Recap and Reflections

After nearly 21 hours of travel from the time I exited the flat in Belsize Park, I opened my own door in Massachusetts, thus cementing the firmest resolution to emerge from this trip: I will never take a connecting flight to LHR again (unless Aer Lingus resumes its Hartford>Dublin>London route, which has worked so well for me in the past). And I will never book on Expedia again. While they did offer me the best fare I could find, I figured out that the cheap fare I got resulted in the carriers putting me in the last group to board and/or the worst seat. Lesson learned. 

When I set about back in February to plan this trip, I had two very clear aims in mind: to soak up as much history and culture as possible, making up for not being able to travel in 2020 and 2021, and to experience London as a Londoner, albeit a temporary one. The means of accomplishing this was by doing tons of research, scouring event listings and subscribing to various listservs whose target audience is residents rather than tourists. Secondarily, I hoped to meet new people and have genuine conversations, though I wasn't exactly sure how I'd go about that. But I knew that I didn't want to be perceived as a daft American whenever I opened my mouth. I found that the Londoners I encountered were open to chatting with visitors who are knowledgeable, engaged and who ask intelligent questions about their city and their lives. My curiosity about All Things London knows no bounds. As a result, I had many pleasant conversations with strangers on buses, in shops, at exhibitions, and on walks, all of which made my visit much richer. 

I've put together some other observations, travel tips and general reflections to share with you all.

• Location: I stayed in Lambolle Road NW3, which is in Belsize Park, a brilliant place to be. I was near to the Hampstead Theatre, several small museums and art galleries in Hampstead, and the wonderful greenery and open space of Primrose Hill, Regent's Park and Hampstead Heath. One of the best things I did was to get on the email list for the Primrose Hill Community Association and learn of their weekly walks and other programmes. I thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to socialize and chat with people who live locally while walking across Primrose Hill or down to Regent's Park and back. The people I met were warm and welcoming, and I felt less like an alien each time I saw them. I regret that I didn't make time to participate in any of the other PHCA activities, such as their weekly lectures, movies, or the bar. I will do next time I visit. 
• Food: The fridge in my flat was very small, so I did grocery shopping frequently. The price of food has definitely increased since I was last in the UK (my previous visit was pre-Brexit), but it is still much cheaper to eat in London than at home in Massachusetts. As I almost never eat meals in restaurants, I'm basing this observation on what I paid in supermarkets, greengrocers' shops and farmer's markets. That said, sticker shock greeted me when I bought my first packets of HobNobs and Ginger Nuts. I used to pay 99p per packet for them; they now cost £1.35. But produce and staples on the whole were very reasonably priced. A 500gr package of whole wheat penne (Tesco brand) costs 99p. I pay $2.79 for a similarly-sized box at my local co-op. Tesco or Waitrose brand pasta sauce was around £1 for a 500gr jar; a 16oz jar of Field Day sauce is $3-4 at the co-op. When I went to the Saturday farmer's market at Parliament Hill, I could buy non-organic carrots (6-7 to a bag), two red peppers, a large head of broccoli or cauliflower, or a bunch of scallions for £1 each. All the supermarkets stock fresh baked goods (rolls, baguettes, croissants, pain au raisin) daily for very cheap prices, e.g. 45-65p for a whole wheat roll or mini baguette. Bread from the local bakers, either at the farmer's market or in a bakery, was comparably priced to home but the selection was much greater. I couldn't get enough of the walnut raisin bread and olive bread sticks, neither of which I can get at home. And I could bang on about my love of pastel de nata (Portuguese custard tarts)! I must have eaten a dozen while I was in London, paying between £1.50 and £2.50 each. 
• Transport: I had easy access to two tube lines -- the Northern Line at Belsize Park station, an eight minute walk from my AirBnB, or the Jubilee Line at Swiss Cottage, a 12 minute walk from my door. The nearest Overground station was about 20 minutes away at Hampstead Heath. Plus, numerous north-south and east-west bus routes crossed the area. It definitely paid off to purchase a one-month, zones 1-2 travel card. Only once did I inadvertently take the tube to a zone 3 station (Golders Green), using my cash balance, when I just as easily could have taken the bus (travel cards cover zones 1-6 on the bus). I did PAYG for the final 12 days, as I had three journeys beyond zone 2 that required loading money onto my Oyster card, and I think it worked out to cost about the same as it would have had I covered those days with a one-week travel card and five days PAYG. Note: You cannot load travel cards onto a Visitor Oyster card (purchased at Heathrow or ordered pre-travel from Visit Britain), but only onto a standard Oyster purchased at any station or from a newsagent. I've had my standard Oyster card for 16 years now.
• Currency: The exchange rate was really good while I was in the UK, varying between $1.13 and $1.19 to the pound. I took £500 from a cash point (ATM) at Paddington Station on the day I arrived and I came home with a few notes in my pocket. For museum, theatre, walking tour and transport tickets, I used my credit card, generally booking online. Britain has fully embraced contactless payment. Many restaurants, cafes and cultural venues no longer take cash. This irked me no end. Even the toilets in the Royal Parks, which cost 20p to use, have replaced the coin slots in their turnstiles with contactless payment pads. I usually walk around with four or five pounds worth of coins in the pocket of my coat or slacks. One- and two-pound coins can pile up if you don't spend them, and they are heavy, so I like to use them for minor purchases like my Meal Deal sandwiches or a sweet treat from a caff. I keep my credit card deep in the recesses of my bag, inside a RFID blocking sleeve, so it's a PITA to dig around to pull it out, especially when I need to use the loo.
• Culture: I made a real effort to seek out an array of cultural activities -- exhibitions, museums, walks, theatre, music -- that I could do on the cheap. My National Art Pass (~$82) was my key to exhibitions and museums, as it allowed me free entry to many venues and up to 50% off tickets to the pricier exhibitions. I ordered it a few days before I flew to London, and it arrived at my AirBnB (you need a UK mailing address to purchase) two days after I did. I thought that it would run for 12 months, but it actually doesn't expire until 31 Oct 2023! I'll be going back to London next autumn and putting it to further use. Most of the big museums offer free entry for their permanent collections and many venues, such as local libraries and archives, put on a host of talks that are free. At venues not participating in the National Art Fund scheme, I took advantage of concession price (i.e. discount for old people) whenever available. Some theatres offer discounted matinee performances for seniors. The events listing from ianvisits is a great resource for finding free and low-cost offerings. I subscribe to both his weekly events guide and the weekly news roundup. All in, I spent roughly $350 on ticketed entry. 
• Budget: I didn't set out a particular budget for the trip, rather just aimed to do it as affordably as possible while still cramming in a ton of activities. The total for my 42-day stay in London (after using the reward points I'd accumulated during the pandemic) was $4,100, including airfare, transport in the UK, lodging, food and culture. I'd say I did pretty well. 

My readers have two questions for me. One asked if I now have a British accent. No, I don't, though I think my "a" sounds a bit softer (it's taken a long time to lose my Midwest twang). A lot of British slang and terminology has crept into my vocabulary over the past decade, however. Several people, when asking where I was from, told me that they couldn't place my accent, so I reckon it's mongrel. 

Another reader asked what surprised me the most. I was certainly pleased that everywhere I went people were friendly to me, once I made an effort to overcome my shyness to ask a question or just chat. Young people and those close to my own age were particularly convivial. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was very comfortable going to events on my own. 

I asked myself what I'd do differently next year. It would be great to be able to take a workshop or course, perhaps at the Bishopsgate Institute or City Lit, if the timing worked out. I'll watch for listings of course offerings as I start my next planning cycle. While I was in London, I really missed my weekly volunteer activities at home, so I'll be on the lookout for volunteer opportunities next autumn and will ask people at the Primrose Hill Community Association if they could use a hand with any of their projects. 

Finally, as promised, here are some photos of the neighbourhood where I stayed.

Belsize Village, with little shops and cafes, on the way to Hampstead:

Eton Avenue, probably the loveliest street in Belsize Park:

Along my favourite route from the flat to Swiss Cottage station:

And so, to sum it all up, it was marvelous and memorable. Thanks so much to my friends, hosts and to the people of London for accepting me as one of their own.

Sixth Weekend and Final Days

It's a wonder my legs still work and that you, my loyal readers, are keeping up with my blog posts. I hope you've been enjoying them and that I've sparked in you an interest in exploring London. Like that bloke who does the adverts for Viking River Cruises says, one of the tenets of life is to be curious. My curiosity about London knows no bounds and London always delivers.

My weekend took me to some far-flung parts of west London, but even before I got on the tube to head westward on Saturday I had another first-for-me experience: The Lord Mayor's Show. For hundreds of years (since the 12th century, I think), there has been some form of processing of the Lord Mayor of the City of London, initially to Westminster to pledge allegiance to the monarch. Now, the parade includes military units, bands (military, youth, community musicians), floats sponsored by various businesses and charitable organizations, and all the livery companies of London (the 110 guilds comprised of professions, trades and crafts). My friends Jane and Jen tipped me off that people they knew from the London Historians group would be lining up on Gresham Street, not part of the actual parade route but rather the pre-parade and every bit as good as the official thing. I had a blast standing there for two hours watching horses, dancing toothbrushes, women on stilts, Chinese dragons and a host of other groups march down the street.

The end of the parade was timed perfectly for me to hop on the tube at Mansion House and make my way to the London Transport Museum Depot in Acton. The depot is an enormous warehouse in which the Transport Museum stores, maintains and restores thousands of things related to public transportation in London. It contains historic buses and train carriages as well as everything you can image related to the operation and promotion of the system. Open Days are an infrequent occasion (generally three weekends per year) and I gather that they can be pretty crowded. Even rarer are their special tours. When I read, way back in April, that there would be a Design Icons tour during my time in London, I pounced on it and booked immediately. I've gotten a bit geeky about London transport over the years from watching Geoff Marshall's YouTube Channel and I have a long-standing interest in design, fabric, fonts, signage, etc., so this tour was right up my alley. There were six of us on the tour (ten had booked, but four were no-shows) and we spent two hours with our volunteer guide Eric. He pulled out numerous drawers containing the iconic 1916 hand-drawn Johnston font design, maps and dozens of swatches of moquette. We saw posters, signage and the original Routemaster buses (RM1 and RM2). It couldn't have been better. 

For the past five weeks, I'd been trying to find a good day (read: no rain, no other plans) to go to Twickenham. Sunday was my final opportunity. I took another trip down memory lane by starting my journey at the Finchley and Frognal overground station. Back in 2004, when Roger was living near South End Green in Hampstead and Molly and I were staying at the now-defunct hotel in Frognal, we used to catch the Silverlink train here as a way of getting to Roger's without having to climb up and over the huge hill. The train went through a tunnel under the hill, emerging again at Hampstead Health Station. There were no Oyster cards back then. Rather, a conductor walked through the carriages while the train was in motion, collecting fares as he worked his way down the train. Because it was only one stop from F&F to HH, we could often make the ride for free without the conductor catching us. The line has since become the Overground and is part of the Transport for London network, so there are now touchpads for Oyster cards. 

I rode the train to the end of the line in Richmond (going through South Acton where I'd been just the day before) and then began a leisurely stroll across the bridge over the Thames to the Twickenham side and down the Thames Path towards Marble Hill House. As I walked along the path, I could hear an Irish band busking on the Richmond side of the river and they weren't half bad. If I had done this walk earlier in my visit, I could have visited Turner's House along the way, but it was closed for the season so I didn't bother going past it. Sadly, Marble Hill House was also closed, but I did walk through the grounds that slope down to the Thames, past a black walnut tree (said to have been planted in 1720) and the grotto, and then the house itself. 

From there I continued away from the river, walking up Orleans Road with its charming cottages, until I reached the Richmond Road and, a few minutes later, the ultimate destination and reason for this whole journey to Twickenham. I'd come to the Eel Pie Island Museum to learn of the history of this epicenter of jazz, blues and rock music in the 1960s and 70s. Eel Pie Island is in the Thames, reachable via a narrow foot bridge. There had been a hotel there since the 1920s, popular with people looking to get out of London. In the 1960s, it became the home of a membership club, extremely popular with young people, where first trad jazz acts played and, a bit later, up-and-coming British pop and r&b acts like the Rolling Stones, Rod Steward, Eric Clapton and more. The museum contains a ton of interesting artifacts and ephemera, and the docent who showed me around was gregarious and informative. Well worth a trip from Massachusetts, I'd say.

Before making my way back towards Richmond, I briefly stopped into the Twickenham Museum (ho-hum) and had a butcher's at the rather over-the-top Italian sculpture and water feature in the York House Gardens. 

I also visited the Orleans House Gallery, with its elegant octagonal room (built 1720, newly restored and Grade I listed). 

The Irish band was still playing as I approached Richmond Bridge, ending their set with an instrumental version of Avicii's Wake Me Up, which wafted across the water:

So wake me up when it's all over

When I'm wiser and I'm older

All this time I was finding myself, and I

Didn't know I was lost

I love the song, but I'm not sure I'll adopt it as the anthem of my trip to Twickenham. It was a great day out though, probably the last warm, sunny day -- certainly of my visit to London if not of November as a whole. It was fun to revisit some streets I'd walked along years ago on the Richmond side of the river and to discover new places on the Twickenham side. 

And now for my final two days. On Monday, I spent the morning doing a Pilates class, publishing my previous blog post and experiencing extreme frustration as I attempted to top-up/add-on more data on my crappy EE mobile. I also worked in a 90 minute walk around bits of St John's Wood, on the other side of Primrose Hill from my gaff. I'd been meaning to do a whole proper walk there (another one of the Stephen Millar Hidden London Walks) but just hadn't gotten to it. The rest of the walk will have to wait until my next trip.

In the mid-afternoon, I headed into town to meet my friend Kathy in the cafe at Foyles Bookstore. She's a very talented artist and photographer, another person who I initially met through Guess Where London on Flickr. Kathy was the one mate I hadn't yet worked into my schedule, so I'm really glad we were able to do this. It was lovely just to sit and chat, catching up on the past three years. 

Knowing that Tuesday (my final day) would be taken up with packing and fretting with pre-travel anxiety, I opted to do only one last exhibition rather than run around trying to fit in as much as possible as I often have in the past. This exhibition -- Making Modernism at the Royal Academy -- had just opened on Saturday. It features the work of four German women who were trailblazers in modernism (post-impressionism, expressionism, etc.) in the early 20th century. 

OK, so I lied. On the way to the RA, I popped into Sotheby's to see Heads by Thierry Noir. 

And afterwards, since the torrential rain of earlier in the day had ceased, I got my last Meal Deal from Tesco -- a roasted veg and chestnut wrap, a bit more expensive than my usual egg mayo or tuna sweet corn, but possibly my best Meal Deal yet -- and sat on a relatively dry bench in St James's Park to eat it. Then I walked over to the National Gallery to look at the two Turner paintings, not seen in Britain for over 100 years, on loan from the Frick Collection in NYC. And then, I took my final ride of this visit on the number 168 bus back to Belsize Park. Since TfL are proposing to merge the 168 route with that of the number 1, sadly this may have been my last ride on the 168 ever.

Now it really and truly has come to an end. Once I get home and sleep for a day or so, I'll post some photos of the area where I stayed and will share some of my reflections on the whole adventure. Please leave any questions or thoughts in the comments section below and I'll try to get to them from the other side of the pond.

As always, I'm so grateful to all my mates in London who helped make this a fabulous visit. And thanks to my lovely AirBnB hosts who allowed me to make their flat my home from home. See you in 2023.

Stats: 

Saturday, Nov 12

£10 Transport Museum Depot tour

55p cookie

58p Lockets (like Hall's cough drops -- it's my allergies, not covid)

15,831 steps

6.77 miles

Sunday, Nov 13

£10 top up Oyster (I've been in Zone 4 twice in two days)

£2.50 rum raisin gelato 

25,937 steps

10.8 miles

Monday, Nov 14

£5 top up EE data (highway robbery!)

£20 top up Oyster card (so I have some left on it for my next visit)

£1.55 Boots

£7.70 tea and flapjack at Foyles

17,371 steps

7.21 miles

Tuesday, Nov 15

£14 Making Modernism ticket (£6 discount with Art Pass)

£2.75 sandwich

18,024 steps

7.58 miles

Weekly Roundup #5

And so I've now completed my fifth full week in London. I'm not counting my first few days, a half week, when I was dazed and confused and ran around doing all sorts of errands. The fifth week was variable, with some full days and others shorter down to weather or exhaustion. 

The wretched weather of the previous weekend -- cold, gray and intermittent downpours -- carried on into the early parts of the week. Monday was the worst of it, so I headed to the City to go to the Museum of London. Although I've been there many times in recent years to see special exhibitions, it was in 1998 when I last did the whole history of London through time. I reckoned it was now or never, as the museum will close at the end of 2022 before reopening in new space in the former Smithfield General Market. The new space is going to be fabulous, without a doubt. Back in 1998, you went to the top of the museum and then followed a circular, downward spiral through the ages, with lots of dioramas showing bronze age, Roman and Medieval times in London. Currently, each age/era has its own gallery, with well-displayed exhibits of objects and artifacts. Other than the Bronze age gallery where there was a hoard of primary school children, the galleries were very quiet. I particularly liked the Roman gallery, where there were examples of Roman houses and shops, with mosaic tile floors and painted walls. I also enjoyed the "street" of Victorian shops, which I think I'd seen before, and the Modern London gallery, which I'd not seen. Here's an elevator car from Selfridges:

Also in the Modern London gallery are objects related to the Windrush generation (1950s), London in the swinging 60s and various manufacturing concerns that shuttered in the 1970s and 80s. 

On my way to and from the Museum of London, I looked at bits of the old London Wall (medieval on top of Roman) and the ruins of some church or another.

Call me crazy, but I thought that, as it was close by, I'd go to the library in the Barbican to see Londoners Underground: Private Worlds in Public Places, a series of small paintings of people on the tube. Many people recoil in horror when you mention the Barbican Estate. I actually like the brutalist architecture of the residential complex, but I get utterly turned around every time I venture in (if I can even find a way in, let alone a way out). They don't call it the Bloody Barbican for nothing. After asking two employees to point me in the right direction, I finally found the library and enjoyed the exhibition. The works are for sale, but alas the ones at my price point had all been sold. In its defense, I must say that the Barbican Centre itself -- where the library, theatres, concert hall, cinema and art gallery are located -- is a splendid facility and has a very nice cafe, where I bought an apple flapjack to eat on my way home. It was dark, windy and rainy by the time I eventually emerged from the Barbican and found my way back to Moorgate station.

Tuesday started with a lot of promise, but it quickly turned pear shaped in mid-afternoon. I began the day by going over to Tufnell Park to have tea with my last AirBnB host. It was so nice to catch up on what we'd been doing for the past three years, when the pandemic shot everything to hell. She's built a cabin in Devon with her own hands; I, on the other hand, have sorted LPs and CDs every week at a charity shop. Seeing Sheila and being back in Celia Road made me so nostalgic for the 16 days I spent there in 2019 -- at that time, my longest and most independent trip to London, in the pre-covid era when life seemed so much simpler and the world less threatening. 

The skies were blue when I left Tufnell Park, so I decided to walk towards Gospel Oak to pick up what I didn't do of the Kentish Town walk that I'd started the previous week. I walked north to Little Green Street, a lovely intact Georgian street that I've visited often in the past, starting when it was under threat of demolition (it has survived and is unchanged, thank goodness).

I then headed southward, mooching around and taking photos.

I got as far as Blustons, the 1930s-era former ladieswear shop in the Kentish Town Road that I wrote about in last week's post. When I'd been there earlier, the charity shop that now occupies the space had been closed. This day it was open and I arrived not a moment too soon as the skies opened and a torrent of rain poured down. While waiting out the downpour, I had a look at the shop interior, displays and fixtures. Some of the original bits remain, including a couple of glass display cases now holding vintage jewelry as well as some clothes racks. The pink and mint green walls give it a distinct vintage vibe. It's small, however, and there's not a whole lot of stock. Also, it's not nearly as well organized as the Cancer Connection Thrift Shop at home where I volunteer. 

The rain let up and I continued onward, buying a cheap sandwich and heading for a park where I could sit on a bench to eat my lunch. I was half way through my sandwich when the rain resumed with a vengeance and so I pushed on, dashing to Camden Town, where I ducked into the new Camden Market Hawley Wharf to find a toilet and dry off a bit. I'm not sure how viable this place is as a shopping destination. The toilets were clean and the food vendors seemed to be doing a decent trade, but I saw next to no one in the shops. The whole thing was so depressing that, once the rain let up a bit, I scarpered to the nearest bus stop and back to my gaff in Belsize Park. That evening I saw a preview performance of Blackout Songs at the Hampstead Theatre (the ticket was only a fiver). 

Wednesday turned out to be a far, far better day in terms of weather, interesting activities and good company in the person of my friend Malcolm, one of my longest-term mates in London. I set out early to catch the number 31 bus from Primrose Hill to Chepstow Crescent, near to where Malcolm lives in Notting Hill. The bus was full of the very old and the very young -- quite a few OAPs, mums and nannys lugging prams and push chairs onboard, and various babies and toddlers. The route took me through the area between Kilburn and Westbourne Park, where Roger used to live and which estate agents call Maida Hill. Essentially, it's Shirland, Chippenham, Elgin Avenue and the Harrow Road. Roger lived just off Fernhead, a wee bit west of the bus route, and I stayed with him there on six or seven visits to London. This patch, which was never upscale to my knowledge, is looking even more down at the heels. Houses and shops seemed shabbier and it felt like the past few years haven't been kind to the area. Malcolm confirmed my sense of things, saying that, for better or worse, the push of gentrification that has swept over much of London seems to have overlooked this corner. 

We took a scenic walk southwards, around Camden Hill (which isn't in Camden), into Holland Park down to the Design Museum where we spent a good chunk of time in the exhibition Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924 - Today. There was so much to see, and interesting wall text to read, that I entirely forgot to take photos to show you, but for one of a glass-topped table with bicycle wheels instead of legs.

The weather was warm, the sun was shining, and our lunch from Waitrose that we ate while sat on a bench in Holland Park was the perfect fortification after our time at the museum. We next walked along Kensington High Street to the Japan House, a centre that showcases Japanese design and culture through exhibits, events, etc. The current exhibition is The Carpenters' Line, highlighting the incredible woodcarving that for centuries has come from the Hida region. We looked at various hand carving tools and marveled at the intricate and beautiful wooden products made by these highly skilled craftspeople. 

A ramble northward through St Mary Abbot's churchyard (the church, designed by George Gilbert Scott, has the highest spire in London) and up Kensington Church Street brought us to The Churchill Arms. I'd seen this Victorian boozer, with its exterior festooned with flowers, many times from the window of a bus, but had never been inside. As you can imagine, the interior is filled with images and memorabilia associated with Winston Churchill, with bunting crisscrossing from wall to wall. It was so lovely to sit in comfy chairs in the wood-paneled pub, chatting away with a good mate. 

There was a tube strike all across London on Thursday, so I knew it would be a day of walking, but I wasn't fully prepared for what would transpire. Although the day started out just fine, it ended with what was without a doubt the biggest misadventure of my entire trip. Read on.

In the morning, I joined the Primrose Hill Community Association walking group for their weekly Thursday ramble, this time a social walk down to Regent's Park, across the top of the lakes and back up the Broad Walk. I've thoroughly enjoyed doing these walks and have found the other walkers to be great company, all with lots of things to talk about, recommendations to give me, and interesting things about their lives to share. They've been warm and welcoming, which I've much appreciated.

After lunch back at my gaff, I got the 168 bus down to the Euston Road as I was booked for a 2:30 pm guided walk about the Hidden River Fleet, the meeting point for which was King's Cross Station. Despite the tube strike, the bus wasn't crowded, I easily got a seat and we made good time. I was early enough to go into the station to use the loo and buy batteries at Boots. All good so far.

The walk itself took us into Islington, Clerkenwell, Hatton Garden and down Farringdon Road, ultimately reaching the outflow of the Fleet River (which has been contained in a pipe underground for over 100 years) at Blackfriars. 

It was 4:30 when the walk ended and I thought that I'd have plenty of time to catch a bus up to Marylebone to see the lighting of the Christmas lights in Marylebone Village at 6 pm. I had no idea how difficult this would be. I walked over to Somerset House where I waited, and waited, and waited for a number 139 bus. This is a busy bus stop and many buses arrived, took on passengers and headed onwards. Some of them looked really crowded, but others didn't. It took over a half hour for a 139 to arrive, but when it did, it just kept going past the stop. As did the next one. It got to the point when I thought I'd get whichever came first -- a 139 or 168. Finally it was a 139, rammed with people but I did manage a seat for most of the journey. Sadly though, by the time I reached Marylebone High Street, it was 6:30 and I'd missed seeing Jo Good throw the switch to light the lights. The street (pedestrianised for this event) looked festive and lovely, so I enjoyed walking past the various booths, shops, fairground rides, etc.

Tiring of it pretty quickly, however, I made my way back to a bus stop on Baker Street to catch a 13 or 113 to Swiss Cottage. It was 7 at this point, well past the time when commuters should have been leaving work and heading home, but every bus that went by was absolutely stuffed with people. Again, several of the 13 and 113 buses whizzed through the stop without letting people off or on. It was dark and cold and I was miserable. When a bus finally did stop and opened the side doors, people started pushing inside and I did, too. I was the last person on board, with the doors up against my back, and rode standing up all the way to Swiss Cottage. At least my place on the bus made getting off easy. By the time I opened the door to the flat it was 8:30 and I was so tired I ate out of the fridge and collapsed into bed. Next time I'm here during a tube strike, I'm going to stay within a one mile radius and not think about going anywhere involving public transport.

All week, I'd been asking various people for suggestions for a final day trip out of London. St Albans, which had been on my list of possibilities, kept coming up in their recommendations as a place that would be (1) easy to get to, (2) full of Roman and medieval history, and (3) an enjoyable place to walk around. So that became my destination for Friday. 

It is indeed easy to reach St Albans. I walked to the West Hampstead Thameslink station and bought a return ticket. Twenty-five minutes later, I was getting off the train and making the short walk into St Albans center, where they have an impressive clock tower and charming shops. The town is full of stores selling sporting apparel and outdoor gear. And pubs. I've never seen a place with so many pubs. 

I went to the St Albans Museum and Gallery, where I learned a bit about the history of the town. The museum is housed in what was the town hall, containing municipal offices, an assembly room and a court room. There are cells in the basement where prisoners would be held on the day of trial, being brought up a narrow staircase directly into the dock. You can go into the basement, see the cells (several are now the toilets) and climb the stairs to the dock yourself. When you do, you emerge into what is now the cafe, probably the most unusual eating place I've ever seen. 

I mooched around town for a while, stopping for lunch and taking a lot of photos. Next up was a look at the Cathedral, which has the longest nave in the UK (or is it in Europe?). The structure, with some bits going back to Norman times, is massive. It looks like a brick ocean liner on a hill. The inside is one of the best church interiors I've seen, with medieval wall paintings and a stunning tower ceiling. 

From there, I pushed on to the Verulamium Museum of Roman history and everyday life. The warm, sunny day made the long-ish walk a pleasure and it took me down streets full of quaint and cosy cottages. 

When I reached the museum, I bought a combined ticket for it and the Roman theatre nearby. Given the shortness of the days now, and that the theatre closes before the museum, the staff suggested I walk to the theatre first, then come back to see the museum itself. And so I did. 

The Roman theatre:

Two of the amazing Roman mosaic floors in the museum:

The train back to West Hampstead was nearly empty.

See what I said? This was indeed a variable week -- weather alternating between crap and beautiful, full of adventure and misadventure -- punctuated with time spent with friends. 

Stats: 

Monday, Nov 7

£13 top up EE phone

£20 top up Oyster card

£2.95 cake

£1.95 groceries

14,673 steps

6.02 miles

Tuesday, Nov 8

£2.65 sandwich

£1.45 ginger nuts

£3.35 Too Good to Go order from local caff

£5 Hampstead Theatre ticket

18,771 steps

7.93 miles

Wednesday, Nov 9

£8.25 Design Museum (half price with Art Pass)

£4.55 lunch

15,726 steps

6.44 miles

Thursday, Nov 10

£9 Fleet River walking tour

£2.50 batteries

£6 falaffel box 

£10 groceries

31,502 steps (yes, that's correct)

13.28 miles

Friday, Nov 11

£12.80 train ticket to St Albans

£2 apple streudle

£5.50 Roman museum and theatre

£10.13 groceries

23,499 steps

9.66 miles