This morning we decided to catch a tram to a hill with a view towards London. On our way out of the building we decided to call on Joan, who holds a spare key to this apartment. She turned out to be a very interesting person, with lots of local knowledge. We were able to get a spare key, although Stephen had to pay 15 pounds deposit on the fob which opens the outside door. She gave us some literature on walks. We really enjoyed meeting her.

We then found a quick way to get to the local tram stop and went to a stop called Gravel Hill. It turned out to be one too far for the view, but we got there anyway. We could see back to where we live in East Croydon as well as London in the distance. We then caught the tram to the end of the line, New Addington. A very ordinary suburb, I was amused to find that it had a butcher, a post office and a hardware store, all things that Bill Bryson has said have disappeared from English village squares. I was a bit upset to see that meat in the window of the butcher was in the sun. There was also a market with a butcher’s van selling meat some of which was not being kept cold.

The above photo was taken with the Sony A6000 and Tamron 18-200 lens. We wanted to see the city, which was obscured in smog, so this is using the dehaze filter in Lightroom. Too much, of course, but it does help to really make it much clearer than it was in the original photo.

We went into a few of the local shops in New Addington were able to get a steamer and some herbs and spices. In the evening I did a simple meal with minced meat and veggies, using the spices.

Because the sunrises are quite late, a bit after 7.00 a.m. we were up for the sunrise this morning and took some photos. We also did this yesterday morning. It’s quite something to be so much higher than other surrounding buildings so that we have a good view. Perhaps we didn’t really need to go to that hill top.