Day 2.  A walk along the Thames Path 

On By Little Miss TravellerIn London, London November 2016, United Kingdom

Leaving our hotel in Clapham Junction we walked the few steps across to the railway station in order to board a service to Putney in south west London, just 10 minutes away.  We then enjoyed a hearty breakfast on the high street before wandering round the shops and making our way towards the river.

Putney
Putney, South West London

Strolling along the Thames in the direction of Hammersmith we past several sailing clubs and boat slipways.  The annual university varsity boat race between Oxford and Cambridge starts from here and continues four and a half miles down river passing through Hammersmith and ending in Mortlake.  There were several rowing crews practising on the river as we passed the Wetlands Centre in Barnes and the former Harrods department store depository which has now been redeveloped into luxury riverside apartments.

Hammersmith Bridge, London
Hammersmith Bridge, London

Our original plan had been to walk as far as Chiswick but as it started raining heavily, we curtailed our walk in Hammersmith where we crossed the ornate iron bridge and travelled by Underground to Turnham Green.  This small district has a village feel with its green, tree lined avenue and high quality independent shops.  After browsing the high street we continued onto Chiswick High Road, a broad avenue again with high class stores and a district that I’m certain you would enjoy visiting as it’s off the tourist trail but certainly worthy of a look round.

Chiswick Park
Chiswick Park

Leaving here, we took the Underground to Bank as we had pre arranged tickets to visit the Sky Garden just as the sun was setting at 4.15 pm.  No one can predict the weather and as it was still raining heavily there was to be no beautiful sunset to admire this evening but we still enjoyed our second visit to the Sky Garden, viewing the twinkling lights of the Thames from on high.  If you would also like to visit the Sky Garden you can follow my link for details of directions and how to book a visit.  The Sky Garden closes at 6.00 pm daily so if you wish to experience the sun setting there, I’m afraid it will only be possible during the winter months.

Sky Garden London
Sky Garden at dusk

From here we wandered along the Thames Embankment onto Tower Bridge.  This iconic landmark is currently closed to vehicular traffic whilst bridge repairs take place, providing us with opportunities to take photographs from the middle of the road without any danger of being run over.

Tower Bridge London
Crossing Tower Bridge traffic free

It was then time for dinner which we ate nearby at The Pommelers Rest, enjoying large plates of fish and chips with glass of Merlot – perfect comfort food for a dreary November evening.  Later we returned to the hotel feeling content after another enjoyable day in the capital.

If you have enjoyed reading this post you may also like:

Other posts in this series:

A short winter break in London

Similar posts:

The Faraday Museum & Wallace Collection, London

Chinese New Year in London

Advertisement

54 thoughts on “Day 2.  A walk along the Thames Path ”

  2. Pingback: Day 2. Sky Garden, London – Love Travelling Blog

  3. Pingback: GOOD LUCK

  8. I love to walk along the banks of the Thames always so much to see and take in – never been on this stretch though. The Sky Garden sounds wonderful – not got around to that either but it’s definitely on our plans next time we’re in London!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  10. Dr B

    Hi! Walking the Thames is a great pastime, we live at the western end in Lechlade, but our favourite bit is along the Embankment from Waterloo to Millennium Bridge and The Globe. Started to follow you via WordPress but can’t get my Newsify app to find you, is your RSS feed switched on. Dr B

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  13. So much to see in London, so little time in this lifetime. My niece is on a temporary teaching assignment in London and travelling different places in Europe each holiday. It’s obvious she’s enjoying her stay there but is soon to return to Australia.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  14. How fun that you had another visit to Sky Garden. I really have to see the views from there. Too bad about the rain, I would imagine watching the sun setting from there would be absolutely fabulous 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. It would have been lovely to see the sun set from the terrace but perhaps we’ll manage it another time. As the garden closes at 6.00 pm throughout the year it’s only possible to see it there in winter. I wonder if the Finnish singer will win X Factor? I don’t actually watch it but noticed that she is doing well!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Hehe yes the Finnish media is crazily following Saara Aalto on X Factor so even though it hasn’t been aired here, we know exactly what’s going on 😅 Who knows. I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t get employed by some London musical, her style and voice would be great for that.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.