The Seven Sisters a highlight of our Brighton excursion
We’ve had a hectic couple of days- testing out my foot well and truly. I do look a little ‘lame’ by the end of each day but the pain is forgotten as the Spritzer kicks in.
Bob:Upper photo Circa 1976 & lower photo 2017
Yesterday we ventured back in time to visit the iconic Sutherland Ave- we replicated the photo Bob took 41 yrs ago and then moved onto his old stamping ground The Warrington. It is a very nice, typical English pub and you couldn’t wipe the smile off Bob’s face, especially as he downed his warm bitters, bangers and mash and the Scotch egg that completed the trip down memory lane.
The Warrington
We then moved onto Abbey Road- dicing with death to reproduce the Beatles walk across the zebra crossing. It must be very amusing (or quite annoying) for the residents watching the parade of tourists every day.
The iconic Abbey Road crossing
We didn’t really research the photo before
Up to Little Venice and then to Hyde Park where they were in full throttle at Speakers Corner. I did ponder grabbing a low ladder and sprouting on about the virtues of pelvic floor exercises and the value of using the correct defaecation dynamics. All the speakers were very intense and looked a little fanatical – mostly in the name of their favoured religion, but it made for interesting theatre.
It was a glorious day for Hyde Park- if not a little hot – but the temperature allowed for an ice-cream to be consumed, so we sat on the grass and watched the passing boats on The Serpentine (the large lake in the middle of Hyde Park). We then walked a short distance to Knightsbridge and the iconic Harrods. There must be an invisible vapour that is pumped across the doorstep of Harrods that entices you to go mad with purchases. I went to Harrods back in 1984 and swore I would never go again – and I never did use the special hair rollers (?!?!) that I purchased there 33 years ago. But as I said, you get in there and say “What the hell let’s buy some mementos of our visit here for presents back home”.
Harrods -it is a truly spectacular building
Lorenzo Quinn collection at Harrods
We are especially going to Venice to see Lorenzo Quinn’s sculpture depicting global warming so it was a lovely surprise to see this showing of his sculptures at Harrods.
The weather was a full page 3 spread
The next day we ventured south on the train (on the hottest Bank holiday London has seen) to check out Brighton…..with a couple of million others. (I will be writing a separate blog on the toilets in England. I will be writing to the Director General of British Rail in fact, but I will keep this a positive travel log of the last few days of London, rather than taking you through the highs and lows of my train trip to Brighton). It was hot, the beach is very pebbly and it was very choked with people, so we made a quick decision to catch the bus on to find The Seven Sisters. I can thoroughly recommend this trip. If you want to do this, catch the 13X bus from Brighton and get off at Seaford and find the start of the walk to the Seven Sisters. If you do it this way, when you get to the top of the hill, you will walk towards the Seven Sisters facing a most glorious view. It’s a lovely grassy walk, quite a lot of it next to a golf course. Take a picnic lunch and sit up on the cliff facing the Seven Sisters and just soak up the panorama.
Then once you reach the Seven Sisters Tourist Office you can catch the bus back to Seaford and pick up the train to Brighton, or alternatively, get off the train at Lewes and change to a London train that takes you to Victoria Station. I have certainly found the transport system here fantastic. As I said previously, get your Oyster card (and keep it topped up), download City Mapper London onto your smart phone and it’s so easy. You really can’t have a car in London and why would you when the trains, tube and double-decker buses are so good.
The 29th August dawned another brilliant day – some food shopping happened to get ready to throw a surprise birthday dinner for Soph – the surprise was well and truly a surprise and it was so nice to meet some of Sophie and Jimmy’s friends. Mothers need to visualise where kids are living, who is who and what they do when living thousands of miles away- and meeting their friends has been very nice. Living in London and walking the streets and using the tube has been good too- it makes it appear less scary when you see it in action.
Today I got punished for complaining about the hot weather – just like that, it dropped from 29C, sunny and muggy to 14C cold and wet. But it didn’t really matter as we had planned some birthday festivities for Soph’s 29th birthday. We headed to a beautiful restaurant, The Duck and Waffle, up the top of the Heron Building (110 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AY) for lunch. You are zipped up to the 40th floor in a glass lift and the view is truly spectacular. Their signature dish is obviously the duck and waffle with mustard maple syrup, but we had quite a few tasting plates which were very different and delicious.We then headed off to see The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre in 21 Wellington Street
London WC2E 7RQ. It was a magnificent production and the hundreds of kids that were there were so well-behaved and thoroughly enjoyed the show. A delightful show for the kids when they’re a bit older.
As Jimmy would say ‘A sneaky chocolate fondant to finish at the Duck and Waffle
Tomorrow is a networking day with one of my Women’s Health colleagues from Edinburgh, Elaine Miller. We are meeting in York and will be talking up a storm about continence promotion and I look forward to our collaboration and exchange of ideas.
Until next time.
The Seven Sisters #alert #thisisatravelblog #formymemory
