Walking 19km from Gloucester Road to Waterloo

This walk with my regular walkee was essentially his plan, and one we have used many times, with a few diversions suggested by me. 

His plan was to walk through Hyde Park, through Covent Garden, cross Tower Bridge and finish at Waterloo. My variations were to include some roads we had not walked before which explains the indirectness of the route through the West End and the more southerly route south of the river back to Waterloo,

The weather forecast was not great and we were prepared to abandon the walk early if it became unpleasant to continue but the rain was little and infrequent and in the end we went further, 19km, than the 15km originally planned.

That also meant that we were out long enough for us to stop at a proper cafe where I had the customary all-day vegetarian breakfast which, uncustomary, came with chips. I forgave them the chips and was grateful for the respite that Al's Cafe in Bermondsey Street offered.

The walk took us to several interesting places thanks, I will claim, to my hunt for new roads. Amongst these were Lincoln's Inn, a new shopping plaza off Long Acre which Stanfords had relocated to, the former Prudential building by Chancery Lane, and Phoenix Garden on Stacey Street.

A lot of the familiar places, such as Covent Garden and Tower Bridge, were well worth another visit too.

Familiar and unfamiliar, there was lots to enjoy on this walk and we went home a little tired, well fed and very satisfied.