For the last few months I have been going for one long walk a week, usually on a Wednesday and usually with the same friend. A typical plan is walk for two hours, stop for coffee, walk for another hour, hit a pub for lunch, then find a way home.
Over those months we have completed the London Capital Ring, large chunks of the Thames Path on both banks, a few sections of London Loop, followed a few rivers, and done several point to point walks.
The monthly British Czech and Slovak Association (BCSA) socials at the Czechoslovak bar and restaurant in West Hampstead are an opportunity for a point to point walk that I often take.
I have walked to West Hampstead from Richmond (two different routes) and from Waterloo taking in many of the Central London parks along the way.
This week I took a different route from Waterloo starting east to Blackfriars Bridge and then walking more-or-less north to revisit Calendonian Road, then turning west to climb Parliament Hill before heading to the social.
It was too dark to take any pictures (but at least the rain that had been promised earlier in the day stayed away) and my main impression of the evening was of walking through urban sprawl and along quiet roads with good-looking good-sized period houses without ever coming across anything that felt like a town or village centre; places like Gospel Oak, Holloway and Kentish Town merged seamlessly into each other.
The walking was fairly easy but I was reminded, yet again, of how hilly London is once you get away from The Thames; Google tells me that this route rises 136m. We were able to maintain a stead pace of around 6km/hour and got to West Hampstead an hour early for the social, so we went to a cocktail bar and had Zombies to get the evening started!
Over those months we have completed the London Capital Ring, large chunks of the Thames Path on both banks, a few sections of London Loop, followed a few rivers, and done several point to point walks.
I have walked to West Hampstead from Richmond (two different routes) and from Waterloo taking in many of the Central London parks along the way.
This week I took a different route from Waterloo starting east to Blackfriars Bridge and then walking more-or-less north to revisit Calendonian Road, then turning west to climb Parliament Hill before heading to the social.
It was too dark to take any pictures (but at least the rain that had been promised earlier in the day stayed away) and my main impression of the evening was of walking through urban sprawl and along quiet roads with good-looking good-sized period houses without ever coming across anything that felt like a town or village centre; places like Gospel Oak, Holloway and Kentish Town merged seamlessly into each other.
The walking was fairly easy but I was reminded, yet again, of how hilly London is once you get away from The Thames; Google tells me that this route rises 136m. We were able to maintain a stead pace of around 6km/hour and got to West Hampstead an hour early for the social, so we went to a cocktail bar and had Zombies to get the evening started!
Great stuff! Daily walks here about 3mi/5km in length, though I don't end at a pub.
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