New Year Walk to Hampstead Heath

From a few years ago, I come to have a New Year walk with my family in the beginning of every January in my country. Alone as I was this year in the UK, I had wanted to take a constitutional stroll because I had been keeping myself to my room for those several days in order to write up the course works. It was very fine weather on January 3rd 2009. So I felt like having an outing very much. First, I searched for a nice place by referring to my tourist guide book with the condition that it was not so far from my dormitory, and somewhere I've never been to. Then, I found the best site which meets these purposes, that is, of course, Hampstead Heath. Before leaving my room, I got some information about it. I've learned that, as I wrote in this blog before, there is a former stately home called Kenwood House in the spot, which is now managed by English Heritage, and it is in possession of Johannes Vermeer's masterpiece Guitar Player (the picture in the left above; I borrowed its image from Wikimedia). Besides, originally I was aware of the fact that one of the scenes of the movie Notting Hill was shot there, and I made sure of it through several websites. Finally, I checked the route to get there. Fortunately, I found that just a 30-minutes bus ride would take me to the nearest stop to Hampstead Heath. These preparations made me a bit excited when I went out of the hall. I had only to take a No.46 bus from Lancaster Gate station. Arriving at the Hamstead Heath station, I headed to Kenwood House. I was surprised that some pounds in the parkland were frozen because of the chilly weather in the previous days. Some people was trying to break them by throwing stones. When I walked for about half an hour, I saw the white walls of Kenwood House shining, which really impressed me indeed. Taking some pictures of the building and landscape, I entered the house for free of charge. When I passed through a few rooms, a Japanese attendant of English Heritage asked me in Japanese what I was looking for. So I answered her that I had come there to see Guitar Payer. Then, she told me the way to the room where it was. Not only European tourists but also some Japanese were there, so I learned the popularity of Vermeer's painting again. Through this experience, I think I killed several birds with one stone; I could appreciate the work of art in the tourist attraction, and take the air. Hampstead Heath did refresh me mentally as well as physically. The other day, I borrowed Notting Hill on DVD from my college library, and I referred to the scene shot in Hamstead Heath, which is uploaded below.