a delightful day in Londontown

Hi all...more Paris to follow but I've got a life going on regardless of how up-to-date my spring break posts are, and yesterday is definitely post-worthy!

Coleen, Charlie, Kate and I set off around 11:30 to go visit Notting Hill, setting of the Julia Roberts movie of the same name but, more importantly, home of the "world-famous" Portobello Road Market!  It claims to be the largest antiques market in the world, and after yesterday, I believe it.  We got off the Tube and were immediately swept into an unbelievably large and diverse throng of people headed the same direction...young, hipster London girls with the kind of style I always wish I had, old men and women out together, young families with children in tow...it was just this enormous crush of humanity.  Claustrophobic, yes, but really fun to see.  The people-watching alone would have made this market day an experience to remember.

As you may recall, I was not particularly enamored with my first market visit, to Petticoat Lane...junky, weird people, and all-around dissatisfying.  That said, Portobello Road was fantastic!  We started off walking down a row of pastel-painted houses with colorful doors that reminded me of Cinque Terre (ahhh I want to go back!!).  At the beginning of the market, Coleen, Kate and I were drawn into a little vintage jewelry stand where everything was 5 pounds.   I was looking at an opal ring and Kate was considering the brooches when the saleswoman freaked out on Charlie and told him to "go and find another playground."  She repeatedly insisted that he leave, and as his loyal women, we of course left with him.  Nobody yells at our man like that and gets our business ;)

After that the market was just one REALLY REALLY long street full of wonderful surprises.  Portobello Road doesn't sell only antiques...there are long stretches devoted to jewelry artists, art, clothing, fresh food, food vendors, toys...just everything you could imagine.  It was super fun.  We poked around an antique maps-and-prints shop for a while, looked at tons of jewelry, and had a great time.  After a lunch stop at an Italian pizzeria that served pizza by the meter (yes, for real, by the METER), we paid a visit to The Travel Bookshop, of "Notting Hill" (the movie) fame.  So cute and charming, although I must say my favorite bookstore in the world is still Shakespeare and Company :)

Purchases for the day: Coleen got an antique bracelet that was absolutely beautiful and I got a pendant-watch, which was just too novel and pretty to pass up.  We then caught the Tube and headed home, where I stopped in Tesco and ran into the one-and-only Kayla Coggins and Anne Spont!  They were planning a baking night and I jumped right on that.  It was so much fun!  We made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with homemade buttercream frosting.  Oh, hello, decadence.  Best part?  We dyed the frosting pink and decorated with absolutely adorable novelty sprinkles, sugar flowers, and glittery dust.  It was so pretty when we were done that I hardly wanted to eat them!  (We did, though.)  Big shout-out to Bobby, who knows all the words to an enormous plethora of songs as well as the integral plot points of "Rent."  Nobody puts Bobby in the corner.

After a fun night of baking to the sweet sounds of middle-school power jams, I headed home to call it another early night.  I'm always so tired at night here...maybe that's why the nasty hard bed doesn't feel quite as awful anymore.  Paris soon, I promise...but London is still too fun to ignore!