Thames Path: Tower Bridge, Westminster, Hammersmith, Barnes, Mortlake, Kew, Richmond.
A flood of memories this morning. First the early wake up call at 6am reminding me of walks around the London Loop in darkest winter. Then the 7.14 train in to London with flashbacks of all those years commuting down to the office. Not so crowded this morning as Friday before a bank holiday at the end of 'summer'. So many drab outfits as people protect themselves against torrential rain and an unseasonably cold day.
We start at Tower Bridge and it is raining hard. The image of workers trekking over London Bridge with umbrellas aloft is quite a sight. Most minds connected with getting this day over and done with and hoping all the weathermen are wrong and a glorious bank holiday weekend follows.
We meet up with two of the stars of our team Tracy and Charlotte and Cafe Nero near their office. We have ideas to talk over and Rob starts laying out what we are thinking. Wonderfully Tracy and Charlotte take over and run the meeting the way it should be run and we sit back in awe and ask for further instructions. Fantastic. We are arranging a dinner at the House of Commons in November and Tracy and Charlotte simply and powerfully show us how to look at the idea in a completely new and far more compelling way. 
We fill our time predicting football results this weekend. We agree to talk over hands of bridge we played last night online when we can see the hands but still dip in to analysis of partially remembered hands and half finished thoughts. We stop for a moment by Parliament where we have secured a finishing dinner for November 5th. It is always worth a stop to take it in.
We stop by the London Peace Pagoda dedicated to universal peace. Built in memory of Nichidatsu Fujii who died 100 years old in 1985 it is a wonderful spot and an admirable aspiration. There are so many wonderful attributes to Buddhist thought inaccessible to a Western material viewpoint. I stop for a moment and hope their quest for universal peace can have some space in the world.
After about 11 miles it is time for a break. We have reached Chelsea Harbour and drop in to the London Design Centre. A centre for designers to show off their talent and a funky place. I took photographs while Robert was having his meetings with the City.
After collecting my portfolio of shots I was told photography was not allowed and security would be over to deal with me soon if I continued. I had my photos so I was ok and Rob took some more as he had not been told off yet. Rob's photos are fantastic (so my friends tell me) so I don't expect to see any of my efforts displayed here.
As we leave Chelsea Harbour we pass Imperial Wharf where properties go for around £1700 per square foot. Think about that. A small room 10 feet by 10 feet will cost £170,000 and a one bedroom flat is going to come in around £900,000. There are properties at just under £3 million pounds here but they do have three bedrooms. Does look like an amazing complex though. 
We walk on and the tide is now coming in. It is still interesting to watch the water flowing the 'wrong' way up the river. We stop at Hendersons Brasserie at Barnes. I ask the owner what his first name is and he tells me Henderson. I know he is not called Henderson Henderson so then we discover he is Henderson Cisc originally from Brazil. He is a talented artist with many impressive pictures around his restaurant and he has a lovely location a few yards from the Thames Path. 
We walk on and stop by the Old Stables. Rob is delighted that he now recognises the cow in the front garden is not a real cow. A year ago he would have city boy style seen this as a real cow but after so much walking in the countryside he immediately recognises this as a substitute for a garden gnome.
Further on we have decisions to take as the river starts to cover the path. Makes you realise how finely balanced the level of the Thames is with the lives of those living by it. We get wet feet which is cooling at this stage of the walk.
Just after near to Isleworth we meet Sabine, Martina, Alexander and Milo out on a family bike ride from Hammersmith where they live to Richmond where we are heading. Alexander puts us to shame having completed Hadrian's Wall in four days to our six. That is impressive. Alexander is twelve and very articulate about what he did and what he is going to do. A really enjoyable days walking. A new record of 21 miles exactly and although it looked ominous at the start we only got 20 minutes of rain all day.
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