Thames River Crossings - Tower Bridge Friday 25 July 2014

Fire Station in the Lower Road

I've done this bridge countless times but I've not yet filmed the walk across so that was the objective today. The other factor is an evening with congenial company at the Dog and Bell in Deptford. It also meant I was not walking all the way home today, only the 4/5 miles to Deptford (slacker).

You will recall we had had a lovely week weather wise, unfortunately the heavens decided open between 17:30 and 18:30 and boy did it rain. I was however prepared I had brought my waterproofs with me. So whilst I did not get wet from the rain I did get wet from the sweat I generated on my walk!

Surrey Canal Road Bridge

Lots of other people, mainly tourists, where inappropriately dressed and therefore took cover wherever possible, in subways, doorways, arches, shops and the like. I always find if I shelter from the rain for any great length of time, ie more than 5 minutes, I immediately need to use the loo! Those people who were obviously City workers were not bothered by the rain and promptly stomped off to ensure they caught their train home from London Bridge. A number of people had very flimsy plastic capes which ripped to shreds at any slight gust of wind.

At least the rain moved the tourists off the middle of the bridge as they huddled in the lea of the Tower Bridges towers to get away from the rain, this enabled my walk across the bridge to be a lot easier than normal.

Captain Benbow was 'ere

Once across the bridge I planned to walk along the river, it's slightly longer but far far more interesting.

In the end I decided I would walk along the road as given the rain speed was of the essence. I must say that the walk to Deptford along Jamaica Road, Lower Road and Evelyn Street must rank as one of the most boring stretches of roadway in London, there is almost absolutely nothing of interest on route,  apart from the Deptford Tunnel approach road and the Swedish church, an old bridge over the route of the former Surrey Canal, the occasional attractive row of terraced houses and Surrey Quays Overground Station.

I did divert on route as I neared Depford to visit Sayes Court Park, Captian Benbow used to live here before promotion to Admiral. It's quite a pleasant park, especially if you are a wino!

After a evening of good beer and good chat we departed home via SouthEastern Railways to Woolwich Arsenal where I decided to walk home having felt cheated by my short walk to Deptford.

Here's the film of my crossing.

All Aboard with the Admiral!: Thames River Crossings - Queen Elizabeth II Bridge...

All Aboard with the Admiral!: Thames River Crossings - Queen Elizabeth II Bridge...: A return to the River Thames Crossings today, following my sojourn along the London Loop. As I’ve enjoyed my travelling into Essex so much ...

Thames River Crossings - Queen Elizabeth II Bridge - 18 July 2014

A return to the River Thames Crossings today, following my sojourn along the London Loop. As I’ve enjoyed my travelling into Essex so much I’ve decided to return to cross the Queen Elizabeth II bridge between Purfleet and Dartford using the Ensign X80 Bus between Lakeside and Bluewater and then walk home from the first bus stop on the southern side of the river.

Railway Station

To avoid having to wait at Lakeside for the an hour for the 19:00 bus I leave work early at 16:30 which will enable me to catch the 18:00 bus, but first I must catch a train to Chafford Hundred a “new town” created during the late 1980’s early 1990’s, had it been built at the beginning of this century I expect it would have been named Chave Hundred. I must admit I was taken aback by the number of people of alighted the train at this small station on a single track line that also serves Lakeside. Apparently more than half the flats (in the estate) were repossessed during the early 1990s housing slump, impacting it so significantly that prices fell by half.

Covered Bridge to Lakeside

It’s a quick walk under the railway along a covered footbridge down some stairs to enter the House of Fraser (the shop not the undertakers from Dad’s Army) and entry into Lakeside shopping centre, or should I say the Intu Lakeside Shopping Centre as it likes to brand it’s self.

I remember visiting the Shopping Centre when it opened in the early 90’s in the midst of the previous recession, there were lots of people there but only window shopping, not many bags were in evidence. This evening it’s quite being just before six, its had a face lift since I was last here, and as far as Shopping Centre’s go it’s not in the same league as Bluewater, which appears slightly more upmarket, if that’s possible for a Shopping Centre. Bluewater has more exclusive stores whilst Lakeside has a lot of high street names and a rare example of an HMV outlet. In typical Essex fashion plumb in the middle of the main thoroughfare of the centre is a glitzy Champagne and Cocktail bar with a huge cut glass chandelier (I doubt it’s cut glass).

Cocktail and Champagne Bar

Tracking down the bus station was a feat of map reading as its located behind Debenham’s at the far end of the centre. I wanted to get there in plenty of time to ensure I got the top front seat so as to give me uninterrupted views whilst crossing the Thames. I think I may have queue jumped as I was the second person on board. Unfortunately the ticket machine was playing up and I had to wait whilst the driver called up support from the depot, well a small hut across the bus station. I ended up being the last one on the bus. However, no one had taken the front seats so I had these all to myself, all four of them and the front window was particularly large just right for the wide vistas I was eagerly anticipating.

The downside however was the sun, which was extremely hot and being intensified by the marvellously large window, it was like sitting in a greenhouse. I could hear other passengers commenting on this as they moved to sit on the shady side of the bus.

It’s a quick trip to the Bridge, just one stop on route, even during the height of the rush hour on a Friday evening, our driver was manoeuvring his bus to move into the left hand side lane, which took as behind a three decker sheep transporter and even being in the confines of the bus I could smell them. Travelling in that heat can’t have been nice, although they did have the benefit of free flowing air as the sides where open. It was an Italian lorry so I hope they were not going all the way to Italy.

I was not disappointed by the views which were immense up and down the Thames and the hinterlands of both Essex and Kent. There were large boats in the river a small yacht tacking backwards and forwards. Eurostar and HS2 trains zoomed past on route for Paris and St Pancreas. There were power stations, jetties, oil containers, and all manner of industrial building alongside the wider areas of marshland. The only downside was the traffic, big lorries kept overtaking and my view to the right would be obstructed temporarily. 

The trip across the bridge took something like seven minutes and forty one seconds, and on leaving the bridge the bus turned left to make its way to Bluewater depositing me in the middle of knowwhere, although Premier Inn and the Beefeater Grill had thought this was a good place to build, which I guess it is given it’s close proximity to the major river crossing.

I was now in the hands of Google Maps to get me home, well that’s not entirely true as I of course knew exactly where I was but normally I’m here encased in a car. Google deemed it a good idea to direct me along the A206 to Crayford where I could pick up the road that goes in a straight line through Crayford, Bexleyheath and Welling and up Shooters Hill. Unfortunately the A206 is a duel carriage way without any footpaths. I had to negotiate my way around a series of new housing estates weaving in and out of roads and paths trying to keep as close as possible to the A206. Finally I ran out of alternatives and had no choice but to walk along the duel carriageway, however, I was not alone as I passed a couple of people on route and there was a pretty well defined path in the grass along the side of the road.

It was about 9 miles to get home and the trip was uneventful, Bexleyheath was beginning to busy up for Friday evening, whilst the sky was beginning to darken as the storm clouds began to roll in . It was a race home to beat the forthcoming storm. It finally broke as I was walking across Oxleas Meadow with fork lightening and loud rumbles of thunder, the rain held off just as I got home only to pass my daughter who was on her way out to watch the storm with Flosi!

A short film of the crossing, well 7 minutes and 46 seconds to be precise!

London Loop Video Rainham to Purfleet

Short 4 minute video of the my walk from Rainham to Purfleet to complete the London Loop

Thank God that's finally finished! - The London Loop Rainham to Purfleet

I've finally finished a most disliked walk, the London Loop has not been enjoyable and to cap it off the final section along one of the better section was undertaken on a duly, humid July evening a fitting mood under the circumstances.

Not a lot to say about this walk, it was only just over five miles long, mostly along the Thames riverside, which would not have been the case if I had undertaken this section a few years back as the route used to go around the back of the landfill site it now goes along by the river. Shame about the weather, if it had been sunny I think I would have been in a far better mood!

The Giant Hogwwe

Crossing Rainham marsh

The route kicks off by crossing the HS1 and Eurostar routes, then it cuts through some waste / marsh land with an abundance of wild plants and loads of giant Hogweed, felt like I was on the film set for day of the triffids. I then crossed under the A13 and continued along more wasteland / marshland with the hum of the A13 always in the background. I had seen a few people along the path before the A13 but now I saw no one. The path crossed a road and appeared to be sending me up a blind alley as there was a high wired fence topped off with barded wire, but following a slight gradient I found myself on the top of the river wall and the walk now continued all the way along the river to Purfleet.

Ahead of me were an array of large metal silos, these turned out to belong to the Tilda Rice processing centre. They have a jetty on the river front so must receive most of there products by ship.

There were a number of information boards along the way giving a brief history of the area, there was a ferry between Rainham and Erith for the purposes of joining the Pligrims Way dating back to 1199. Another ferry served the monks on the south side at Abbey Wood served the monks at  Lesnes Abbey. They used to cross the river to attended Rainham Church. Then there were the concrete barges leftover from the D-Day landings and the Gunpowder magazine at Purfleet which served as the main Gunpowder store throughout the Georgian and Victorian times.

D-Day Barges

Tilda Rice Processing Uni

Of course the best view of the walk was the QE2 bridge, unfortunately with the atmospherics today the views were not that great!

QE2 Bridge

Just before you arrive at Purfleet there is the RSPB reserve, I could see it way off, multi coloured in different tones of red and orange with what looked like two large up turned paper cups on the roof and wondered what it was, it also boasts a draw bridge.

Gunpowder Magazine at Purfleet

I passed a grand total of two people between joining the river and arriving at Purfleet, both dog walkers with nothing to say, mind you nor did I.

Oh dear what do I say about Purfleet, maybe it would have benefitted from the five gunpowder magazines blowing up to enable some new town planning to take place. I can't say I saw anything that was pleasing to the eye. The row cottages called Botany Terrace I guess sums the town up. Maybe I missed the best bits, but I doubt it, sorry Purfleet.

Well that's that, what sticks out from the 152 mile walk which started on 15 May 2009, not a lot but here goes!

1. Snow at Farnborough Kent

2 taking Flosi with us and having a drink in Farnborough and sitting away from everyone only to find we were by a door which suddenly open to be confronted with a dog - let the dog wars commence!

3. Finally visiting five arches at Cray

4. Drunks shouting abuse at us in Feltham

5. Travelling on a bus replacement service to the end of the Jubilee line at break neck speed, more like a ride at Alton Towers than a bus service, only to be told by the driver that he did not realise he had any passengers.

6. Finding out there was not a Sunday service from Banstead station and having to walk an extra 3 miles on a very hot Sunday afternoon

7. Getting soaked walking from Enfield to Cockfosters and then going on to Barnet to find a pub that did shit beer and then saw AFC get stuffed by Barnet 4-0

8. I've enjoyed the process of walking the last three sections after work on a Friday evening, especially as the weather was so nice.

9. The stretch through Addington Hills was a time for reminiscing as I went to School round here, we even stopped off at the Sandrock for a drink.

10. Healthfield Park at the top of Gravel Hill in Croydon needs to be revisited when the rhodaderons are in bloom, again I remember this from my school days.

11. Walking through Bushy Park one summer was nice, the deer were close by and we were joined by Emma and had lunch in Hampton.

12. Whilst not a very nice part the Shot Tower in Crane Park was unusual and unexpected.

13. I always enjoy walking along canals, so the section along the Regents Canal was good.

14. Stanmore tube station was rewarding!

And that's about it!

And this is where it all started in May 2009!

Travellin' man (and woman) - 27 June 2014 - Brunnen to Bad Kohlgrub

Today we left Switzerland for Germany, this entailed an early start as we were catching the 09:32 from Zurich to Munich. So it was up at 06:00, a lovely sunny morning. Mein Host at the bed and breakfast had left us cereal, yogurt, fruit and tomatoes for our breakfast which was nice of her. We picked up coffee and croissants at Brunnen station and juggled them, two suitcases and two rucsacs onto the train.

It was the 07:21 from Brunnen to Zug, where we had four minutes to get from platform 3 to platform 5 by subway with big cases. Platform 5 is on a different branch to platform 3 so it was quite a feat to have managed it. Here we caught the train to Zurich, arriving at about 08:15, so plenty of time to catch our next connection. Given that Zurich is populated by "The Gnomes" and given it's a major financial centre of the world and it's prime commuting time I think we saw at most three people in suits, they either go in cognito or it's all an elaborate lie!

We had half an hour siting on the station, lots of comings and goings, unfortunately I was not my normal schoolboy self rushing backwards and forwards along the platform as I was suffering the after effects of to many wheat beers the night before!

I did manage to see the Stuggart train arrive, pulled in by an engine then uncoupled and another engine arrive to be the motive power which coupled up with the carriages.

Our train was shunted in so was not so exciting. I had booked effectively five sets of tickets for this journey, our Rail card from Brunnen to St Margrethen on the Swiss border, St Margrethen to Lindau (the first stop in Germany, an island on Lake Constantine) and Lindau to Bad Kohlgrub, plus seat reservations between Zurich and Lindau and Lindau and Munich, different seats but in the same carriage. Doing it this way saved quite a bit of money as the tickets in Germany as so much cheaper than Switzerland, in fact two people travel anywhere in Germany with special tickets for something like €28 as long as you don't use the ICE trains.

The train from Zurich to Munich was very busy and I was pleased I had booked seats, although given we were on the platform before the train arrived I expect we would have got seats.  At various points people were standing in the aisles, which Beverley was not very pleased about as they choose to stand right next to her. The on board 'mini-bar' serving hot drinks and snacks was manned by a very cheerful Bangledeshian, I know this because someone asked him if he came from Sri Lanka! How he managed to move his trolley up and down the aisle was little short of a miracle!

Given the journey was just under four hours it went pretty quickly. I spent most of my time catching up with this blog. I did have my tickets inspected three times, and was asked for my MasterCard which of course had been stolen so had to supply my passport. Given that we went Switzerland to Austria, and Austria to Germany I was surprised that there was no passport control, well not really as it would have taken hours, however when travelling from Luino in Italy to Bellinzona (sounds like a Roxy Music song) by train and couple of years ago the Swiss boarder control where on board to check our passports and ask where we going and why we were going there, very nicely I might add.

Arrived in Munich two minutes late, we had departed two minutes late, I travel a lot on trains all over the country in England and very rarely do the trains arrive on time and that's when they depart on time, so that was a good effort by the Swiss Railways.

And so to Munich, what a huge station and what a varied amount of trains, we had an hour here, first stop the loo and then pick up some lunch, it was a pleasant change to purchase a small snack and coffee for a reasonable price after the excesses of Switzerland. Like our stations people were giving a way freebies, in this case it was ice pops, not one but two, we dumped one and had the other a rather over sweet black cherry affair.

We now had two more trains to catch, a local service to Murnau, where we changed on to even smaller local service, two carriages only to our final destination, Bad Kohlgrub. When I booked the accommodation the agent said I could get a taxi and the station, I don't think so. So not knowing where we were or where we were staying we walked down the road into town, shortly we found map board, which not only has the town map it also displays local walks just like they have in France. We were surprised to find that the road we wanted was just behind us. This was encouraging, we walked off down the road, walked back and walked down again without much success. I must admit I'm never sure how to interrupt continental addresses. Finally having asked a couple of people we arrived. The stupid thing is that where we are staying is called the Linbach Hof, which was sign posted at the top of the road and also carved into the front of the building. If that had been included in the address we would have been fine. So in fact our accommodation is about 7 minutes walk from the station.

Our host did not speak English (why should she) we don't speak Germany so see summoned the services of her neighbour Rosie to act as interpreter. Having managed all the formalities it ws time to rush down to this very pleasant town to buy in some supplies for the weekend.

We finished the day off with a meal in a local resturant, sitting outside in the sun, it was an Itialian resturant so we finished off the evening saying goodbye in Italian!

"We do that in England" - 25 June 2014

Today was move on day, we leave Barabara and Charlie to continue our holiday on Lake Luzern staying in a B&B at Brunnen. But first I got up early to have some time down at Neuchatel Railway Station, this enabled me to give Charlie one final farewell before he departed for work.

I find being on a railway station early in the morning during rush hour but not having to travel to work very satisfying. I had arrived at 06:40, the sun had risen and was throwing some great light on to the railway and platforms. The station was not that busy, there were a few people about, grabbing a quick smoke before boarding their trains. As 07:00 approached more commuters arrived and so did more trains. The busiest period was between 07:00 and 08:00, and I noticed that Neuchatel is really a terminus, most trains come in from the east and depart for the east, only a few come in from the west and continue out to the east.

Neuchatel Station early morning

I noticed some shunting going on down the far end of the station, but by the time I got there the engine and moved out to the sidings. There was a road running alongside the railway with a low fence which I noticed from the railway overbridge and made a B line for it and was rewarded with some shunting as an engineers train arrived.

Having had my fix of train movements I went back to join Beverley and Barabara for one last breakfast before we walked down into town to purchase a Swiss Army knife, what else would you buy in Switzerland other than Chocolate! I've had a number of Swiss Army knifes but the most recent one has been mislaid, being on holiday I feel a little lost without it as it's so useful, we had seen them in Bern yesterday at between SF19 and SF20 but was not sure how that compared with the UK, a search on Amazon showed the same knife would cost about £12, so basically the same price. I'm now the proud owner of a new knife, I expect the old one will turn up now, just like the video battery.

We had a wander along the lakeside as far as the harbour before returning for lunch on the bus, that is lunch back at the house, returning by bus. Then it was time to say goodbye, we caught the 13:01 from Neuchatel and finally arrived at Brunnen at about 16:10, having changed at Bern and Luzern, we missed the connection at the latter as we were at the end of the train and our departing train was not on the platform I expected. We got to the right platform jumped on the train but nothing happened, it was the front four coaches only. I expected to wait another hour but there was another departure in 9 minutes.

The B&B was only 3 minutes from the station in fact it over looked the end of the platform, you had a good view of the trains whilst sitting on the throne! It was a traditional Swiss chalet but for some reason a petrol station / garage was opposite it and behind it was car dealership. We were located in the loft of the house where there was a shared bathroom ( but luckily no other guests) and a small kitchenette with fridge and kettle. The bed was very low but comfortable. I paid SF 120 per night which is expensive compared to the Uk, but it was comfortable, clean and the breakfast set us up for the day the following morning.

I always feel a little lost on arriving at a new place aboard I don't know and where I don't know the langauge, this being the first time we had experienced German, generally I can get by with Spainish, Italian and French but German is a different thing altogether. I thought a Zimmer was a walking aid but in German it parking.

We wandered around the small town down to the lakeside, looked in the various bars and restaurants for somewhere to dine, I'm always a bit cautious as I continuously believe I'm going to be ripped off, which is very unfair on the locals. Beverley suggested going back to the B&B to check out Trip Advisor. On the way back I thought the lady crossing the road was from the B&B, she wasn't, and I expect she is mightily confused when some middle aged Englishman says hello not just once but twice, with the second one being very loud. She turned round and mumbled a hello and hurried on, if that was you I apologise 

We finally settled on a very expensive restaurant, Gasthaus PLUSPUNKT, just around the corner, where we had a very nice meal, in a very nice setting with good service, they were surprised when I left a tip 'We do that in England" I said.