From Highgate to Hampstead

Apparently the weekend is a good time for work to be done on the Underground, which we discovered this morning when it seemed that there were no trains going to our desired destination. After letting three trains go - and when we were the only people left on the platform - we worked out that we should have taken one of those trains and changed to the branch line we needed further down the track. Give us another week and we should be experts on the Underground!

Our destination was Archway underground station and from there we walked up the very long hill of Highgate Road, past Dick Whittington's cat, to Highgate Cemetery.

The West Cemetery can only be visited with a guide so we joined a group and spent over an hour with Jenny, our very knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide. The West Cemetery is very atmospheric with impressive old tombs, winding paths overhung with trees and an appearance of romantic decay. Wildlife is encouraged and we saw several foxes and squirrels.

  

After that, we were free to visit the East Cemetery on our own with a map of important graves. Some we found were those for author Douglas Adams, sculptor (and daughter of the composer) Anna Mahler, pop artist Patrick Caulfied (whose grave was very modern, with just the word 'DEAD' on it), actors Sir Ralph Richardson and Corin Redgrave and, of course, the most well-known grave, that of Karl Marx.

Leaving the cemetery, we walked to Hampstead Heath where we had lunch at the Brew House Cafe at Kenwood House, before walking from the NE corner of the park to the SW edge. The views towards the City of London were spectacular and the park is a wonderful mix of heath, woodland and open fields. We encountered many families, couples and joggers enjoying the area.

After a cup of soup and a brief rest in our apartment, we ventured forth again in the evening to see the stage production of 'War Horse' at the New London Theatre. The streets were quite crowded with people dressed in weird costumes and make-up as if for Halloween, so maybe there was a party on somewhere in anticipation of that. 'War Horse' was a wonderful show with life-size puppet horses that were manipulated by three or more puppeteers. After a short time, you forgot they were puppets, they seemed so real. The actors were great too! We were sitting in the fifth row from the front, with a walkway in front of us that the actors used on occasion so we felt like we were really part of the action. A wonderful way to end the day!