Notting Hill and Portobello

Today is Wednesday, April 21st and we came to Broadstairs, Kent on Sunday, April 18th.  We didn't realize that we wouldn't have internet connections at the flat so I haven't been able to post this Saturday installment until now.  I'm going to try to catch up.  The edition below is from Saturday, the 17th, and right now we are sitting in a pub in Broadstairs that has a Wi-Fi hook up and I am posting what I wrote on Word.  After I hit the "Post Now" command, we are going to go get Fish and Chips somewhere and try to do more later.  Who knows when I will catch up but I hope you just enjoy the stories without worrying about the date!



Saturday, the 17th,  we decided we were going to Notting Hill to the Portobello Road market. However, the tube system had other ideas.  A lot of repairs are being done on the tube on weekends and when we got to where we had to change lines the one we wanted wasn’t in service so we decided to take another and to make a long story short we began to feel like Tom Dooley who rode the Boston train and couldn’t get off!  Eventually, we had to walk to a bus stop and wait quite a while.  The Albert and Victoria Museum was within sight and I told John “Five more minutes and I’m going to the V&A”.  John was really okay with that since we do tend to part ways if one of us doesn’t like where the other one is going however the bus arrived momentarily and off we went.  Because the tubes weren’t working and the planes were grounded due to volcanic ash (none of which we had seen yet), the buses were packed.  However we eventually got to Notting Hill Gate, our stop, and got off.  We turned right when we should have turned left and walked a street of markets with the junkiest stuff you could imagine.   We were so disappointed.  We remembered our visit so many years ago going through antique stores and old jewelry stores where we bought one of my prize possessions – an opera mirror that I wear on a silver chain.  Now all we saw was really cheap stuff.  However, there were many kiosks along the road of ethnic cooking and we ended up having lamb grilled on skewers with salad.  Mmmm, it was delicious with chili sauce and garlic sauce.  Moroccan, we believe, according to the man’s card. 

Then we continued down the other side of the street where we eventually crossed over the street where we had gotten off the bus.  Voila!  This was the part of Portobello we were in years ago and all the old stores were still there!  We were so relieved, not because we wanted to buy something but I guess because yesterday we were disappointed with Leadenhall being modernized and we were afraid the same thing had happened to Portobello.   What had happened to Portobello, though, for better or worse, was again the fascinating mix of people.  There were enclaves of people sitting at tables outside small restaurants specializing in the foods of probably their homelands.  Little cups of coffee, bowls of noodles, bowls of rice with meats and vegetables, small sweet cakes.     

Many of the groups appeared to be of mid-eastern origin and therefore Muslim.  I think this is getting to be a concern to a lot of the English people and I would think that if that were the case in Charlotte, we would begin to be concerned, too.  I mean, the day before we left when we were in the Arboretum I saw for the first time in my country a woman in a burka – in the Arboretum!!!  Here you see many and maybe you might accuse me of profiling, but with the bombings here in the tube stations and hotels, I can understand the politics going on right now about their immigration laws.  However, with the EU I think there are fewer border restrictions than ever.  That and the fact that the British Empire encompassed so many countries in the past whose citizens they are now allowing in because they are part of the Commonwealth or were is making things here rather touchy.  Enough.  On to the rest of our day.  We were now far from our bus stop and there are few tube stations in this are so we walked and we walked and we walked until we finally got to a stop.  At this point I was willing to take ANY bus as long as I could sit down.  

 We did take the next one and missed our stop ( since we really weren’t sure what it was supposed to be anyway) and ended up at Victoria Station, the end of the line!  From there we did get on the tube on the part of our line to Hammersmith that landed us at our familiar home base.  A stop at The Swan for a pint took away the sting on my feet and our walk home from there was pleasant.  It had warmed up somewhat and I was wearing my windbreaker tied around my waist.  Good thing it has long arms!  A stop for milk and a newspaper and we were soon home.  Another quiet evening of watching the telly, writing the blog and a glass of wine.  Bedtime at nine, early for us lately, and plans in our heads for our trip to the seaside at Broadstairs tomorrow for a change of pace.  Ellen and Philip have loaned us their seaside flat there as well and we were anxious to see it.  Yes,  yes, we know – a flat in London and a flat by the sea in exchange for our house in Charlotte?  But they get two dogs!!  Seems like a fair exchange to us.