Hampstead Heath

Whenever we get even a hint of a nice day, we go out exploring.  You can't wait for perfect blue skies around these parts!  On Saturday, though, we had absolutely beautiful blue skies and 18°C temps (~65°F) -- perfect exploring weather!

Sometimes we go into the city, and sometimes we wander out into the surrounding English countryside or small towns and villages.

This weekend, we went north to Hampstead Heath.  A quick jaunt on the Jubilee Line to catch the London Overground got us about four miles north of the city.  And all for just a quid fifty with no parking or traffic headaches!  Have we ever mentioned how much we LOVE mass-transit!

In the Hampstead Heath area, there's an enormous park with tall grasses and picnic-ready lawns, woods and running trails, ponds for swimming and swan-watching, and (of course) an estate house Kenwood -- to remind you that you are in the country of aristocracy...

There's also a great high elevation (a whoopin' 322 ft!) at Parliament Hill, so you get an excellent view of the London skyline.

These pictures below show some of the woods and the estate grounds around Kenwood Estate.  Though the 'big house' was under renovation, its tiny garden shop and restaurant, kitchen gardens, and ponds and bridges were magnificent on their own!