Portabello Market

May 3, 2010

I woke again to Michelle’s prodding. She simply insists that I go down for breakfast on time. Actually, it’s no trouble at all because I would never want to miss one of Janice’s breakfasts. The reason we’ve been having such late mornings lately is because we’re both up so late blogging. So, all you readers out there had better appreciate what’s coming at you from this side of the pond. Janice made omelets for us today. They were delicious and filling which was well needed before another full day of walking. Side note, the reason that Europeans are so much skinnier than Americans is because they walk everywhere they go, not because they eat much healthier than we do, at least, in my opinion. After getting ready for the day, we went off to discover the Portabello Market on Portobello road. We LOVED it! We’re certainly going back there again. The market is simply a road filled with the best shops; antique stores, designer clothing, vintage clothing, incredible cafes and pubs and as always, touristy crap stores (which luckily comprise a small minority). My favorite antique shop was filled with all uber-manly stuff from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. There were old golf clubs, vintage croquet sets, leather satchels and luggage boxes, sporting goods, etc. I really wanted to find a vintage shaving kit with a straight edge razor blade. At any rate, Brett McKay from theartofmanliness.com would totally dig this place. I totally recommend visiting the website for this shop. It’s henrygregoryantiques.com. On the way, we saw a woman who was making crepes on the side of the street. They smelled so good that we just couldn’t pass them up. Still trying to be thrifty we shared one filled with bananas and Nutella. So delicious! It also served to ward off hunger so that we could have a late lunch. We had some real fun in a vintage clothing store called One-of-a-Kind. It’s such a rad store that you have to be admitted, probably based on your coolness level, after ringing a bell and getting checked over. Once inside, we were the only white people there. The people running the place were very hip African-Brits (Is that the pc way of saying that?). The store was filled top to bottom with incredible clothing 50’s 60’s and 70’s. Michelle found this incredible 50’s blue cocktail dress that fit her like a glove. Honestly, it even took the breath away from the hipsters running the place. The only problem was the price tag asking 550 pounds! The brief negotiations that followed brought it down to 250, but that was still almost as much as giving up your first-born. Since the cocktail dress was out of the question, I was proud to be the one to find the one Michelle liked second-best, a light green dress covered in a yellow lace. It was also really lovely on her. The tag said 150 pounds. She is hoping that if we go back she’ll be able to negotiate that one down. We found some other really cool vintage clothing stores. I nearly bought an incredible 70’s vintage black leather jacket that was on a killer price (35 pounds), but saved my money instead. We had lunch in the greatest little café. It was nestled right next to a small parish church and run by a little French family. The baguette sandwiches were incredible. I’ve never had better fresh mozzarella or sun dried tomatoes. We ate just outside the café between the café and the church where the wisteria was growing so high. After lunch, on our way back to the tube station, we stopped in many clothing stores to look for a sweater for Michelle since the wind was blowing cold and her 4 layers just weren’t cutting it. We looked in many stores without finding any. Finally I led Michelle into another clothing store that ended up being a designer clothing store. The designer was sitting there in the front of the store. As we were admiring the flashy colors and bold designs, she began telling us how horribly we all dress in America. She went on at great length and managed to offend both Michelle and I with her arrogance. It was an interesting and memorable experience; memorable for me to laugh at and memorable for Michelle to get disgruntled anew every time she thinks about it. After discovering Portobello Market, we headed across town back to Waterloo so that we could take a stroll down the Thames on the south side. The sun was shining at this point which was lovely, but the breeze was still quite chilly. Along the walk, we stopped for a bit at the National Theatre and listened to a live jazz combo that was playing in the entrance. We came to the end of our walk by crossing the Millennial Bridge (which is actually the real one made famous by the Harry Potter movie, not Hungerford like I mentioned before) which is known by the locals as Wobbly Bridge. On the other side of the bridge stands St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was closed by this point, but I thoroughly enjoyed the architecture. We sat on the front steps for some time soaking in the last bit of sun before it set. Our big mistake of the day was going to a Museum called The Clink Prison Museum. We paid to get in, but quickly realized it was a big mistake. The placards telling the story of the medieval prison that once stood there had all kinds of grammatical errors. There were very few real artifacts and the whole thing only took about half an hour to see and read everything in the whole place. Very disappointing. Once evening came, we decided to explore somewhere we’d never been. We chose a tube station at random, came out from the underground and walked around to see what there was to see. We chose very well by picking Piccadilly Circus. It was right in the heart of the West End. There were theaters, pubs, cafes and clubs everywhere we went. Walking down one alleyway, Michelle was intrigued by a particularly colorful sign. She said rather slowly, “Ooh, let’s go check out Eh-scah-peh” at which point we both burst into laughter at her wonderful pronunciation of the word ‘escape’. There near Piccadilly Circus, we also walked through the China Town of London, which was miniscule in comparison to the one in San Francisco that where we visited less than a week ago. After all our walking, adventuring and discovering, we finally made our way back onto the tube for our long ride and walk home to Janice and Albert’s. We’ve now made that ride and walk so many times it seems. I think we’re beginning to feel rather comfortable around here.