Westminster to Tower Bridge

Part of my "motivational speech" yesterday was to get more exercise. So I got back on the Thames Path -- which I hadn't walked in almost two months! I picked up where I left off in Westminster and walked to Tower Bridge along the South Bank.

I wasn't that excited about this portion of the walk, to be honest, because I've seen this stretch of river many times and I thought it would be same-old, same-old. But I should know that in an ever-changing city like London there are always new sights and experiences.

That's Westminster tube station, above, where I got out to start my walk. The station is right across the street from the Houses of Parliament.

I crossed Westminster Bridge and walked eastward past multiple bridges, the National Theatre and other landmarks, like this Victorian-era monument to the former London, Chatham and Dover Railway near Blackfriars.

This mural of the river by Jimmy C stands beneath one of the bridges...

...and this seemingly handmade wooden plaque pays tribute to the river from underneath another bridge. Those clay shards are pieces of smoking pipes from hundreds of years ago -- they're very common and easily found on the shores of the Thames.

I walked beneath the Millennium Bridge, once dubbed the "Wobbly Bridge" because when it first opened it needed to be stabilized. That's St. Paul's Cathedral across the river.

Here's an "immersive dining experience" I think I'd rather not have.

Saint Olave looked down on the path from his perch at the corner of St. Olaf House. Is he sitting on a skateboard?

Finally, the walk took me over Tower Bridge and past the Tower of London, where the moat is once again planted with wildflowers, making it look like an impressionist painting. I caught the tube at Tower Hill and came home, where I embarked on a long day of gardening. More about that tomorrow!

Here's a video featuring a couple of sights along my walk. I stumbled across a ceremony in progress near Southwark Cathedral that turned out to be a remembrance of the eight victims of a terrorist attack in 2017 near that location. I then passed the HMS Belfast, a military vessel that's now permanently anchored in the Thames and serves as a floating museum -- I've never visited, because I'm not really into military stuff, but I took a panning shot of the exterior. And finally, you'll see the view from Tower Bridge as well as the bridge itself.

Not only did I walk and garden yesterday, but I also read about 75 pages of "The Magic Kingdom," so I feel like it was a day well spent!