London: Day 4
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We were up on time for breakfast again this morning. I went for breakfast while Geo went for a shower. He should have stayed in bed and slept another hour. He’s tried hard not to be a crabby boy all day, but we’re back in the room at the hotel now (4:00 pm) so he can have a snooze.
We left on the tube for Petticoat Lane market, it was mostly textiles and household wares, and a lot of locals. It was a completely different atmosphere from the Portobello Road market yesterday, no crush of tourists. It was fun to listen to the merchants banter back and forth with each other in their cockney accents. We took some pictures of a pretty, narrow street called Artillery Lane, and I bought a London Arsenal Football Club scarf for Buzz, Then we got back on the tube and went to Camden Market and locks.
Camden market was crazy, as soon as we got off the tube. The guide book described it as a market that started as four stalls, selling new age cures and drug paraphernalia down by the Camden Locks. Now it’s expanded into an un-navigable maze of lanes, alleys and staircases that lead you inside and outside, up and down until you don’t know where you are, but you’re enjoying yourself despite the confusion.
The stalls sell a fantastic selection of Chinese, Thai and Japanese foods (we had some great spring rolls as we wandered) to Cyber, rude, stylish, offensive, cheap, colorful, ugly, interesting, illegal clothes, to antiques, books, furniture, (a neat iron monger’s shop in the former stables), jewelry, textiles, and tons of junk nobody could possibly need. All of this is crammed into the little alleys and former warehouse/stables/mechanical house of the locks. Geo was particularly amazed by a store/stall called Cyberdog that sold Jetson, like clothes, funky plastic, neon, and computer hardware jewelry and accessories and funky computer watches and desk/office accessories. Geo was completely taken by the gadgets. We had to go back to the store and get him one of their postcards so he can look them up on the web.
When we’d finally had enough, and we’d taken a few pictures of the crazy store fronts, market scene and locks, we stopped at Cafe Nero for two cappuccinos to go, and then picked up some terrific baklava at a bakery on Camden Road before getting back on the tube and going to the National Gallery.
We’ve finally figured out how to do galleries without killing ourselves. We picked up the map of the gallery that told you where all of the major artist’s works are displayed. I checked off the artists whose works I had to see, and we mapped out a route that we were going to take to see them, ignoring almost everything else. This way we got to see works by Reubens, Velazquez, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Titian, Raphael, and DaVinci without losing our minds or getting cranky or exhausted. Interestingly enough, several of the works of the major artists were only rough drafts for engravings, or unfinished paintings. In my opinion this made them even more interesting. We checked out the gift shop before we left, they had a great CD-Rom collection of the entire galleries major works. I may go back and get it for the Arts Department.
When we left the gallery we walked by St. Jame’s Park and St. James Palace and took pictures of the guard there in a bear skin hat with a rifle and bayoneted. There was actually an amusement park set up inside the St. James Park grounds. We were more interested in taking pictures of the street lamps with crowns on top of them, and the Queen Alexandria memorial.
We then went for a walk down the very exclusive shopping streets out back of the palace. It was Sunday, so none of them were open, but I don’t think we’d dared do anything but window shop anyway. We found Christies’s Auction House, which seemed to delight Geo. We wandered for about an hour on Pall MAll, St. James St and Jermyn St. looking in the windows of royal appointment tobacconists, clothiers, show stores, hat stores, win & spirit stores and art dealers. It was a pleasant, but ridiculous diversion.
Geo was tired, so we headed back to the hotel so he could snooze for an hour before we go out for chicken vindaloo.
Later…
The restaurant we wanted to go to was closed for New Year’s Eve, so we found another Indian restaurant about 10 min. walk from the hotel. It was called Mahal and the food was fantastic! We ordered the two person menu with three courses. We started with an omelette filled with spiced, grilled lamb meat, and salad with lime and mint yogurt dressing. The main course was curry fried rice with some potatoes and vegetables in it, and a selection of grilled and spit roasted chicken and lamb kabobs, and big chunks of chicken and onion in a curry, olive oil and pureed vegetable sauce for desert we had pistachio confort (ice cream) and coffee. It was great! We walked back to the hotel after spending about 2 hours in the restaurant. It was cold and raining out, so to hell with going down town and getting sick from the cold.
We stopped at a magazine store and I picked up a British decorating magazine that I haven’t seen in Canada. Then we picked up a cappuchino at the 24 hour corner store and went back to our room and watched a British comedy show of the year’s bloopers, stupid events, personalities and quotes. It was probably better entertainment than freezing our asses off outside.
Geo’s observation of the goods for sale at a Camden market clothes store: “It looks like KISS had a garage sale, and this guy bought everything.”
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