ad hoc sunny days

One of my greatest joys in this city is the ability to walk out the door of my flat (and not because my flat is old and slightly dingy…) and enter a place where there is always something new to see, hear, learn…

This is going to be one of my ‘rambling’ blog entries… so I apologies in advance!

It is so easy to just get out of bed and do something. A few weeks ago I went on my first ‘London Walk’ (http://www.walks.com/ if you are interested); actually it was Australian Day to be precise. I chose one that took me to the back streets of Waterloo. My own backyard as it were… being a South of the Thames dweller. The walk was lead by a retired Elephant Handler and she was a wealth of knowledge about the surprisingly intact community of early 19th century houses in the shadow of Waterloo Station. The morning was cold but beautifully sunny and the walk opened up a whole new understanding of the area of London I live in.

Last weekend, similarly, I decided, on a whim, to go to Hampton Court. The Met Office forecast on Thursday showed a fine and sunny weekend so I took advantage. I was at Waterloo Station bright and early (well… 9:30am… but that is reasonably early for a Saturday and the Palace doesn’t open until 10am anyway) only to be told that due to engineering works the train I wanted to take wasn’t running and that I would need to take another train to Surbiton (a nice place for changing trains… and that’s about it) and transfer to a bus. An hour and a half and one missed bus later I found myself on the banks of the Thames opposite Hampton Court… the trip should only take 35 minutes in normal conditions. But once again the day was lovely and sunny and, as usual, cold. The Palace looked huge across the river, and the enormous picture of Henry VIII fixed to the side of some scaffold, and towering over a portion of the palace under restoration, did nothing to reduce the impact.

I spent a couple of hours wandering about the halls and rooms of the Palace, the same halls and rooms inhabited by Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey, William & Mary, and one of the Georges (which one it was eludes me right now). The tours are very good, and conducted by guides dressed in period costume and assuming a period character. It sounds a bit tacky but it works rather well.

So, the question that remains is; what to do this weekend? The Met Office is predicting another dry weekend… I’ll let you know.