Wednesday 17th
Today was a day of walking and eating. In other words, it was a GOOD DAY! N came down from Glasgow on the overnight bus, and was spending the day in London before jetting off on an American adventure. We met him at the bus stop, dumped his luggage at my parent's house, and set off on foot!
We started out by retracing the walk we had done with my parents on Saturday - Through Little Wood and Big Wood into the heart of Hampstead Garden Suburb, on to the Heath Extension, and up into Sandy Heath (we saw no sand), where we sat on top of a hill to catch our breath and take in the view. Once at Hampstead Heath, we almost walked through the fabulously named Sphagnum Bog, before heading up to Kenwood House for tea and cake.
Christo?!
After relaxing in the garden, watching plump pigeons attacking left overs, we decided to explore inside the house, and were pleasantly surprised at what we found. Art! Proper, famous art, and everything! Rembrandts, Landeer, Constable, Gainsborough, Vermeer... (see here for details). There was also a very interesting exhibition on photographs of Lost London, from 1870-1945. However, the highlight of the visit awaited us upstairs, in the Miniatures room. Aside from the large collection of portrait miniatures, there was a whole wall covered with buckles! Shoe buckles! Whatever happened to shoe buckles? (Shoelaces.)
The library at Kenwood House was pretty cool!
When we'd had our fill of art, we continued on through the Heath, and up into Hampstead. What do you suppose we did there? That's right! We ate CREPES!!!
Thoroughly stuffed, we decided we needed to sit down and quench our thirsts, so we headed over to the Flask pub for a drink. When J ordered his cider, the man behind the bar asked him for ID! He was chuffed (and we're sure he's probably about 5 years older than the barman!). Refreshed, we jumped onto the Tube to Golders Green, and walked down to the far end of Golders Green Road for delicious fresh falafel! (none of us were hungry, but that's besides the point! Deliciousness!). We staggered back home, put N back on the bus with all his belongings, and had a lazy evening, which involved resting and eating soup.
In conclusion, GOOD FOOD + WALKING = WIN!!!
Thursday 18th
We had a fairly easy going morning doing stuff around the house. With my mother, we met my grand parents for lunch, at my parents' favourite restaurant, 'the Turkish'. The food and the company were both delicious. We got dropped off halfway up Finchley Road, and ambled (we were too full to go an faster) over to Hampstead cemetery, which was incredibly overgrown in places. But it was peaceful, and it was nice to get away from the busy main road.
We continued down into West Hampstead, admired the handsome and clean public toilets, went op shopping (J bought a nice pair of nearly-new trousers, D was restrained and didn't buy any CDs or books). We met Dan's old school friend L outside the fire brigade station and went for tea. J had banofee cake! A bit more op shopping, distracted by a book shop, before we walked through back streets, past Emma Thompson's house, and onto the bus home.
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