A London Bloggers Wee Walk Along the River Thames

Posted by admin in Pictures Of London on January 25th, 2010 | no responses

The other day my plan was to follow the Thames Path from the 02 in Greenwich and walk into central London. When I left Kilburn at 11am it was dry, but by the time I finished my meeting it was of course raining and bitterly cold. And to make matters worse I forgot to take my gloves with me.

I thought fuck this, my hands were freezing and central London suddenly didn’t seem like such a good idea. Even the prospect of a few pints of lager at my intended finishing place, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese didn’t tempt me. I was just going to just jump on the ferry and take the easy way to one of my favourite London pubs.

As I was walking to the Queen Elizabeth II pier to get the ferry the rain suddenly went off. So I changed my plans again. I couldn’t really be bothered to walk all the way to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, it seemed such a long way off and I only had about 3 hours of daylight left.

I was getting a bit of a headache from looking at a piece of modern art, just beside where the ferry port is. It is piece of art called ‘Quantum Cloud’ by one of Britain’s leading artists Antony Gormley. I would personally call it a piece of junk and a wee bit confusing. Never mind I’m sure there are a few people out there that love it and that it was worth all those tens of thousands of pounds that the Millennium Dome paid for it. They sure knew how to squander money. For me the Millennium Dome should be what Tony Blair is best remembered for along with getting the UK involved in those illegal and immoral wars with the Yanks in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lets get back on track, before I start talking about all those missing billions of dollars that the yanks cant account for in Iraq and from what I can gather there is a similar problem in Afghanistan. Maybe the US Government needs to get the forensic accountants looking into the bank accounts of some of those Halliburton, Blackwater, Louis Berger Group and DynCorp International etc, executives. Those guys are making millions of blood money, whilst all those brave soldiers on both sides die for nothing but the greed of men in suits.

Oops looks like I went off track a little bit, there doesn’t seem to be much a recession going on if you own a company involved in those so called wars against terrorism. The more I think about it, the more I’m certain those wars were manufactured by politicians to make money. They are all part of the old boys clubs that own all of those huge corporations that are meant to be helping to rebuild and make Iraqi and Afghanistan safer places. But who are in fact squandering billions of dollars, without making any improvements in either of those war torn countries. They cant even do something simple like building schools properly in Afghanistan without the snow bringing down the roofs. What a bunch of corrupt useless jokers!

It is amazing what that Quantum Cloud piece of art had my mind thinking about. Maybe it has got hidden powers.

I noticed the Thames Barrier in the distance, it didn’t seem too far away and I have always been meaning to pay it a visit. So I thought why not. I might as well get some exercise and take in a part of the River Thames I had never walked along before.

This part of the River Thames is probably the most industrialised part that I have wandered along so far since I started living in London. What I particularly liked about this stretch of the Thames Path was the severe lack of people. I don’t think I even passed one single tourist, which is an almost surreal experience in London, because they are almost everywhere.

I must admit I enjoyed walking along this part of the Thames in Greenwich, there were so many great photo opportunities. I noticed a security guard with his beedy eye on my from inside the O2 when I was taking some pictures of life on the River Thames. If that clown had said anything to me, my answer would have been a simple two words FUCK OFF. Have they really got nothing better to do than watch some guy taking a few photographs. Is everyone nowadays with a camera really a potential terrorists, give me a break.

I eventually reached the Thames Barrier, which is the worlds second largest moveable flood barrier. It is a flood control system, which was built to prevent London from being flooded by exceptionally hight tides. It was an impressive sight.

I was enjoying my wee walk so much that I decided to carry on walking to the Woolwich Arsenal Pier. Which I didn’t think was much further away. Anyway I’m not too scared of the dark. That is unless I was wandering around Gospel Oak area of Camden, because there is seemingly more kids with guns there than in Iraq. Maybe Gordon Brown needs to sort things out closer to home! Anyway he will soon be out of a job, maybe his old buddy Tony Blair can set him up in a nice job when he becomes unemployed or perhaps his friends in the banking sector!

By the time I reached Woolwich it was starting to get dark and that was a good enough reason for me to head back to North Greenwich for the tube back home. I wasn’t too enamoured with Woolwich it seemed like an area that needs a wee bit of regeneration. But there are more important things the Government has to deal with and that is regenerating Iraq and Afghanistan, what a fucked up country the UK is becoming.

As I headed back along the Thames Path to the O2, the darkness added a whole new feel to the River Thames. I personally feel that the river truly comes alive at night and that is when it looks its most impressive. I don’t know how many miles I walked but by the time I got back to the tube station my legs were feeling the effects of a my wee wander along the Thames Path.

I will definitely be for another stroll along this stretch of the River Thames some time in the not too distant future, but next time I will wait for a warmer day and bring some drinks and snacks with me.

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A London Bloggers Wee Walk Along the River Thames

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