We opted to have a fairly leisurely day today, not too much walking, just something easy and relaxing. 16,000 steps later, we're recuperating back at our lodgings after a day that kept presenting too many interesting options to ignore.
It all started fairly innocently with a bus to Westminster, and a plan to catch the Thames River hop on/hop off boat, then a wildcard suggestion came via the ether: "you have to check out Portobello Market!" so that's where today's wanderings started. We quickly found the line to Victoria station from where we connected to the Notting Hill bus, where the market sits.
We arrived early, of course, because we're early risers, and came across a French patisserie: Maison Puget. Ooh la la! The melt-in-the-mouth experience of French pastries made by a French baker- those supermarket croissants don't even come close! As we sat in a small nearby park, the sounds of kids playing on the swing sets, a local woman, Kelly, possibly in her later twenties, walked by with her dog, a 10-year Maltese terrier name Falcor. She named him this after the mythical creature in Neverending Story because of the light he brought into her life. Kelly likes to have philosophical chats and was pen pals with Daniel McPherson as one point. She must have talked for a good twenty minutes. Really really friendly, and tipped us off on where to get a good coffee. Coffee Plant was just around the corner and is frequented by the locals. They've been roasting locally since 1985 and the coffee is gooood!
We walked up Portobello Road, up the small, sweeping hill in the opposite direction to the rail line. Merchants lined the streets selling everything from jewellery and hats to garments and regular souvenirs. While we didn't feel compelled to purchase anything along this stretch, we headed back dow the hill and spotted what looked like another market just under the rail bridge. On the left side of the road was another jostling market with vendors selling clothes and curios. One artist will draw a portrait of you onto a canvas shopping bag, and another was painting cute London themed designs onto canvas accessories. A little bit further down Chris spotted a Kent fan for himself, for those times when a flash of heat enters his temple. Notting Hill reminded me just a little bit of San Francisco with some of its Victorian architecture, but is its own architectural delight, with its Victorian terraces and shop fronts.
On the bus ride across, we'd earmarked a few spots to come back to another day, because today was our restful day, after all. Anyhow, when in Kensington and Albert Hall suddenly pops into view, the idea of taking it easy soon evaporates as you hop off the bus to take a few photos and decide, "while we're here" the Albert Memorial is just too striking to ignore.
The memorial was unveiled in 1872, built in memory of Queen Victoria's husband and great love after died at the age of 42 from typhoid. The gold statue of Prince Albert holding a guide for the 1851 Great Exposition, is surrounded by statues that represent other great passions the prince held throughout his short life.
Why not just have a little wander and look at the flowers while we wait for the eftpos machine at the kiosk to come back online? Alright, then! The path led us further into Kensington Gardens and eventually to Queen's Gate. The kiosk there had what we needed, and the call of the park led us further in to enjoy a view of the round pond and Kensington Palace, one the home to Diana, Princess of Wales. The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk is seven miles long and covers four parks. No, we did not.
Queen's Walk stretches to the other end of the gardens to Lion's Gate and riding a bike back to the other side so we could press on to Harrods seemed like a great idea, except the Italian family ahead of us at the bike hire self-serve point seemed to be having trouble making a decision, or debating life's choices, or both, so we walked the seven (fifteen) minutes back to Queen's Gate.
Harrods is nearby, though, so we hopped on a bus to check it out. Unfortunately we hopped on a bus going in the wrong direction, but soon rectified that by hopping off near the Churchill Arms, which needed to be photographed, and struck up a conversation with a lady, originally from New York, but now living in Maryland and here to see her son play at Royal Albert Hall tonight.
Soon enough, we were walking through the halls of high fashion, I found my favourite fragrance there and was going to wait until further in the trip to see if I could fetch it duty free, but a little voice (name Christopher) said "you have to buy it at Harrods" so out came the card. It will be a nice olfactory link to our grand adventure. Harrods isn't just any old department store, It's iconic, yes, but the things you find there are all premium quality. High end. Think shirts whose price hovers around the $3000 AUD and you're on the money (that stayed in our pockets). They have a chocolate hall. CHOCOLATE H A L L ! ! ! and a cheese hall, and for just a little while you can experience what "the other half" live like, and take a little piece away for yourself, if you fancy.
Kensington, like every patch of London we've seen so far, is oozing with old, beautifully kept buildings. You really get a sense of history in a place like this, and of the small space you occupy on a vast timeline.
Our restful day was drawing to a close. For some reason we felt quite exhausted so hopped on the tube to Piccadilly Circus, a train whose destination read "Cockfosters" which begs a Google search, then connected through to Elephant and Castle. Our rest finally came, and after nodding off for an hour, we headed back out for dinner. An English pub meal would be the ticket, so we looked up some local pubs fairly nearby and landed ourselves back in Waterloo at a pub called The Ring in Southwark. Yes, there was a bit more walking involved, but that's what you do on holidays, right? Apparently English pub food around here is in the realm of authentic Thai, which wasn't hard to swallow. Massaman chicken, prawn toast and some pretty spicy chicken wings with a soda chaser. A soda chaser because the barkeep didn't have any bitters or lime cordial, so served two glasses of soda water with a slice each of lemon and lime. The food was very tasty and the soda water worked. Time for what is going to be a solid sleep, for tomorrow we ABBA!
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