Walking Tour of London

Oh, boy! Am I sore!

I have been on a walking tour of London. London has proven to be both like and unlike what I expected. (No pictures - sorry; it was an after dark excursion.) Last night I got out of the office at a reasonable hour. It was already dark out, but that just means it was after 16:00 GMT! So, after returning to my room to drop off my computer, I changed into something warm, put on my comfy shoes, and took the train into London.

Getting off at Waterloo and headed off in a roughly northern direction wending my way through the streets looking for something interesting to do or see. I say that it was both like and unlike my expectations because I had expected it to be a big city full of cramped streets and small living spaces, but some of these door yards are no bigger than my dining room (which is pretty small to begin with…) and some of the streets are narrow enough for me to reach-out and pass the salt across to someone standing on the opposite curb. (Get the running theme?)

There was a real assortment of housing styles. The houses range from old townhouses to boxy apartment blocks to ultra modern constructions of steel and glass. I took a winding path across the town with my ultimate goal of hitting a tube station at some point and heading back. Little did I know it would take well over two hours to find the tube stop and that I would easily cover five miles (as the crow flies) between the point I left and the place I turned back. I have no idea how far I must have walked but all that pounding on the pavement left my feet and my back incredibly sore.

Well, I went to the underground and discussed with the attendant how to get back to Waterloo and made it back to the Southwest Rail terminal in just time to run and catch the train back to Hampton Court. I alighted from the train at 22:05, went back to the hotel and slept soundly.

Don Bergquist – Thames Ditton, United Kingdom – 26 November, 2004