It was another gorgeous weekend in London. The temperatures were easily in the low 80s. In Maine, whenever we have gorgeous weather like we are experiencing here, you want to do anything and everything to stay outside to enjoy it. For, who knows when you will have another day as nice. I feel that is the same here in London that is a city known for rainy days and dreary weather!
David and I spent lots of time outside this weekend. We went to Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill and wandered through looking at the many different booths and people! From there, we walked around Notting Hill and eventually made our way to Queensway Street, which is where we were staying. Since the day was so nice and we were so close, we walked to Hyde Park and sat for awhile enjoying the day.
When we started walking again, we heard music and went over to see what it was. There was an accordion and fiddle player on the bandstand playing real jaunty music for the people dancing on the lawn below. The MC was giving directions, much like a square dance caller would to direct the people of the dance steps.
The dances, I later learned were Scottish Folk dances. It was a school that was performing and encouraging others to join in. Wow…a first, David even asked if I wanted to dance!!! We were going to but they didn’t offer general public dances again before we left! They were handing out leaflets, which I picked up. It might be interesting to take a class or two when I am back in London permanently!
Another cute thing we saw in the park was this man giving his dog some water! He had one of the ball throwers and was scooping water from the bottom of the fountain for the dog to catch. The dog thought it was great fun and whenever the man stopped, the dog would beg for more! It was so cute!
Once we left the park, we walked to the Whole Food store…that’s right, Whole Foods has come to London! It is on Kensington High Street which runs along the south side of Hyde Park and is a major shopping street. In all honesty, we were looking for a bathroom and found it on the top floor of the store, where the food court was. There are a couple of sit down restaurants and then they offer self-serve in Asian noodle dishes, Pizza, Mexican and a couple of other food choices. The Mexican burritos looked very good, so we had an early dinner of vegetarian burritos….and they were very good!
Since it was around 5:00, we decided to head home by way of walking. I bought an unlocked iphone before I left the states…..one of the best and smartest purchases I made! I absolutely love the GPS map that shows me how to get from point A to point B by walking or car and how long it will take me! We have used it constantly over here.
We were quite a ways from our apartment and didn’t get home until about 6:30. We were tired as well. I try to wear a pedometer to see how far we have walked daily….can you believe that we had walked 10 miles this day???? I was exhausted…that was the most we had walked so far with 5 miles being the least. I think all of this walking is helping to keep the weight somewhat in control but there are some tempting goodies in this city, not to mention the pubs!!!
Today, Sunday, was an extremely lazy morning. Although we slept well, neither one of us had much energy. The Chelsea Physic Garden is about a block down the road from us and I thought it would be nice to visit. It is a garden that was established in 1673 by the Society of Apothecaries of London so their apprentices could learn to grow medicinal plants and study their uses. Today, it is a botanical garden that still offers medicinal plants, along with vegetable and other plants. Sadly, most of the flowering plants had gone by. We enjoyed being in the park and sat reading our Kindles on a park bench.
After awhile, we left the garden and walked down the Embankment which is a road that follows the Thames River and crossed over the Albert Bridge to get to Battersea Park which we can see across the Thames from our apartment. I loved the colors on the Albert Bridge!
Battersea Park is very large, on 200 acres of land. It was, also, very busy today. However, since neither of us were in the mood to walk a great deal, we didn’t begin to see much of the park. Maybe another day.
So, tomorrow is Monday and we are going to head over to Leicester Square to try to get half-priced tickets to see the play Wicked. Plus, there is a large bookstore in Charing Crossing that David would like to visit. So, until tomorrow!!!