Herne Hill with Becky - Wimbledon, All Saints Stile Antico concert, Warhorse and Kew Gardens
Well, what a wonderful, varied and relatively relaxed time I have had in the South, staying with Becky, another niece, with occasional sightings of her children Eleanor and William who are back from uni.
MWhat a massive first day Becky and I had in the Queue at Wimbledon, oh so different from decades ago when only a few hundred turned up early! Now they arrive two days before and camp
To ensure getting tickets to centre or court 1. We only wanted outside court access, but even arriving at 6, having taken a taxi to ensure no holdups, we were already 6997 and 8 in the queue!
Whilst Becky read the rules of queuing, very funny at times, I went for a wander, and stupidly dropped my precious queue card somewhere. By the time I realised, only about ten minutes later, I was already no. 7647 in the queue! I was so distraught.
As we were moved to a new spot, I did my best to hide the number at checkpoints. Very stressful. My stupidity!
Luckily, Becky was well prepared with bubbles and strawberries, so we were soon more relaxed! The group behind us was celebrating a birthday, so Becky started to sing Happy Birthday and was soon accompanied by several hundred. It was great.
At this stage it was still lots of fun and we got chatting to some Bosnians, Italians, a Russian lady and others. The queue must have had the most extraordinary number of nationalities. There were certainly a lot of Italians.
The last hour was horrible, as we trudged slowly alongside the golf course, through checkpoints, all worrying for me, and then to a very poorly organised ticket purchasing area. It took ages and we finally got in at 1.30 p.m., 7.5 hours after our arrival! What an experience. I am so pleased to have done it, but I probably wouldn’t do it again!
It was very hot, fortunately less so than the week before, but with so many further queues to get into courts, we opted for the first one with seats in the shade, where we were treated to an excellent women’s game followed by a brilliant men’s match. The difference in speed is unbelievable and the intensity much greater.
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| We finished with a delicious, thirst-quenching glass of Pimms on Henman Hill, enjoying the evening breeze, the views over London and a good first round match with Djokovic against a young, very good Chinese player. It was a perfect end to a long, but super enjoyable day. |
The next day was a very relaxed start, with a very late wake up after our somewhat excruciating 4,30 start the previous day.
Becky’s concert was near Oxford Circus, a place I haven’t been to for decades! Wow, it’s changed from a very upmarket street with elite stores, to a very ordinary street with typical stores found anywhere, apart from Selfridges, etc.
The twelve singers in Stile Antico were phenomenal and much appreciated by a very knowledgeable audience, many of whom had travelled from abroad to listen.
Becky must have been exhausted, as she sang in every piece. I felt very proud, and super happy to have at last attended one of her concerts.
With Becky now heading to Granada for her next concert, I had a leisurely start to the day, taking in the magnificent sights of South Bank.Outside the Royal Festival Hall kids were cooling off in the fountain.
I haven’t ever had such a close look at The London Eye, and it was really impressive. I still have no desire to be stuck in a greenhouse-like cabin, suspended high above the Thames for nearly an hour.
The COVID Wall in memory of the tens of thousands who died was a very poignant reminder.
The timing was great to experience midday overlooking Big Ben, as it boomed out twelve times.
I was so pleased Becky had warned me against doing too much - I had planned to visit Camden Market before the theatre. Instead, I so enjoyed my lovely casual stroll along South Bank, stopping to listen to some excellent musicians on the way. Time - such a precious commodity.
How exciting to actually attend a performance at the National Theatre. I’ve watched severals brilliant performances of plays converted to films. Here I was in the back seat of the Olivier Theatre, a 1000 seat auditorium, where all seats have perfect views of the entire stage. It was wonderful! Warhorse, the play, was superbly brought to the stage. It can’t have been easy adapting the film to stage. The props, costumes, horses were incredible.
After the show, I went to the back of the theatre complex where there was a walkway for patrons to view the various storage rooms, set making, costume design, etc. What a massive area they have compared to ours at the Court.
A perfect end to a wonderful day was by the Thames with a glass of cider, watching Wimbledon on a big screen.
Becky was still away, so I decided to spend the day at Kew Gardens. Can’t remember ever having been there before, but I am sure I must have gone as a child.
What a beautiful place it is, with so much to see. I spent the entire day there, in and out of the magnificent glasshouses, amongst the biggest in the world. The temperate House was fantastic, with an area which made me a little homesick for the West Coast of NZ.
Some of the gorgeous flowers were so intricate, with intense odours, made even more stunning as the sun shone through the delicate petals.
The Temperate House was the largest of all, an incredible building over 130 years old.
I sadly could not see the name of this extraordinary plant.
There were hoards of schoolchildren, ranging from nursery school to secondary school. I decided to forego the treetop walk as there was no lift and multitudes of kids! Instead I headed to the peaceful shores of the lakes, where I was more or less alone.
What a lovely, restful place to eat my small lunch - yum, a pork pie! My favourite snack when I am in England.
I was lucky enough to be at Kew while they had a Henry Moore exhibition. I had seen all the pieces when I visited his exhibition with my sister Lyn, but it’s interesting how different these brilliant masterpieces look with the backdrop of woods, lakes and gardens.
A real highlight for me and for many other visitors was to see three very cute and brazen fox cubs at extremely close quarters! I had seen one earlier following a lady through the forest, but I thought it was a dog.
They hung around for ages, finally begging by a group of picknickers! I am not sure if I would have felt comfortable if I had been eating a piece of meat!
My favourite seat!
The Palm House, another giant greenhouse from the end of the nineteenth century.
One of the most fascinating and most energy sapping greenhouses was the Princess of Wales Conservatory. It is a masterpiece of modern design, featuring 12 different zones with different climatic conditions. It reminded me a lot of the Eden Project in Devon. As you move from zone to zone, the temperatures and humidity change, sometimes quite dramatically. Above was a beautiful pool with the world’s smaller water lily plant.
And then, some of the largest. What incredible leaves!
I loved the cactus garden too. They were huge, and so impressive.
Such graceful and unique plants, of all shapes and sizes, and colours.
I finally exited this marvellous place, sweating profusely and desperate for shade, breeze and cool air.
Just before leaving I went into The Hive, which produces different levels of the vibrations of bees in a real hive at Kew, allowing us to hear the humming of the bees - apparently in the key of C! It is absolutely mesmerising.
What a brilliant stay I have had with Becky in London. I had never really felt I was a big fan of the city, but this trip has made me view it very differently, realising how fantastic it is, as long as you don’t try to .do too much!
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