Take a walk with me...

I don't know why, but I thought it might be fun to have you walk to work with me.  Granted, this is more likely to be fun for the non-Brits amongst you, but it gave me something to do this morning as I wandered along, so walk with me you will! :0)


As I have mentioned before, I take the train/underground to London Bridge station and walk in from there.  It's a quick 10 minutes, but I pass so many cool things that make me smile every morning.  I am including the pics of each as well as handy dandy links for more information on each site ~ in case you're interested! :0)


The first thing we find is Southwark Cathedral, I walk through the grounds and one day I'm going to have to stop and try to read some of the very worn out, very old inscriptions in the stones on the ground.  It really is a beautiful building.

http://cathedral.southwark.anglican.org/

So from here I go past the market ~ which is AWESOME at lunchtimes and has lots and lots of yummy fresh things, from fresh fruits and veggies to the biggest meringues I have ever seen ~ and then around the corner to the full size replica Golden Hinde.  This was the ship that Sir Francis Drake was knighted on.

http://goldenhinde.com/

Round the corner from the ship (and I mean right around the corner) are the ruins of Winchester Palace.  I find this particularly fascinating as the one remaining wall has been incorporated into a newer building ~ I can only imagine to hold it up!  

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/winchester-palace/

Directly past the palace ruins down ye olde cobbledy street, is the Clink Prison Museum.  It stands on the site of the historic Clink Prison, which my research tells me was THE most notorious prison of medieval times!  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clink

Past the Clink is a really cool brick tunnel which has lights on the ceiling that light up to make a firework display of sorts ~ I like it :0)

Next we go through the tunnel and to the right where we end up almost at the river bank and at the view that earns my biggest smile of the morning...

No, no, no, no.. not the pub! Look past that! lol...

The pub is very pretty though, and it's a maze of small rooms, low ceilings and knock-your-block-off wooden beams inside!

We're almost there now, past the pub is the river and Southwark Bridge.

The office is on the South side of the bridge on the 9th floor, so the view is fabbo!! 

The last part of our journey is to go under the bridge and up the old stone steps to the main entrance..... until the evening, when we do it all in reverse and much, much faster! lol...

Southwark Bridge from below

The old stone steps

Well thanks for walking with me today, I hope you enjoyed your short tour. Please fill out your comment cards and feel free to tip your guide! :0D

Shoes for thought....

I am now a commuter.  I take 2 overland trains and 2 underground trains a day.  I get on the train in Bracknell to get to Waterloo, get on the underground at Waterloo, stay on through Southwark, and get off at London Bridge, then the reverse to get home.  It amounts to about  80 minutes of train time each way.  However, the trains are PACKED during rush hour, so I spend those sardine-like hours trying to find somewhere to look whereby it doesn't seem as if I'm  staring at someone or the other.
My solution is the floor as much as possible (when I'm not reading), which means I see a lot of shoes during the course of my travels, and I have made several observations:


1. Lots of women take a deep breath each morning and put their tennies on with their smart business suits, laughing in the face of fashion to save their feet.  I applaud these women.


2. Lots of OTHER women fear the fashion gods and wear terrifyingly high heels from dawn to dusk.  I am not one of these women.  I think they're nuts!!


3. There are some FUGLY shoes out there!! Holy cow there are.  And I'm not just talking about girl shoes either (although some of those defy the laws of nature let me tell you!),  I'm talking about men's shoes as well.


My inspiration for this post, for example, was a particularly jaw dropping pair of men's shoes. 


"Try to imagine, just for a moment..." (bonus points if you know where that quote came from) a business man (I'm going to guess mid-late 40's) tailored pinstriped suit, briefcase, newspaper tucked under his arm, you know the type.  Professional.  But the shoes!!!  Black leather, polished, no scuffs, probably ridiculously expensive, normal from the heel to the point at which they should have ended.... but there was no end in sight.  Instead of a rounded or even slightly pointed toe, they kept on going... and going... and going.  It's like the energizer bunny had a hand in their design!  I am absolutely not exaggerating when I say there was probably 3 1/2 inches or pointy shoes PAST the end of his toes.  


"Winkle-pickers" my Nan would have called them, I could all but hear her say it when I saw them.  I'm really not sure how I didn't actually laugh out loud when her voice popped in my head.  


Now I know I am FAR from a fashionista, I'm thrilled I have a pair of actual "crocs" flip-flops, but seriously , the shoes were ludicrous!


I've given it some thought and I think that on a different guy the effect wouldn't have been so laughable.  I actually know someone who wears pointy man-shoes and because he's uber-cool and stylish they don't look silly at all.  Having said that though, I never saw him wear any THAT pointy!


One last thing before I go;


I am clinging to the hope that the worst footwear offenders I see are Europeans, most likely French or Italian because they think they are the rulers of fashion and can therefore wear any combination of crap and make it look "fashionable".  Well you can't.  Stop it!  


When I'm trying to eat my lunch I don't want to see you in your lime green and black zebra print leggings that you oh-so-casually paired with hot pink and blue frilly edged wellies and your new "I <3 London" sweatshirt.  It's nasty and you look like a twit.