Monday, April 6/2009

A lovely day and rain predicted for the rest of the week so we set off for outdoor explorations. First down to holborn Viaduct to look at the oldest publid drinking supply in London, in a wall by St. Sepulcher's. Tiny, and the hose doesn't work, but the original cups are still chained there.

We're near the Old Bailey and walk past but the pub we one ate at is gone - or at least upgraded into less interesting etablishments. North of St. Paul's we come to the tiny Postman's Park. It's by a Methodist Church with tributes to John and Charles Wesley. the sight we've come for is a wll with ceramic plaques commemorating the sacrifices of various people, some of them children, who gave their lives in attempts to save others from fates as diverse as drowning, death in housefires or runaway horses. It's simple and very moving. By now we're up against the original city wall and we resolve some day to follow its path - but not today.

In the afternoon it's still warm and sunny so we walk up to Hampstead Heath. Past the Magdala pub, where Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, shot her unfaithful lover. Bullet holes still visible. On Parliament Hill children are flying kites with considerable success - one boy barely remains on the ground as his kite catches the wind. We wander past the ponds where the coots are nesting and a duck demurely allows herself to be courted by to drakes and exit on the Highgate side. Bus back to Finchley Road.