P-Day at Hampstead Heath

Saturday was a clear, cool day in London and perfect to explore Hampstead and Hampstead Heath with our friends from the Family History Center. Seated: Elder Ross Richins, Sister Claudia Inskeep, Sister Judy Richins, Sister Barbara Watts. Top: Elder Don Inskeep and Elder Watts. We had a wonderful time.

Hampstead has fun antique shops, pubs and open spaces (Hampstead Heath) with ponds and beautiful views. Today's famous people (film & rock stars) live in the same houses as the famous of previous centuries. We visited Wentworth Place, where John Keats lived when he wrote some of his greatest works. Ian Fleming of 007 fame lived in Hampstead as did a man named Goldfinger, who built a home that Fleming thought was atrocious -- hence Goldfinger became a bad guy in his novel. We had a delightful lunch (squash soup and cremé brulé) on the patio of the Kenwood House, an early 17th century gentleman's country home, and is now a major art gallery with works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Reynolds, Gainsborough and Turner. Some of the movie Notting Hill (Julia Roberts) was filmed here. I was in heaven!!

The Spaniards Inn, built in 1585 as a tollgate inn, still guards the road to a single lane -- which now is a traffic bottleneck-- at the top of the Heath. See the link for pictures.

Sister Watts.....