Hello! Been away, haven’t seen you in a while, how’ve you been? The African adventure was pretty cool. Amazing actually! I’m in the process of going through 30+ pages of notes and over 1,000 photos. Uff da! This is a trip that I need to document properly, so no rushing. As such, the Journal Entries for the trip won’t be posted until after I’m back in Madison (return April 24th). Sorry about that, but hopefully it will be worth the wait! In the meantime, I’ll be uploading the final London Entries as my time here sadly comes to an end.

Thursday, April 17 – Harrow on the Hill

It’s a lovely spring day, so I’m heading to north London to check out The Parkland Walk. The walk is a 4.5 mile pedestrian and cycle route which follows the course of the railway line that used to run between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace. The Parkland Walk opened in 1984, and was declared a local nature reserve in 1990.

Highgate Wood is a 70 acre area of ancient woodland. It was originally part of the Forest of Middlesex which covered much of London, Hertfordshire and Essex and was mentioned in the Domesday Book.

There used to be a railway station at Cranley Gardens; however, it was closed for passengers in 1954 and for freight in 1957. Nothing remains of the station today, and its site is now occupied by housing and a school.

Alexandra Park covers 200 acres and is located on the site of Tottenham Wood and the later Tottenham Wood Farm. The park and palace were named in 1863, the year of the marriage of Alexandra of Denmark to the Prince of Wales, who became King Edward VII.

Queen’s Wood covers 52 acres, and like Highgate Wood, it was originally part of the ancient Forest of Middlesex, and was mentioned in the Domesday Book.

This memory tree located along the Parkland Walk is called the “Baby Loss Tree”…

…it is dedicated to babies lost during, or shortly after pregnancy.

That was fun!

The walk ended in Finsbury Park, which happens to be close to the Banksy mural that was revealed last March when I was in London. I decided to take the opportunity to revisit the site and see what has changed in the past year…

And today. The blooming of the tree definitely takes away from the impact of the mural. Not that that’s a bad thing!

This was an enjoyable day of walking – 29k steps!

Sidenote:

I’ve worn out my shoe!! I guess it’s kind of comical, but in reality I’m annoyed! This is supposed to be a quality product. In any event…

Footnote: There’s been a little drama involving The Who following their recent two-night gig at The Royal Albert Hall. It was announced yesterday that their longtime drummer, Zak Starkey, has been fired! I attended the first show at the Hall last month. Apparently at the second performance, Roger Daltrey became annoyed with the drum playing, and stopped singing mid-song. Whoa! And this sacking was the result.

I went into the (very) interesting Zak Starkey backstory in my journal entry following last year’s The Who concert. A quick recap: Zak is the son of Ringo Starr. He is the godson of The Who’s original drummer, the late Keith Moon, who gave Zak his first drum kit. So how fitting is it that he has been The Who’s drummer for the last 29 years?!? And so sad that it had to end this way…

Good Friday, April 18 – Harrow on the Hill

I’m in the mood for more outdoor activities. Today’s mission is a walking tour around Kew Gardens. Directions will be courtesy of the 50 Walks in London book on loan to me from Tony.

Oh Oh! The path has been washed out! So much for this walking tour. I guess I’ll have to revert to Plan B, which I have yet to figure out!

Kew Gardens is located along the Thames, to the west of Central London. I’ve walked this route along the river a few times in the past (including earlier this year), but always along the north bank. Today, I’ll stay on the south bank and make my way downstream towards the city. Let’s check out the views…

The day didn’t go as planned, but it turned into a relaxing walk along the Thames. I enjoyed the views from the opposite bank! And there were no crowds at all. Perfect.

Today’s step count: 27k.

Sidenote: I’m alone in the house at the moment, as Mary and Tony are at their place up north for a few days. Well, I was awakened around 2:30 this morning by some noise outside. And it continued, so I decided to head downstairs and take a look out my living room window.

What I witnessed was a fox in the courtyard, attempting to jump on to the top of the trash bins shown in the picture above. It’s mission was to access the smaller black compost bins, purposely placed on top of the other bins so as to be out of a fox’s reach! The fox eventually made the jump, opened the compost bin (overriding the large stone placed on its cover), and made off with the bag of food scraps that was inside. Crazy!

Saturday, April 19 – Harrow on the Hill

I had grand ideas for today, as my time in London comes to an end.

I was going to start in Regent’s Park, make my way to Covent Garden, then over to Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens, and finish up at Holland Park. And I did all of that. But man, choosing this holiday weekend to do it was a mistake, as the Capital was packed with people. Maybe that’s a sign that the timing is right for me to head back to Madison!

Regent’s Park was not very crowded, but once I hit Covent Garden, the masses were in place. So below are just a few pictures from my day – all around Regent’s Park. Enjoy!

Besides Regent’s Park, there were a couple highlights from the day:

• Two more “Go Badgers / On Wisconsin” shout outs as I wore my UW baseball cap around Central London. Always appreciated! (I need to go back and count how many times this has happened thoroughout my travels in Europe and Africa this winter)
• I logged 31k steps today! (And that’s saying something, considering the swarms of people I had to navigate through along the way!)

Sidenote: You may have noticed that I’ve put in a LOT of steps over the last three days. Of course, I like the walking, but there’s also a little method to my madness. I’ll reveal that at a later date (you can probably figure it out). And it turns out that the reason is probably rather stupid; but then, stupidity is kind of my M.O.!

Footnote: Zak Starkey has been reinstated by The Who! Sanity prevails! You can read all about it here.

Easter Sunday, April 20 – Harrow on the Hill

A little more walking is planned for this morning. But I’m avoiding the holiday chaos of the city and staying close to home. I’ll be roaming the Harrow School grounds and areas further west around Northwick Park.

The spires of the Harrow School Chapel and St. Mary’s Church on view from the Harrow School Rugby Pitch. The HS Tennis Courts are in the lower section of the photo.

I’m very excited to be heading into the Capital this evening to share an Easter dinner with Kathy & Ray! They are just finishing up a one month tour of Iceland and the British Isles, concluding in London. Perfect! Can’t wait to hear all about it.

Dinner was at The Blue Boar Pub, in the Conrad London St. James Hotel, where Kathy & Ray are staying.

What a wonderful evening. Thank you Kathy & Ray for making this a memorable Easter!