Saturday, January 30, 2010

Saturday in London

 
Last Saturday we started out with a stroll in the neighborhood and headed west to Notting Hill. 
  
We made our way to the Portobello Road Market.
  
MBA was a good trooper. 
  
There's tons of interesting stuff to peruse. And there were tons of tourists there to peruse it. 
  
I love all the colored buildings. It's so happy!
  
And then I spotted this ...... what the ????
  
More proof. 
Who walks through the Portobello Road Market with a dog balancing on his shoulders!?!?!? 

Only the Eccentric!
  
Next we headed to St. Paul's for a quick look. 
  
Then we walked north to John Wesley's church and home. 
  
Because he was a Dissenter, his meeting place was outside the city walls. 
  
This is Wesley's grave -- surrounded by Reuters. 
  
Wesley's Home
  
Across the street is Bunhill Fields where many Dissenters and Nonconformists were buried. 
  
Over 120,000 people were buried there from 1685 -- and it's small. It's crazy how many people are buried in four hectares. 
  
Next, we swung by the National Gallery for our monthly fill of Italian Renaissance Art. We couldn't stay long because we were headed to the Westminster evensong at 3.
  
On our way south to Westminster, we passed this protest. Did you know Christians are being killed in Egypt? I didn't. 
  
The evensong at Westminster was splendid. As we were being ushered in, we even passed William Wilberforce's grave. What a hero. He's the guy that put an end to the slave trade in Britain. 
  After Evensong, we met up with our friend Chris in St. James Park for a spot of tea. As a native Londoner, Chris was keen to take us on small walking tour. Here's some of the areas we passed through:
  
West End


Soho


Picadilly 
Even though it was our second trip to London since living here, we're still keen to head back soon. I feel as though we've barely started seeing all there is to take in and experience in that grand town. I'm already itching to see more of what the world can show!

"By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show." - Samuel Johnson

3 comments:

Cbell said...

Oh... that brought back so many wonderful memories! I walked many of those streets about 100 years ago! :)

Hilary said...

In Union Square there is this guy who walks around with a cat on his head. He gets tips. Was your guy for tips or just cause he wanted a dog on his shoulder?

Ashli said...

I think this was just an eccentric, old guy. He wasn't trying to get tips. Clearly, he wanted attention. Weird huh?

 
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