SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

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re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

Frankfurt Airport

My flight from Colombo arrived early in the morning. I had about 4 hours to kill while waiting for my BA Cityflyer flight to London City.


Coming in to land I could see lots of forest and nice wooded country around the airport so decided to go out for a look around before heading to the lounge. After passing quickly through immigration I checked my suitcase in at the BA desk and went outside. It was actually harder than I expected to escape the maze of light industrial streets servicing the airport. Every likely way into nature was blocked by either a fence, a building site, or a freeway. However, I persevered and at least manages to peer over a fence into an attractive forest before panicking over how late it was and rushing back.


Needn’t have worried: immigration was quick, and there’s no security before the lounge. There are electronic boarding pass scanning gates, but many people struggle with what they were or how they might work. The attendant was at his wits end, about to explode with frustration, and even yelled at some people as they faffed and faffed and faffed and faffed. I hope that is the correct spelling of faffed.


The lounge was the JAL lounge. Small but bright and ok food and drink for a short stay. The windows gave a good view of the aforementioned woods (and freeway).

I've read lots of bad opinions of FRA. I found it fine and quite enjoyed it.

The often unloved, but maybe just misunderstood, FRA:



A few minutes stroll from Terminal 2. Not so bad:




So close to nature, yet still fenced in. Or is nature fenced in?


Ah, that's better:


Turns out that FRA can be a beautiful spot for a layover:

 

[Skyring]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

How utterly charming! The artificial land of air travel, particularly the unlovely environs of terminals, can be draining. Feasting your eyes on greenery is brilliant, though maybe not so much at the expense of the stress of having to flee back to the airport with a looming departure.

I've taken that same flight once. Flew in overnight Y on CX from Hong Kong, had a dawn hour in an unlovely lounge, and then took the BA hop to LCY. From what I could see of the J cabin, it wasn't much chop. More legroom and coffee served in china rather than plastic.

A great view out the window under the high wing, especially over the Channel and up the Thames. LCY is a sweet and convenient airport, but my bag didn't make it onto the carousel and after I sweated (in July) into my hostel near St Pauls, I took a much needed shower without benefit of towel before collapsing into my bunk. The bag turned up on the next flight, happily.

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

Feasting your eyes on greenery is brilliant, though maybe not so much at the expense of the stress of having to flee back to the airport with a looming departure.

Well, not such a desperate rush. Didn't have to run or anything, and good to re-start the circulation after a long flight. I had heard such horror stories about FRA I was really worried. Have since found out that the stories are justified...

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

FRA-LCY, BA8733, Y class & just a couple of bits of London maybe you've not seen


I booked this flight using points via the Qantas website. Short flight and, given the often-discussed-on-AFF shortcomings of intra-Europe J, there was no point paying for business class here. On this flight there was no difference at all between J and Y seats. It was an Embraer 170 with 2+2 seating and the J pax had no empty seat beside them. They got a better meal and more attentive service, but that is all.


Departure through security at FRA was quick and easy. Boarding was via a remote stand. Arrival at LCY was on time with fast immigration, baggage claim (but no priority) and zero customs. I flew into LCY to avoid LHR and for easier access to my Hotel in the city. Docklands Light Rail took me right there from the airport. It looked like a fairly shabby place to fly out of. Not an airport at which to linger.


I stayed at the Tower Hotel next to Tower Bridge and the Tower of London and well located for what I had planned while I was there. The view from my room was just great, of the bridge and the Thames. The hotel itself is surely one of the ugliest buildings in London. But if you’re staying there you can’t see it. I liked the room, didn’t use any other facility there. It is a big place which meant a long, long walk to the lifts.


Went for a wander around The City and then walked from Hackney along a canal to Canary Wharf, via Victoria Park, an open space set aside by Queen Victoria for the folk of east London.
Saturday night went to a concert at the Camden Underworld, indulging my penchant for heavy metal music. The band was the wonderful Power Quest which, you’ll be pleased to hear, have re-formed after a hiatus of several years. This was their comeback show. Exciting, huh?


London has good public transport. Even better now because they are gradually implementing 24 hr tube services on some lines. A great idea.

My room at the Tower Hotel. The view from those windows was good.



A private yacht passing by my room. It belongs to a Russian Billionaire. Apparently it is for sale as he's building a bigger one. POA:

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On the Regents Canal, near Hackney.




Entrance to The Underworld. In this case the Camden Underworld:



Ever wondered what the underworld is like? No sign of Orpheus, but did see these guys:

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

Some more London







Victoria Park in the East End:

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

London still







There was some kind of old wooden boats festival on at St Katherine dock behind the hotel:

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

Oxford, by train.

I spent one of my London days on a trip to Oxford. I have lived in London previously so wasn’t too interested in seeing too much there. Plus, I needed to get my suitcase to Oxford as the next part of my trip would involve walking from London to Oxford via the Thames path trail. Only problem was I had a suitcase with me. There are a couple of firms who transport bags for people walking that trail, and others, taking them from one night’s hotel/B&B to the next. I called one of them and they wanted £150! I told the they were dreaming and did it myself, delivering it to the Hotel Ethos in Oxford where I was booked in a few days later. They wanted £5/day to store it and the train ticket cost me £17 return.


It also turned out, as luck would have it, that that particular Sunday was a kind of Open Day in Oxford with all the colleges, the university, and other historic buildings open and free to visit. I went from college to college until they all started to blur into one, and then visited the small but perfectly formed botanical gardens.


It was a very pleasant day out.

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

Some photos of Oxford, around the colleges and university

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

Some more photos of Oxford, around the colleges and university

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

And a few more photos of Oxford, around the colleges and university

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

@ Oxford gardens

Worth a visit if you like plants and whatnot. I liked it, though it costs to go in and isn't very big.

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.







@ Oxfrod station.

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

London to Oxford on foot: Walking the Thames Path.


Remember that this trip was originally going to be a status run. I had a number of days that were to have been filled with a dizzying assortment of flights. That now being redundant, I had some time to do something interesting. So I decided to walk from London to Oxford over three days, staying at hotels each night.
The itinerary was ambitious and gruelling:


Day 1 – Putney Bridge to Windsor (59km), overnight at the Castle Hotel.


Day 2 – Windsor to Pangbourne (60km), overnight at the Elephant hotel.


Day 3 – Pangbourne to Oxford (56km), retrieve luggage and overnight at Hotel Ethos.


That was the plan. The reality was not exactly that, but still close.


Day 1 of the walk started with faffing about with last-minute getting ready, an unfortunate form of procrastination that afflicts me all too often. It was 7:30am by the time I started walking from Putney Bridge tube station. The Thames Path follows the river from its source all the way to London with an extension to the sea. I could have started the walk from the front door of the Tower Hotel back in London but only had three days so skipped that to start at Putney.


It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, and the path by the river through the suburbs was lovely. Past Richmond, Kew Gardens, past Hampton Court palace, and through increasingly-rural landscapes all the way to Staines I went. Then the wheels fell off for the day. It was getting dark. Although I had a head lamp with me, I was tired and the prospect of trudging through Slough at night didn’t appeal. Discretion being the better part of whatever this was, I took a train from Stained up to Windsor. 15 minutes by train, several hours on foot.


My digs in Windsor were the Castle Hotel, an Accor M Gallery property. It is old and creaky, but very nice. No Accor status recognition as I booked the room via Qantas Hotels during a x6 points promotion. This just about paid for my FRA-LCY flight. Wifi and breakfast were included, so Le Club recognition wouldn’t have added anything in any case – I’m still only PS with them.


The room was just great, and so was breakfast. And I nearly cried with joy when I saw the bathtub, I needed it!

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

Thames Path, day 1. Between Putney bridge and Windsor

School kids learning to row.







Ferry at Shepperton Lock . The Thames path crosses the river here via the ferry. You ring a bell on the river bank to summon it. The journey costs 2 GBP!



Room at the Castle Hotel in Windsor. The wonderful bathtub is right through that door.

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

Walking the Thames Path, Day 2: Windsor - Pangbourne

Day 2 of the walk started a little later than I would have liked. I didn’t want to miss breakfast at the hotel, so had to wait until 6:30 before it started. It was 7:15 before I finally got underway.

The town of Windsor was very peaceful in the early morning, the bulk of the castle looming ever watchful high above in the mist. The path crosses the Thames to the twin-town of Eton before passing by the grounds of the famous school for very rich boys of the same name. Originally the school was set up for the not-rich, to get them into Kings College at Oxford. Over the centuries, though, it has become a school of choice of the very wealthy and very powerful.

It seems that Eton school owns an area of land about the size of the ACT. For hours, it seemed, I walked by signs that warned “this is ours” or “these are our boat houses”. Regardless of who owns it, it is gorgeous country. Almost every step of the whole 165km of my walk was gorgeous, and no doubt the rest is too.

This second day of picturesque walking ended at Henley-on-Thames. By the time I reached there, I’d had enough for the day. Not so far as the 60km I had planned, only around 39km. Reception at the hotel for that night closed at 10pm. Had I continued it would certainly have been touch and go making that. So, I made it a relatively early stop and took the train to the small town of Pangbourne. I stayed at a pub, the Elephant Hotel. It was nice, but very hot and quite noisy until 10pm. No air conditioning, nor even a fan but, oddly, a heated towel rail that couldn’t be switched off. It was around 30 degrees during the day and in the mid twenties in the evening; warm for an English autumn. Dinner was at a local fish and chips shop.

The castle at Windsor, setting off in the early morning quiet:



Looking over the bridge towards the town of Eton. The Thames path crosses this bridge and turns left at the end past the extensive grounds of Eton school:



Gentle morning mist over the river Thames


Looking over the meadow to the distant towers of ancient Eton school.

 

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re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

Thames path day 2, Windsor - Pangbourne:

Misty meadow near Windsor:



Church in the middle of nowhere:



Part of the Thames Path. I was lucky to have fine weather:





One of the many locks along the river:

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

Thames path day 2, Windsor - Pangbourne:









Interesting wooden foot bridge:

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

Thames path day 2, Windsor - Pangbourne:





This big house had some sort of defence mechanism that rendered all photos of it blurry. Possibly alien technology borrowed from UFOs? On the left hand side of the photo are some grazing deer:



Deer, protected by the same blurring-technology. I regret relying on a camera phone.



Henley-on-Thames where I stopped walking for the day. It had only been about 36km, but I'd had enough for the day. I jumped on series of local trains that eventually got me to the little town of Pangbourne where I had a room for the night.

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

Thames path day 2, Windsor - Pangbourne:







On the main street of Pangbourne, next door to a Lamborghini shop. The area may be well-heeled:



The Elephant @ Pangbourne, where i stayed the night. Nice small room, but quite hot in the unseasonably-warm weather.

 

[24601]

re: SYD-LCY & walking the Thames Path.

Thames Path day 3: Pangbourne to Oxford.

Day 3 of the Thames path was to be my longest day at 56km, from Pangbourne to Oxford. As reception at that night’s hotel in Oxford closed at 10pm I made sure to get an early start to be sure to make it in time. Evn if, for some reason, I didn’t, I knew that at least there were plenty of other hotels in Oxford open 24 hours. I was booked into Hotel Ethos, which is more like a B & B and certainly not worth the 4 stars they claim. That night rooms in Oxford had been extremely expensive for some reason. The Ethos was among the cheapest options. It was also right on the Thames Path at the southern end of the town, so easy access from the walk.


I left The Elephant at Pangbourne well before breakfast so ate some things bought the night before at a local supermarket. I started walking at 5:30am, in the dark. The head torch I’d carried from London finally got some use. I think I passed by some of the loveliest parts of the walk in the darkness. Over the river from Pangbourne is picturesque Whitchurch. Immediately after that the next few km are through wooded hills on the edge of the Chilterns. First light in the forest and then dawn over the distant hills was wonderful.


For much of this day’s walking the Thames passed through very rural landscapes. There were even long stretches with nothing but woods or untended meadows on either bank. There were far fewer boats on the water too, although they were pretty well ubiquitous for the whole route.


This day I was finally feeling back in shape and the walking was much easier and I made good progress. By about 5:30pm I reached a wonderful sign that said “Oxford 2.5 miles”. Before long the path became paved and overrun by cyclists. I made it, no need for the train this day.


The hotel was ok, but sadly no bathtub, just a slightly grubby shower instead. No matter, it was glorious. After a quick bite to eat (prepared meal from a supermarket) it was early to bed for a well-earned and sorely needed sleep. It was the end of the walk, sadly. I am so glad I did it, almost on a whim. It was a great experience and absolutely beautiful almost every step of the way.
The next morning would see me on a train up to Birmingham for my flight to Stuttgart.