The Peak Tram

I guess it was a combination of sleeping on the plane, thus not getting a full night's sleep, and then going to bed at the right (Hong Kong) time, but we woke up around eight, apparently avoiding any jet lag.

We found a great little coffee shop - part of a chain called The Coffee Academics - nearby on Johnston Road. The bar along the front wall opened onto the street, without any window, which I really liked. My first Extra is the view across the road. 

After that we went for a stroll, splitting up so that Wol and I could visit Tom Lee's music shop - where I saw a rather nice analogue drum machine - before we regrouped in a café, fashioned to look like one of the public light buses. 

While we were wandering around, we saw some scaffolding made with bamboo and held together with rope. I remembered this quite distinctly from the seventies, being used even on skyscrapers, but I assumed it would have been superseded by now!

And after we'd eaten, we walked across to catch the tram up to the Peak. This was the way my dad used to get to work, and sometimes I would go that way to and from school, once I was going to Island School. Today's Blip gives you some idea, I hope, of just how steep it was in places. 

This afternoon, we took it all the way up to the top, which affords splendid views when the mountain top isn't shrouded in mist, as it was today and, indeed, on many days when we lived here. 

Despite the heavy mist, we walked along Peak Road as far as what once was a supermarket called Dairy Lane. Now it's called Market Place and it's a far more swish affair, although I was surprised and delighted to find that the florist is still there!

After that, we made our way back to the tram terminus and travelled back down, disembarking before we got to the bottom as we were hoping to take the escalator down into Central, only to find it only goes one way: up!

Still, we did find a tremendous little Mexican for a couple of beers and some dinner :-)