Saturday morning we did what it seems every other tourist did that day - headed to the Portobello Road Market. One of the best scenes in Notting Hill was filmed here and this is where Hugh Grant's character lived.
Look at all the people!
We wandered up one side of the street and down the other. There are hundreds of booths and also stores behind the tents. Antiques, vintage finds, trendy things... you name it, it's here.
It also makes great people-watching. This guy was one of our favorites. He carried his dog around on his shoulders the entire time!
Eventually we found the food section and we had to make a decision - what to eat?
We started off with a crepe for breakfast.
Then came back in a little bit for paella for lunch.
Which we ate sitting on someone's front steps. Hey - we were just following the lead of everyone else!
The produce was beautiful and so fresh!
And huge! Giant avocados!
When we were tired of bumping along the street, we popped into a waffle shop for a snack. Talk about gourmet waffles!
After a busy morning, we headed back toward the city.
We spent the afternoon wandering around, we found the London Gator Club and watched a very sad game against Miami. But it was awesome to see all the Gators abroad!
Sunday was our last day in London. We had until early afternoon before we had to head to the airport, so we saw a few things.
This is the monument they built to remember the Great London Fire in 1666. This one was not started by a cow.
It's nice of them to warn you... sometimes the gap is a foot wide!
After hearing about it so much, we finally sat down for an English breakfast. Too much food too early for me!
After breakfast, we saw the changing of the Horse Guard. Very formal, and seemed pretty silly to us. Won't people just attack while they're doing all the pomp and circumstance? What did you say? The enemy is changing their guard at the same time? Never mind, then.
Apparently they have the Mall road closed on Sunday mornings and everyone just walks in the middle of the street. So we made our way up to Buckingham Palace for a final glance.
A really liked the ornate gates.
Our last stop was at Apsley House, the London home of the Duke of Wellington.
The first Duke of Wellington famously defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. The Duke actually very much admired Napoleon and brought home some of his things, including this huge statue. Apparently Napoleon hated the statue anyway.
The state rooms are very ornate, and they've restored them to be just as they were for the first Duke. He really liked yellow, even though the designers tried to sway him away from it. He also was a big collector of paintings. They covered the walls in every room.
After Apsley House, it was a mad rush to catch the Tube to the airport.
We were running late, but we ended up sitting on the tarmac for 4 hours while we waited for clearance, found a potential problem, called the mechanic in from home, found out it's just a instrument error, and waited for clearance again. It became very obvious the American pilot and French co-pilot were not fans of British Air Traffic Control.
Eventually we made it home to a reminder of how things work in America. There was a long line for taxis. The taxi dispatcher was chatting and not doing her job. We were third in line. First up was a British gentleman. Taxis came, but they weren't pulling forward (hello, dispatcher!). People in the back of the line just start running for the taxis. We tell the British man, "Go get your taxi!" He says, "But she [dispatcher] told me to wait." So he was just going to wait forever. Amazing. Sorry, dude, welcome to America!
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