By the numbers
2 cemeteries
24,408 steps
18.53 kms
I was really tired the night before and that
was due to the early start, but woke really fresh even though I am counting
down the days. I was woken up around midnight by new roomies being given a tour
of the room by down stairs as that’s what they do when they assign you a bed.
It was hilarious when one of the girls said it was her birthday hoping for
something free and the receptionist said that their delivery had not come on
the Saturday and they were out of a few alcoholic drinks. Also I couldn’t post
anything on my computer as the internet was down, but working on my phone. I
even installed a new memory card that I had bought the day before as I had
mostly filled the one up and had been deleting pics I had transferred over to
my external drive. The morning looked like it was going to be a wet day and I
was hoping to get a cemetery tour done. I also had to wait until 8am for
breakfast as some reason it had been moved from 730am to 8am.
Once I had my coffee and some food, I left
for the trip to Highgate Cemetery. You had to make a booking in person and I
thought it was 10am that you could start the tour and I felt I was running out
ofg time when I left not long before 9 am. I was walking as it was around 40
mins there and a nice walk it was. It had stopped raining before I left and I
even walked through the local big park called Hampstead Heath that is used for
just about anything and everything. I did love the open air urinals even though
the shitter was covered. I have no idea why that is so. I did walk to the
cemetery and gotr there early, although the tours did not start until 1030, but
the East cemetery opened at 10am. I did wait around and got my ticket. The tour
itself was really good and found there were areas where you couldn’t walk
as it was just dangerous as you could
fall into graves or even things might fall on you. Visitors and family members
had to sign in and out. During the Victorian times the cemetery was busy as
people visited their loved ones for hours on end talking to them. Some of the
prominent graves or even crypts had their address just to show how important
they were. During the 1960s the cemetery was that run down and overgrown there
were people vandalising the cemetery and doing who know what and one of the crypts
had a person known as the Highgate vampire and no one could find them when the
person was hunted down. There is someone who leaves flowers outside of the
crypt as people think the person is seeking forgivness for their past actions.
There were prominent people in the cemetery like Micheal Faraday, a scientist
and several others including Thomas Sayers a boxer and George Wombwell a
Menagerist. We did visit a catacomb, but it wasn’t like the Paris ones as the
bodies were still in coffins.
Once that tour was over, I was able to take a
wander in the other cemetery, the East Side as it was all built into the cost
of the ticket and besides they had a loo. Last time I had been to the cemetery,
it was overgrown and you couldn’t walk very far at all. This time they had
cleared nearly all the undergrowth and you were able to freely walk anywhere
you liked. I was impressed by the work they had done and I was able to see what
I was looking for. I did see Karl Marx and even Sydney Nolan who was an
Australian. I actually found several Australians in the cemetery. I was
wandering through one of the magnificent 7 cemeteries in London and I was
wanting to have a look at another one of the cemeteries on the list and that
was Kensal Green. That was nearly an hour away and I was happy to get a train,
well the tube then the overground, which was a fair hike. I did end up with
three books on cemeteries in the city. I
had to change at Euston station and something was happening as there was a huge
crowd of people wanting to get through the gates to the tube station. I do
wonder if they were heading to the airport, not that I was worried as I was
heading for the overground. Once I got to Kensal Green, I wanted to find
several people I knew to be there and soon realised I had no real guide that
told me where Islamabad Kingdom Brunel was or even anyone else. I thought I had
a reference, but the map reference sent me to the entrance. It was vastly
different from Highgate, but it did have its charm though even when I was
annoyed that I couldn’t find anyone. I just shrugged and went looking at the
headstones that caught my attention. The gates closed around 430pm and I was on
my way back to the city well before then. I couldn’t work out if I wanted to
check another cemetery or a church.
I decided that I could visit the Crossbones
cemetery after trying to remember the name even though I had a list of London
sites in my locker. The Crossbones cemetery is an old medieval burial ground
where bodies were found several years ago. People leave mementoes on a wall to
the cemetery as reminders for paupers and prostitutes, although I have no idea
when that started. Before I ended up there I got stuck with a guy from the
London Dungeon, who wrote me up a ticket that got me in cheaper than the London
Pass. I said I would go the next day and started walking away until I realised,
who not go and have a look. The same guy took me across the road and I got my
ticket for the cheaper price. I went around the back looking for the London
bridge experience and had to wait for 10 mins while they were sorting out the
last lot of customers. We went thorough and while there was a little bit of
history it was like the show Horrible Histories as they went through the
details of the history of London Bridge. There were several bridges and there
were fires that killed people who lived on the bridge too. There was mention of
Crossbones cemetery and body snatchers grabbing bodies and selling them to the
medical universities. Then came the
interactive part as they tried to scare the crap out of you in the dark using
things like chainsaws and lights and even jumping out sat you in the dark when
thr strobe lights come on. I thought it was funny even when I got a fright. It
was entertaining watching others scream that were out in front as we were
apparently meant to hold the shoulders of hte person in front. The poor kid I
kept stepping on. I didn’t actually see a catacomb though as there were
apparently one there.
Once the show ended, I was heading to the
cemetery, when I thought I better eat and stopped at a pub called the Mudlark.
I had something I found to be nice. A toad in the hole, which was a Yorkshire
Pudding with snags, mash, carrot and something green. I enjoyed it and while
being served I was asked about the cricket and it seems my answer is what many
Australians have been giving and that is we havnt been watching. After eating,
I headed to the cemetery as it was not very far away at all. I had even
forgotten about a replica ship called the Golden Hind. That was closed and when
I walked there it wasn’t what I expected as parts were covered especially the
name and it was in a dry dock. I don’t know if the tour would be more
interesting, but I was actually more interested in the Cutty Sark that was in
Greenwich. I had been walking through an area that was known for its markets
and I did wonder if this was the place in London where you could get a beer in
the morning from one of the local pubs, but that I have to look up. I wanted to
go see a bit more, but realised even though it is 7pm, I might have done too
much and should head back as it might take a while getting through the city on
the tube. There is always the morning where I can explore before everything
opens up and that I have to head out on my Harry Potter tour in the afternoon.
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