London was just as cool as Banchory when we were there on Thursday/Friday, but we still had a nice time - it was pretty sunny and mostly dry. We caught the 7:25 am flight to Heathrow so we were in London fairly early in the morning. Tube to Earls Court then change to get tube down to Wimbledon - Jo's choice of destination. We walked up the hill to Wimbledon Village and then took a stroll over the vast area of greenery that is Wimbledon Common, which is linked to Putney Common and Richmond Park. Jo spotted the war memorial at the start:
Further on, we came across the Windmill Museum and adjacent cafe:
Putney Village is a very upmarket area and we stumbled upon a lovely "country pub in the heart of the city" - Telegraph Road. Too nice not to stop and have a beer in the garden.
Continuing our ramble we made it to Putney proper where Jo was charmed by a magnolia tree in bloom:
Tube again - Putney to Embankment - then a short stroll across the "new" footbridge (opened 2004) next to Westminster Bridge and Waterloo:
Our hotel was just a couple of hundred yards from the London Eye and the venue for the evening gig was just round the corner so we didn't have to worry too much about timing. In fact, we had time to check in and have a quick kip before heading out to grab something to eat before the show. The curiously named Camel and Artichoke served our needs and after our meal there, we tried another strangely named pub - the Crown and Cushion. It is an old London pub, which is now an Irish bar. The table we sat at had a hole in the floorboard and we could see right down to the cellar:
The venue for the All or Nothing musical was The Vaults - one of the arches under Waterloo station converted to a theatre. At quiet moments in the show we could hear the trains rumbling overhead. There were several rooms we had to wander to to get to our seats. It felt a bit like going to one of the Edinburgh Fringe shows, but the show was at least as good as the Kinks' Sunny Afternoon show we saw last year. Here's a typical stage scene of the band playing one of the Small Faces' hits:
On Friday morning, after breakfast at our hotel, we walked back across the Thames to catch the Tube again, but stopped first to take this photo of Jo at the Eye:
Jo then took this unfortunately poorly contrasted photo of me with the Houses of Parliament in the background:
We got off the Tube at Sloane Square and walked round to the Saatchi Gallery where we'd bought tickets to view the Rolling Stones' http://www.stonesexhibitionism.com/ - a really well done show with lots of differently themed rooms, a number of which were interactive.
After an hour and a half there we walked along the Kings' Road for a bit until we found a suitable coffee shop. We had to get to the Piccadilly line to get a Tube back to Heathrow so we strolled up to South Kensington. We still had some spare time so managed a couple of beers at the Admiral Codrington. At Heathrow, we met up with Dave and Jayne Williamson, who signed us in to the exceptionally busy Executive Lounge. We were back in Arbor Court well before 8 pm.
On Saturday, Jo was working at the Seniors' lunch at her church, so I decided to jump on my bike and head out to Feughside to deliver some CAMRA newsletters - and grab some lunch. It was a beautiful day - and so peaceful:
This morning (Sunday) I decided to forsake golf and go for a hill-walk up Kerloch. The low cloud made visibility poor at the top. Here we are back at the car park after our 3 hour walk:
So, Luca is with us tonight as it's the May Day holiday tomorrow. We've just had a take-away curry for tea and Luca is now heading to bed.
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