Photography Challenge 1: Travel Photography–Walk along Thames Path

London is a culturally, historically, architecturally rich place (I could have added quite a few more adjectives but this is gonna be a long post anyway). It is, of course, a major tourist attraction. However, what most of the tourist miss in their haste to cover all the major attractions (and there are many) is one of the best feature of this city: the beautiful Thames path. 184 mile long, it snakes with the river Thames through the city of London and beyond. Most of the major attraction of the city lies along the river Thames, hence the tourist in the city do get to see part of it but only people living and working in the city gets to enjoy it. I do neither. I mean live or work in the city. So for this challenge I decided to cover a part of the Thames part (a mere 2 miles) to show you the part of London most tourists miss as well as some major landmarks along the river.

To start with, here is the map showing you the part of the path I covered in about 4.5 hours due to stops and detours. Google says it should take 45 mins by walk. (Click to enlarge)

I started from London Bridge and ended up at Westminster Bridge. I am going to post only few selected pictures here. For more, please visit my Facebook page.

Let’s start by one famous landmark, the Tower bridge as seen from the London Bridge on a murky day, only because that’s where I started my journey. Note that I said I took picture of Tower bridge from London bridge. Tower bridge is often mistaken for London bridge for some reason. Just wanted to make that clear.

BTW, just FYI, I walked upstream the river during my journey. Thames river flows primarily from West to East. The Tower bridge is downstream (or East) of London bridge.

The next stop was majestic St. Paul’s Cathedral. And I don’t use the word majestic lightly. I saw the St. Paul’s Cathedral for the first time. I had seen its picture and heard about it quite a bit. I have been wanting to visit the Cathedral for some time now since you can get a great panoramic view of the city from the top, however, I never thought it would be so impressive. It reminded me of what people say about buildings like Taj Mahal and Pyramids: no matter row many pictures of these places you have seen, its an experience to see them in real life. That was kind of awe I felt when I saw this from the bank of Thames:

Trust me when I say, the picture don’t do justice to this magnificent structure. Or may be I had too low an expectation for the place and hence was very impressed. Either way, in case you do plan a visit to London anytime, do visit St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Anyway, I think that’s enough for the landmarks. This is not a post to show you the major landmarks of London. I started the post by talking about beautiful Thames Path. As I said, it passes through the heart of London and is enjoyed by people living/working in the city especially, during their Lunch hour. Some people like to take a stroll by the river, some go for a run, few others simply sit on the benches and enjoy their lunch or a chat with a friend:

After work, many a people take the path and bridges on Thames to reach their home. Few of them stand and admire the view, while others are too engrossed in themselves:

Both of the above pictures were taken on Blackfriars bridge at almost the same time. Both subjects had the same view around them. Top picture is looking west from the Blackfriars bridge and shows Big Ben (now called Elizabeth tower) and London Eye (afternoon sun is making the scene hazy) while the bottom picture is looking east and shows London city skyline including St. Paul’s Cathedral.

I can’t end this post without talking about the street artists and street performers. London being the tourist spot, a lot of artist earn their livings (I hope) by performing at the tourist spots. Some of them are quite astounding. People who don’t have art to sell, they sell the looks. Like these two:

Well honestly, only the top one is worth mentioning. He/she was standing completely still for a long period of time in freezing cold near the bank of Thames. And he is not even wearing a proper winter jacket. I had about 3 layers on, gloves, cap, scarf, woollen socks and yet I was cold. If I would have been in his/her place, I would have been shivering. BTW, the background here is again my favourite  St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The bottom picture is more a case of right time, right place. The background of the picture shows the London eye. I like this picture as it shows the hugeness that is London eye. I have seen multiple picture of London eye but the scale of London eye is usually lost in those pictures.

Before I end the post, let me show you one more landmark picture. This is the house of Parliament and Big Ben at twilight.

Hope you liked the pictures (Remember I spent 4.5 hours walking in the cold, freezing weather on the bank of Thames so you better like them). Next Challenge: Night Photography. Worst part: Weather is going to go steadily worse for next few days with snow and everything. Wish me luck for the next challenge!

Remember to visit my Facebook page for more pictures.