The Accidental Tourists

Today we spent a day being tourists in our own city. Mostly if the weather is good we head out of town to get some fresh air and exercise but today we were feeling a bit lazy and decided to stay in London.

First we went to Covent Garden and after meandering around the shops, we had a coffee at The Crusting Pipe pub. They have a pleasant outside area in the main market. I was actually quite surprised how reasonable the prices were. It was certainly a lot cheaper than doing the same kind of thing in Paris.

Then we walked over to St. James Park, picked up some sandwiches from the park cafe and ate them sitting on a sunny bench by the pond. I have still not found a city that has parks as good as London’s.

From there, we walked over to Horse Guards where by chance the hourly changing of the sentries was just starting and we ended up at the front of the small crowd that had gathered. It was quite exciting with all the shouting and sword presenting going on. In all the years I’ve lived in London I’ve never seen that before!

After that we went to Charing Cross station and got a train home. I spent the journey thinking that most of the time living in London it’s all so familiar, and often you are in a hurry going somewhere or other that you stop noticing things around you. But today I was reminded what a colourful, exciting city it is, and how enjoyable it must be to visit as a tourist and experience everything for the first time.

Nymans

Nymans Garden

Today we went to Nymans in West Sussex. This is an outstanding National Trust property which is well worth the effort to visit. There are lots of varied things to see including picturesque gardens, woodland, a Victorian mock-medieval manor, and of course the obligatory tea shop.It was a pleasantly warm day and the spring flowers were showing off their best colours along with some spectacular azaleas and rhododendrons. We had some lunch in the cafe, and also some tea and cake later on which is pretty much compulsory when having a day out somewhere like this.

We didn’t bother looking in the house, as the weather was so nice we just wandered around the gardens and woodlands, making use of benches whenever they presented themselves, and enjoying the sunshine.

Annoyingly I had forgotten my camera, so I had to resort to the camera on my phone which didn’t really do justice to the surroundings.

Practicalities: Nymans isn’t the easiest place to get to without a car. We got a train to Crawley, from where you can get buses to the property. However the buses are not very frequent so you can end up with a long wait. On the way there we didn’t want to waste any time so we got a taxi from Crawley which cost £10. On the way back we timed our departure to coincide with a bus back to Crawley which was a more reasonable £2.50 each. Although the bus is sporadic, it does seem to be reliable and runs to the published times. There’s a bus stop right outside the property.

Richard Alston Dance Company

Richard Alston Dance Company

Tonight we went to a contemporary dance performance at Wimbledon Theatre. Despite the theatre being very close to our home, we hardly ever go there. Partly it’s because the shows don’t often interest us, but also it’s just sometimes too easy to overlook what’s on your doorstep. I have only been there twice before, once to see a Doctor Who play starring Jon Pertwee, and another time to see the Rocky Horror Show.

I found out about the show from my friend Penny, who had seen the same tour in Poole. The Richard Alston Dance Company have a repertoire of pieces set to classical and contemporary music, by composers such as Prokofiev, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. I always thoroughly enjoy contemporary dance shows and hopefully I will be going to more than usual this year, having bought a membership for Sadlers Wells. The tour (which is going on until June) features different pieces on different nights. On our night we were lucky enough to see “Roughcut”, which is performed to Steve Reich’s “Electric Counterpoint”, my favourite composition of his. This was the highlight of the show, with the dance beautifully responding to the unfolding layers of the music, with changes in key and phase following alterations in dance pace and movement style.

It was really good to go and see something locally, and as it was a Friday, both of us having an early finish from work, we had time for food beforehand at our new favourite local restaurant Casa Nostra.

I will definitely be keeping a closer eye on what is coming up at Wimbledon Theatre, if nothing else the ticket prices are certainly more attractive than the West End.