We slept very late, still trying to shake the jet lag, crawling out of bed around 10am. I forgot to mention that Saturday we made a quick stop in the Marks & Spencer food store inside the Marylebone station on Saturday and purchased enough goods to prepare breakfast Sunday morning: eggs, bread, some onion, mushrooms, coffee, just the basics.
We'd decided to go the flat route (rent an apartment from its owner, via VRBO or HomeAway) so we could prepare our own breakfasts, perhaps even our own lunches. The wife whipped up a tasty breakfast of scrambled eggs and coffee and we were happy Americans. Many flats also have clothes washers and dryers, as this one did, so we packed less clothing for the trip, planning to wash some along the way.
I did a lot of research for this London trip. Usually, our vacations are to beach locales where there is not really much planning to be done. You go to the pool or the beach, have some lunch, and that's the day. Not so with London. Some call London "the center of the world" and there is certainly enough here to keep you busy for many return trips.
During research for this trip, I spotted a Sunday-only Marylebone Farmer's Market, and it was only about 15 blocks from the flat.
It runs from 10am to 2pm, so we set off walking around noon and easily found it (thanks to my superior mapping skills, he said modestly).
It's in a "car park" on Cramer Street and there were about 50 stalls bustling with people.
It runs from 10am to 2pm, so we set off walking around noon and easily found it (thanks to my superior mapping skills, he said modestly).
It's in a "car park" on Cramer Street and there were about 50 stalls bustling with people.
They had everything there: free-range, organic eggs; heirloom tomatoes; organic fruits and vegetables of every kind imaginable and many we'd never seen before; organic lamb and pork; fresh-cut flowers; butters; lots of kinds of local cheese; many types of breads and baked goods; one stall was cooking up some very aromatic sausages; and all of it very affordable.
We picked up enough supplies to make breakfast for the next several mornings.
The walk back was pleasant but it began to rain a bit. Like foolish Americans, we had left the flat without an umbrella. We stopped in a shop on Marylebone Road and bought a small one for 4 pounds. Then on to Boots, a local drug store-type chain and picked up a flat iron for the wife. Again, we foolish Americans had left the states without a dual-voltage flat iron.
I brought some adaptors for the English plugs, but no actual converters. You'll notice that all Apple products are dual-voltage, and many small hand-held appliances are now dual-voltage, but not her flat iron. So, we found a good one for about 20 pounds.
On the walk back to the flat, we stumbled across the Rudolf Steiner House on Park Road.
This guy was one odd fellow. Read about him here. It's rather funny, because we have been planting crops back in Houston based on Steiner's Biodynamic Calendar with excellent results. Some of his theories are frankly unintelligible, but amazingly, they work.
Back to the flat to rest a bit (after all, we are on vacation), and the ever-present question: "What shall we do for dinner?" Here again, my pre-arrival research paid off. There is a highly-regarded chain of noodle houses called "Wagamama" all over London, so I plotted a course to the closest one, on Wigmore Street. Took a little while to find it, but we're glad we did, as the food was quite excellent, and not that expensive.
A quick hop back on the Oxford Circus Underground on the Bakerloo line and we were back at our flat in no time flat.
My feet were throbbing pretty good by this time, so we stayed at the flat and crashed.
ZZZZZzzzzzzzz.......
We picked up enough supplies to make breakfast for the next several mornings.
I brought some adaptors for the English plugs, but no actual converters. You'll notice that all Apple products are dual-voltage, and many small hand-held appliances are now dual-voltage, but not her flat iron. So, we found a good one for about 20 pounds.
On the walk back to the flat, we stumbled across the Rudolf Steiner House on Park Road.
This guy was one odd fellow. Read about him here. It's rather funny, because we have been planting crops back in Houston based on Steiner's Biodynamic Calendar with excellent results. Some of his theories are frankly unintelligible, but amazingly, they work.
Back to the flat to rest a bit (after all, we are on vacation), and the ever-present question: "What shall we do for dinner?" Here again, my pre-arrival research paid off. There is a highly-regarded chain of noodle houses called "Wagamama" all over London, so I plotted a course to the closest one, on Wigmore Street. Took a little while to find it, but we're glad we did, as the food was quite excellent, and not that expensive.
A quick hop back on the Oxford Circus Underground on the Bakerloo line and we were back at our flat in no time flat.
My feet were throbbing pretty good by this time, so we stayed at the flat and crashed.
ZZZZZzzzzzzzz.......
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