Plenty to keep you going all day and more.
The walk along the Thames Path takes you past some interesting places, including the O2 (Millennium Dome), Greenwich Ecology Park and, of course, the Thames Barrier itself. The views are great across the river, and the trees are quite unexpected. With the tide out, there was rather an exotic feel to the river with some sandy spots. You could almost think you were at the beach!
I like a bit of industrial stuff to photograph, and there is always some public art around on these walks.
Along this stretch of river there is a large bend. The O2 sits on the point of it, so you cannot see the Thames Barrier for quite a while. Like Canary Wharf, the O2 seems to take an age to pass! As I have walked this once, if not twice, before, I remember how this part seems to go on forever.
During Storm Eunice in February this year, part of the roof of the O2 building was ripped away. The photo below shows the extent of the damage. It looks much bigger when standing there than it did on TV.
The cable car is just great! I have used it twice. The views are spectacular. Who needs a good excuse to use it?
We’d taken food with us to eat, but stopped to buy an extra drink. We sat in a park surrounded by daffodils to have our lunch before using the toilets in the O2, where I took the photo below.
Unfortunately, the Thames barrier Information Centre was shut, but I have visited it once before. I can recommend it. There is a cut-away model showing how the barrier works.
After all that walking what we really needed was a nice cup of tea. So, we headed to the pub we had seen earlier, called the Anchor & Hope and had our tea. Duly refreshed, we headed to Chalton Station to catch the train back into centre of London. A lovely day.
My London+ 