Northern Lands…

We spent a weekend north of the river Thames in a foreign land where we explored strange new places and encountered interesting natives. We had arranged to see a comedy band on the Sunday evening in Islington and knowing how aggravating the journey across London can be we went up on the Saturday and stayed in a B&B at Golders Green.

The weather was on our side the whole time being bright and crisp winter days and clear evenings, such a contrast to recent days.

We used some loyalty points up and booked in at the King Solomon Hotel. This was a hotel made up of houses knocked together and with extensions made out into the back gardens. The place was basic and the halls had an unpleasant smell, but the room was clean and functional and the bed was comfortable.

We had been earlier in the day to visit part of the Highgate Cemetery on a guided tour which was interesting and slightly spooky as dusk fell as we walked around the tangled heavily wooded graveyard where roosting birds flapped noisily in the trees and strange shadows played across the paths.

After we had booked into the hotel and had a few nibbles and a pre-dinner drink we walked down into Golders Green where we ate at the superb Turkish restaurant Likya amongst the delightfully busy space full of multicultural patrons.

The next day we drove over to Hampstead Heath where we could look back over to London. The lovely Kenwood house was under wraps for restoration but the large Henry Moore sculpture was great to see out in the grounds.

Then we returned to see the other half of the cemetery where we could walk around at our own pace and saw the famous monuments to people as diverse as Douglas Adams (a simple stone with a bowl of pens in front of it) to the grand structure surmounted by a large head that stood at the place where Karl Marx was interred.

After that we drove up to Alexandra Palace situated high up with more views across London and looking very grand as we approached, though as we got closer we could see that the building was suffering from age and looked to be in quite a poor state of repair which was very sad. After a reinvigorating coffee at the pond we walked down to the small farmers market before continuing on our way to Islington.

We had booked tickets to see The Idiot Bastard Band (Ade Edmondson, Phill Jupitus, Neil Innes and Rowland Rivron) at one of our favourite venues, the Union Chapel that evening.

This left us the afternoon to walk up and down Upper Street to Islington and back where we window shopped in the expensive and quirky shops, mooched through the antiques quarter, had mulled wine and mulled cider in a pub and had a lovely meal at a French restaurant Le Mercury

The venue is a working church and you find a space in the pews, if you want to have a drink you can go out to the bar (respect the coats left on the pews) but you cannot bring alcohol back into the church itself (you can however have a cup of tea or coffee). It is a great space close enough to the stage to feel intimate but with the high ceiling to give it atmosphere. As we waited for the band we saw the gorgeous Jennifer Saunders looking for a seat with her family and friends (I was not very cool as I exclaimed ‘look who it is’ overly loud to Sue – if Jennifer heard she was too polite to react).

The band played a series of comedy songs from a variety of sources such as Jake Thakeray, the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, along with self penned songs and twists on recognisable others. It was a raucous affair with much fooling about and laughter by all, and a brilliant end to a fab weekend.