Hampstead Heath Walk

It was a beautiful day so we decided to go for a walk! We had a few ideas, but turned to the internet for help. We had always wanted to check out Hampstead Heath, and found several walks on the lastminute.com website, one which went through the Heath.

We started off at Archway tube station, up the hill past the Whittington Stone and through Waterlow Park.

On the other side of the park we passed Highgate Cemetery where Karl Marx (among others) is buried. It seemed to go on forever, although it was rather creepy and overgrown in parts. On the opposite side of the road were large residential developments on private roads uniformly lined up, down the hill.

A bit out of place was this large house with a grand entrance.

We passed through the small local township, with the smell of Sunday morning cafe breakfasts, then into Hampstead Heath where we headed to the top of Parliament Hill. There was a fantastic (although slightly hazy) view of the city, not far off. It was such a contrast after the feeling of being quite remote for the last hour.

Apparently this is the bathing pond. Perhaps it's a bit more inviting in the summer?

From the other side of the Heath we strolled down to Hampstead village. This area has more millionaires than anywhere else in Britain, however it didn't appear at all pretentious. It is a gorgeous village, and as we approached it felt like we were far away from the city again.

Then it was back on the Tube to head home.

York

This weekend we headed up to York. It is only 2 hours on the train from London, which is a good amount of time to be stuck in a seat.


The first thing you see when you leave the train station is the city wall. The wall almost completely surrounds the city, apart from the entrances (bars), and where old castle used to be. Bootham Bar:


Another major feature is the York Minster, a very impressive Cathedral. It is a huge building which has been added to several times, making its construction last for over 200 years. What's even more amazing is the history of the previous buildings on the site. We went down into the undercroft and saw remains of Roman foundations, and later foundations of a Norman cathedral which are still holding up the current Cathedral today (although there has been some structural reinforcement in recent times.)


We also climbed up to the top of the Cathedral, up 275 very narrow spiral steps. The view from the top was great. You can see over York and beyond. Perfect weather too.


We had our essential cream tea in the afternoon (this has become a holiday habit ever since going to Devon and Cornwall). After walking around for a while we came across Shambles, an old street which was once lined with butchers. Now, all that remains are meat hooks outside the shops, but the street has a lot of character, particularly the irregular, overhanging buildings.


Another popular street is Whip Ma Whop Ma Gate (not literally a gate). It's claim to fame is that it's the shortest street with the longest name, since it is only 35m long. We had a nice dinner at a Thai restaurant. Here is the Bootham Bar at night:


On Sunday we went on the free walking tour run by local volunteer guides. These are some of the best tours you can do because the guides are so passionate about the city, and are obviously not in it for money! We saw parts of the old Roman and Medieval walls, the ruins of St Mary's Abbey, walked along the top of the city wall, saw some of the bars (that's gateways in the walls, not pubs) and saw the Shambles again.


After some nice freshly made crepes, we checked out Jorvik, the Viking exhibition. It prides itself on offering not only an audio-visual experience but a multi-sensory experience of Viking times. In particular the smell of someone sitting on the (outdoor) toilet was memorable.

To finish off our weekend we spent a few hours at the National Railway Museum, the world's largest railway museum. It is housed in old railway shed and is so large that we probably only saw half of it. There are trains ranging from the "Rocket" the first steam locomotive, to the Mallard, to the Bullet train and the Eurostar. Seeing the old locomotives lined up around the turntable sparks memories of Thomas the Tank Engine, you almost expect them to start talking! One of the staff was giving a talk about how steam engines work. One of the locomotives has been cut in section so that the details of the pipes and boilers can be seen. The warehouse next door is a cross between a museum and a warehouse where you can see all the items in storage, but they are not hidden away. The Flying Scotsman is being restored and we saw it totally stripped down in the workshop.


We ran out of time to see the rest of the museum, as it is so large, and we were back onto our modern train to London.