Brent Cross Loop Walk

The weather was nice yesterday morning -- cooler than in much of the United States right now, though we're due for another hot spell here too. I figured I'd better make the most of it and set out for a long walk.

I didn't start with any agenda or any idea of where I might go. I just put in my AirPods, turned on a podcast and wound up walking north through Hampstead and along Finchley Road, all the way up to Golders Green.

Remember the wall that served as a memorial to the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack in Israel? Well, it's still there, but it seems to have been largely transformed into a memorial for people killed by the Islamic Republic in Iran. The flags depict the lion and sun symbol of pre-revolutionary Iran and in addition to the pictures of many, many people killed by the Iranian regime, there's one of the Shah.

And remember this place -- Brent River Park? Nothing much has changed here. The pavilions are still a wreck but it's a shady urban oasis.

From there I walked parallel to the North Circular toward Brent Cross.

I wound up in a tangle of overpasses and highway on-ramps, with the channelized River Brent running beneath (that's the river with the concrete walls covered in graffiti). The river itself runs through Wembley and around Ealing and Hanwell in west London before emptying into the Thames near Kew Gardens. (In fact, it might be an interesting future walk to follow the river in that direction, though I'm not sure it's all pedestrian-accessible. I've walked along several portions of it over the years.)

There were dedicated areas for pedestrians so this wasn't unsafe, but it wasn't exactly pleasant. I think the next time I want to get to Brent Cross from Golders Green I'll cut through the neighborhoods on either side of this massive interchange, rather than sticking so close to the highway.

Here's the shopping center at Brent Cross, a very American-style indoor shopping mall with a couple of department stores and lots of smaller shops. I didn't go in. I just walked past.

I crossed back over the North Circular via a pedestrian bridge and found...

...a whole new neighborhood of fancy apartment buildings. This used to be an industrial area. In fact, Olga and I walked past it many years ago, when it was a construction zone walled off by yellow plywood. Now the plywood is gone and there are towering apartment blocks, a food truck, a garden and a stylish green fountain, among other amenities.

I stopped for coffee at a Costa and sat outside watching traffic come and go.

Then I walked home through the now-elegant Claremont Park (which I think used to be known as Clarefield?) and along residential streets around the Clitterhouse Playing Fields. I had my first blackberries of the summer from these vines on Clitterhouse Road. Yum!

Altogether I think I walked between five and six miles.

I spent the afternoon reading "Juice," which I really want to finish before we leave for our Italy trip in a few days. It's a big book and I don't want to carry it with me! I also had to get a document notarized and mailed related to my stepmother's estate, so I took care of that.

Dave and I have enjoyed watching "Widow's Bay" on Apple TV in the evenings. It's a good show and very binge-able. (Is that a word?)