Andy's holiday walks

Andy took a week off at the beginning of August, so I thought that was a great opportunity to bore him with some of the walks I go on about all the time.

The afternoon after the ill-fated Circle Line pub crawl, we had a lovely 2 hour ramble through Brent River Park (under Hanwell viaduct, along the River Brent, across at least 3 Golf Courses and ending up on top of the A40 with a magnificant view of the new Wembley, the Hoover Building and Starvin' Marvins Diner!).

The next day we headed east and did the 'Old and New in Docklands' walk, backwards.

We started at Westferry DLR, through Limehouse and Shadwell - it was from Shadwell Basin that Charles Dickens set sail on The Amazon for America.

Ropemakers Field and the surrounding areas of Limehouse is where Dickens' 'Our Mutual Friend' was set, and Oscar Wilde's 'Dorian Gray' comes to score some opium. War poet Wilfred Owen wrote of Shadwell stair: "I am the ghost of Shawell Stair. Along the wharves by the water-house, And through the dripping slaughterhouse, I am the shadow that walks there". There are some eerie bits to this part of east London - but mainly it's gorgoeous dockside apartments now.

We popped into 'London's oldest Riverside pub', The Prospect of Whitby. Built in 1520 it was originally known as The Devil's Tavern after its clientele of smugglers and criminals. But sadly, it's no long seedy and has a great view of Docklands and the city.

We continued by wandering through the converted wharves and warehouses of Wappping and into the gorgeous decadent St Katharine's Dock. From there we wandered along the river to the Globe - where we watched a great production of A Winter's Tale.

Andy's Super

Hi I'm Kat. This is my first blogging website and just wanted to say a bit about it.

I plan on using the site to log some of the walks that I like to do around London - with things like snippets of history or trivia that I've found particularly interesting and photos.

From time to time I'll also add other ramblings and photos.

Lastly, I'd just like to say thanks to my gorgeous and wonderful boyfriend, Andy, who set this website up for me and will no longer have to put up with me droning on about my walks.

That's all for now.

Amazing what you find on top of a hill

Now, in a city of 6 million people it's never particularly surprised me that I never bump into anyone I know. But today, finally, I did.I was on one of my regular rambles around London which I like to do on my days off, climbing Parliament Hill in the middle of Hampstead Heath, when I heard a very familiar voice. There - complete with cameraman - was my friend from school Ben Rudd! He was vox-popping people with German Shepherd dogs for London Today. I say people, he'd only come across one when I bumped into him. But it was very pleasant running into someone I knew in the middle of such an anonymous city.

What's more - and I don't know if anyone knows Hampstead Heath - but it has some of the most spectacular views of London. And now it has a new one. This is 'The Writer' by the concept artist Giancarlo Neri. A giant table-and-chair sculpture in the middle of London!!!! It doesn't get more fantastic than that!