2009 YEAR IN REVIEW : TOP FOUR WALKS IN LONDON

And by "top four", I mean "the only four times since I arrived in London that I got off my big butt and did something that might pass as exercise."

4. Thames River Path

Had not the LLDD-Hyphen-L gotten on a wrong local bus (in search of the neighborhood "Zara Express" urban legend), I might have never discovered that near our flat is a beautiful riverside path traversing the "Cheese Whiz" neighborhood on one side and a posh area called Richmond on the other side. How stark is the contrast between "Cheese Whiz" (where we live) and rich Richmond across the river? Put it this way: on the Richmond side, there's a riverbank park that features locals who picnic, drink wine and play cricket; on the "Cheese Whiz" side, there's a boat with a figurehead of Grace Jones.

3. Southbank Loop

Charge it to being OC, but I like my walks perfectly linear, i.e., I want to be able to see everything there is to see without having to walk down the same path more than once. I just don't like any forth-and-back. Thus, I thoroughly enjoyed walking from Monument (views) to London Bridge (more views) to Borough market (food) to Southwark Cathedral (people eating food) to Shakespeare's Globe (art) to Tate Modern (art?) to the Millenium bridge (wobbling views) to St. Paul's Cathedral (tourists) in a nice, tight non-repetitive closed loop. (my OC, by the way, also accounts for my preference of Megamall and MOA over Glorietta and TriNoMa; just so you know where to take me for a walk when I come home)

(click here for full gallery)

2. Parliament-to-Greenwich Hike

Oh, the agony of the feet! I joined several foreign diplomats on a Big Ben-to-Greenwich Observatory trek along the Thames that was described by the organizer as nine-kilometers long. Turns out, it was nine miles! Just as well that the walk finished at the Prime Meridian, because I wanted those four hours of my life back!

(click here for full gallery)

1. Walk for Charity

The wife of an ambassador recently went on a noble 60-mile charity walk to raise funds for children back home. The walk started from the Embassy doorstep very early on a Saturday morning, and the joke then was that everyone would join and walk until the nearest McDonald's. I, off course, never kid whenever the possibility of breakfast pancakes is involved, and actually set off with the charity-walker in the direction of the Westminster McDo thinking everyone would do the same -- only to find when I looked over my shoulder that none of my companions even went beyond the Embassy corner.

My revenge: a Philippine newspaper's photo caption reporting the event's great success made it appear that I finished the 60-mile trip alongside the charity walker. Who needs exercise!