A Walk and a Movie

As you can see, we had actual sunshine yesterday -- so I seized the opportunity to walk another link in the Green Chain.

My walk took me through south London from Falconwood to Mottingham -- but first, as always, I had to get down there, which saw me sitting on a platform at the London Bridge train station (above), waiting for the train southward.

This was a rather strange route. After getting off the train in Falconwood, I had to walk some distance to the beginning, and then turn right around and walk back past the Falconwood station. The same thing happened at the end -- I passed the Mottingham train station, finished the route, and had to return to the station. Why don't the routes just begin and end at the train stations?

I walked along a wooded path known as Gravel Pit Lane (above)...

...which took me to Avery Hill Park. My map made much of the greenhouse known as the Winter Garden, "the best surviving example in London of such a steel and glass Victorian extravaganza." So I made a detour to see it -- and of course it's covered in scaffolding and closed for construction.

I could see some of the exotic greenery inside, pressed against the windows like it wanted to escape. (It was still green, though, so someone's apparently caring for it!)

I came across an unusual Covid memorial in Southwood Park, bearing the names of several people who had died. (The sun was really working against me for this photo!)

I then walked to an area known as The Tarn, a pond surrounded by gardens and inhabited by ducks, geese, coots and this pugilistic squirrel. Doesn't it look like it wants to punch me?

From there the path took me to the top of a high, windy ridge, where it joined a section of the walk I'd completed a few weeks ago. I could clearly see the big broadcasting tower at Crystal Palace not too far away.

I turned around and went back to the station, and took a train into London for my second adventure of the day. Although I've been telling Dave that I'm losing my enthusiasm for seeing movies in a cinema, I decided to go see Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film, "Licorice Pizza." It's a coming-of-age movie set in Los Angeles in the 1970s, which sounds right up my alley, and I've loved several of Anderson's previous films like "Boogie Nights," "Magnolia" and "Punch Drunk Love."

(Dave was not at all interested.)

The movie was showing in Leicester Square, which is pretty much the epicenter for entertainment in the West End. And let me tell you, London is open again. You would never know there's a pandemic going on except for the appearance of the occasional mask. The square was packed and the movie theater itself was completely full -- though it was also tiny, with just 23 seats. (I counted them.)

I grabbed lunch before the picture and ate it in the square, watching families with screaming children queued up at the Lego and M&M stores. The kids above seemed intrigued but perhaps also terrified by that gigantic panda. Those claws!

The movie was good, a dryly funny, nostalgic ramble through the '70s featuring lots of great music like this song, which I had completely forgotten but now I can't stop singing.

After the film I made my way through Piccadilly Circus -- again, mobs of people, including the pro-Assange protesters above -- and took a fairly packed tube train home.

I really needed a relatively normal day out, so it felt good to be active and see some sights!