London: Day 6
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Today was almost a complete write 0ff, if not for 2 or 3 redeeming factors. We slept in, missed breakfast and got off to a late start to the British Museum. We stopped and had cappuccino and Starbucks (it’s hard to get real coffee in London).
We spent the morning wandering the museum. We saw the Rosetta Stone, apparently it’s the key to translating hieroglyphs into modern Egyptian, who knew? It also contains an entire, huge Lycean tomb, apparently it was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. It also contains all the freezes off the Parthenon in Athens, it’s amazing. I can’t believe that the British pilfered treasures from countries all over the world.
London: Day 5
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We slept in a bit today. I went for breakfast while Geo slept, then showered. We wanted to go to the British Museum, but it was closed on New Year’s day, so we wandered the pedestrian shopping mall streets just off Tottenham Court Road. There was actually a plaque on one of the buildings dedicating it to the working class merchants of London, from a royal somebody. All I could think of was Alfred Doolittle and the “Undeserving Poor”. Geo found a Sci-Fi book store that had all kinds of British authors in it that he’d never even heard of, so he was thrilled to pick up a few books he wouldn’t find at home. He also found a camera store that he got a good price on a memory card on.
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.
London: Day 3
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We were up on time today to have a decent breakfast, then we set out for the Portobello Road antiques market. It was a beautiful day and we wandered the streets and the stalls looking at the incredibly amount and variety of stuff for sale.
I went into a beautiful leather shop that Grandpa B would have loved, there were several beautiful, full grain leather trunks and satchels. I took a picture of the place, I loved it so much. From there we found a store selling hand blown glass balls in the color I was looking for, amber, and I was delighted to pick one up. We goofed around all the way down to the Travel Book Shop, of Notting Hill movie fame and wondered in it for a while. I picked up some post cards of the shop. We spent some time in some furniture decor shops and found a really nice journal for Geo.
London: Day 2
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What a busy day! We got up at 8:30am and made it down to the breakfast room just on time to have the continental but not the full English breakfast. We’ll have to get up earlier tomorrow.
We had a beautiful walk through Hyde Park. It was a crisp, sunny morning with a little frost on the ground, and there were several runners in the park. We came out by Buckingham Palace. We took a few pictures and wondered around a bit, then we walked through the beautiful St. James Park to the Horse Guards, and 10 Downing St. We took some pictures of the duck pond and the bridge crossing it with a view of the Palace in the background, and Horse Guard. There were actually Pelicans in the pond, so we took pictures of them too. I fed a squirrel some nuts from a nut bar I was eating from Harrod’s and the squirrel actually ran up my leg!
