A Summer afternoon in Hampstead Heath

In August, Bradley's Mum Wendy stopped in to visit us for a few weeks while en route to start a new life teaching in Amman, Jordan.

She was lucky (or not) to visit London during a heat wave, when daily temperatures were up to 32 degrees Celsius.

We had a few things planned for her visit, we made a list of our favourite places in London, with a few of the Big Tourist attractions, but also some lesser known spots on the London tourist trail. 

In general, London is insanely packed full of tourists in August, and we try to avoid crowds as much as possible. So we've become well acquainted with London's back streets and which tube stations are quieter and which ones are easiest to change tube lines.

While Wendy used to live in London when she was younger, it's still a shock arriving in London, where the population in just this one city, is twice the population of the entire country of New Zealand.

With this in mind, we spent our first Sunday all together exploring Hampstead Heath, a rambling park just a few stops from the City of London, and covering 320 hectares of land.

We arrived in Hampstead mid morning, and stopped for coffee and a pastry before walking up the hill from the village to the Heath.f

Our first stop was the Hampstead Pergola and Hill Gardens. We've visited the Pergola before in Winter, so it was lovely to visit when all the flowers were all in bloom and the skies were blue and sunny instead of gloomy and grey.

While the area of Hampstead Heath around Parliament Hill is always busy with people flying kites and admiring the amazing views over London, this area of the park is always quiet, often you can walk for ages without seeing anyone else.

The land where the Pergola stands was purchased by Lord Leverhulme in 1904, who commissioned the famous architect Thomas Mawson to design and construct the Pergola in 1905.

The Pergola has obviously declined since its completion in 1906 and after Lord Leverhulme's death. It has undergone periods of restoration, but still retains a slightly beautifully eerie atmosphere.

We continued our walk from the West Heath, through Golders Hill Park, towards Kenwood House where we stopped and grabbed some burgers and sat in the sunshine watching a horse-drawn cart ferrying people around the park.

After lunch and a rather long period of relaxing in the sun, we continued our walk past the Highgate swimming ponds and onto Parliament Hill.

Parliament Hill is the most famous part of Hampstead Heath. It was used for defence during the English Civil War, and people come to fly kites from all over London.

The view from Parliament Hill is also one of the best in London. Standing on top of the hill gives an amazing panoramic view over London, and on a clear day you can see across the City to St Paul's, the Shard and the Gherkin.

Hampstead Heath is an amazing part of London during all seasons, we've now explored during Winter and Summer, in the pouring rain and bright sunshine, and every time we visit we discover something new.