Saturday September 8, 2012

Very hot in London today, it played us out.  The Underground was especially hot.  We started our day going to the market at Portobello.  Rick Steves talks about it in his guide book and made it sound interesting.  We started to walk, but thought we should save ourselves so hopped onto one of the double decker buses.  A little old lady was going there as well and told us where she thought the best stop was.  We talked about it before going into the crowds and decided not to buy anything and that lasted about 5 minutes.  On Saturday they block off the street , and there are the regular shops selling antiques, junk and souvenirs.  On Saturday a whole bunch of small vendors set up and the place is a zoo.  We got there early so the crowds were bearable, but by the time we left it was getting hard to move and more people streaming in all the time.  Anyway within the 5 minutes, Linda bought a silver taxi charm, and I picked out a new wallet.  I resisted for about another 10 minutes and went back and bought it.  Price was good so even it it isn't what I will use all the time it is great for now.

 

As we strolled along we came upon a clothing store with hundreds of sewing machines in the window and along shelves inside.  Linda resisted buying anything but it sure made our eyes pop.

After leaving this store we stopped at a crepe vendor and had a ham and cheese crepe.  I haven't had one of those since Paris in 1973 and it was delicious.  We couldn't wait to get out and take our finds back to the hotel.  After a few minutes rest we headed down to the underground to trafalgar square.  I wanted to see the Churchill War Rooms and Linda thought it looked interesting.  These are where Churchill and the military ran the war.  In August 1945 the last person out shut the light and locked the door and it was left that way until 1970.  Desks, tables and equipment were left just as if the person was returning after a weekend off.  In one of the large rooms they have converted it to a Churchill museum.  Both are very well done, both of us thought it was worthwhile to visit there.

 

Where Churchill met with Chiefs of Staff





It was also hot down there.  We decided we needed liquid so stopped at the Red Lion for a swift half.  We were going to eat but there wasn't any place to sit down.  By the time I got the drinks Linda had found a downstairs area where we could sit.  We decided not to eat then, but after a short walk we thought we had better so stopped at another pub.  Ordered drinks ( another half) and were then told it would be 45 minutes before we could get our meal.  Had our drink and left.  Back into the Underground and this time the destination was the ACE Cafe.  For those who don't know it, this cafe has become a mecca for motorcyclists.  It was the home of the Rockers in the 60's and has remained famous in the motorcycle world ever since.  And guess what.  Today is the annual motorcycle reunion, the busiest weekend of the year.  There were hundreds of bikes and people most in black leathers or black shirts and a 60's rock band was performing loudly.  We wandered around a bit taking pictures and decided to try and have supper there.  Hard finding a spot at a table but we finally did.  We each had cheese burgers and a drink and it was very reasonable.  Cheaper than the pubs.  It was really cool to be there on this day an see all that was going on.  As we use to say it was a happening.