Wherever I’ve travelled, I’ve always been most fascinated by cities.

I find them magical, vibrant and multi-layered. While most places have attractive aspects, cities lend themselves to exploration and experiment in a way I can’t find anywhere else: I feel conspicuous in the countryside; I can get lost in a city.

Despite spending most of my life in London, I find that I know very little of it. Happily, I have friends who are ready to explore it with me on photo walks, nature walks and bike rides. We go to places we know and places we’ve never been and we search out as much as we can.

One such recent case was with a cycling friend: “Let’s go east again,” she suggested, “Bermondsey.” Okay. We met at Waterloo and cycled east, past Blackfriars and Tower Bridge to Bermondsey. Then we continued on aimlessly, taking in anything that interested us.

Here was a view from Bermondsey’s south bank of Tower Bridge and the City of London that we hadn’t seen before.

The further we went along the undulating river Thames, the more our view of the city changed.

Passing by St. Mary’s Church in Rotherhithe, we found the juxtaposition of a children’s play area and a graveyard. Somehow, it seemed quite touching.

Continuing to the Docklands area we were amazed by the size and quiet of Greenland Quay. Practically derelict during the 1970s, it had been redeveloped into residential properties; the dock, formerly used for ships involved in the whaling and timber trades, is now used for recreational purposes and is one of only two functioning enclosed docks on the south bank of the Thames.

An about turn revealed this seated grafitto under a road bridge: another work by Banksy?

Our return home took us through one of London’s many green spaces: Russia Dock Woodland. I have an impossible dream of visiting all of London’s green spaces; impossible, because there are so many of them and so many more being developed. The woodland was developed by the infilling of the former Russia Dock: the park itself was long and narrow. This artificial hill photographed, Stave Hill, was created by using spoil (waste material and rubble) from the works to fill and landscape the areas formerly occupied by commercial docks.

It has a viewing platform on the top, but my friend and I didn’t ascend it, encumbered as we were with our bikes. But I’m sure we’ll return to take a view from the top across this infinite city.