May 7, 2011
An English Potpourri-

The first paragraph is for the immediate family. If you are not immediate family you can go ahead and read the paragraph but you probably won't get it.

We were catching a bus in Knightsbridge this morning very near our first hotel. The Knightsbridge Green Hotel is still there but the rest of the area is very different. The Chicago Rib Shack is now on Kensington Rd. about 5 doors down from the hotel towards Brompton Rd. The wonderful sweater shop at the corner of Kensington and Brompton is still there but the outside is very different. All the buildings across the street from the hotel have been torn down and replaced by a posh residence hotel owned by the Mandarin Group. Good news: the Persian rug store is still having a going out of business sale! Really.

We were in Kensington this morning shopping for a curling iron, for Lynda, and dealing with a couple of cell phone issues. Most of our travel about London is done on buses. While the tube(the London subway system) is faster we see more from the bus. We have been through many new neighborhoods to us while also revisiting familiar old haunts. After shopping we returned to Notting Hill and had lunch at an Indian restaurant. Lynda had several vegetarian starters and Tim had a lovely chicken curry.

The highlight of the day was the Portobello Rd. street market which is held each Saturday. Portobello Rd., about 5 blocks from our apartment, is closed to vehicular traffic and block after block of stalls are set up selling all sorts of different wares. Starting at the south end of Portobello, the stalls all sell antiques. Many of these antiques would impress the Antique Roadshow crowd, most of the others not so much. After the antiques come the food stalls. Lots of fresh vegetables and several fresh fish stalls. There were also many stalls selling freshly made sandwiches. We stopped at one stall and bought a quice and a barok, a turkish sandwich made with phyllo dough stuffed with meat, for out dinner tonight in our apartment. We also bought a slice of apple cake that one of the other customers told was the best she eaten this side of Denmark. One stall was selling freshly made paella made on the spot in huge paella pans. It looked and smelled delicious. After the food stalls come the general merchandise stalls selling everything from t-shirts to CD's, most of it pretty cheap. One stall was doing a great business selling Royal Wedding souveniers. Think Christmas, family! It was very crowded with young and old alike and everyone, including us, was having a great time.

Another minor highlight was visiting the travel bookstore that Hugh Grant owned in the movie Notting Hill. It is actually a real book store in Notting Hill. Unfortunately, neither Hugh nor Julia Roberts were there today. Maybe they will be there next week.

We feel like the editors of National Enquirer as all of your enquirering minds have wanted pictures of our apartment. You have probably seen those already posted. Besides our apartment there is a picture of Little Venice. We will try to get pictures of the Portobello Rd. street market in our next posting.

After carefully rereading the instructions that came with the apartment, we have discovered that we can access the internet so, hopefully, postings will be made more often.

Tomorrow is a quiet day. After having our Sunday joint (roast dinner), we plan to go to St. Paul's Cathedral for the 4:00 Evensong service. We are doing this for two reasons: 1. To go to church, and 2. to avoid the 15 pound per person charge that is usually made to visist St. Paul's. We will make a healthy donation in the collection plate!

Ta for now.