Antiques, Tea and a Musical

Portobello Road and the Saturday antique market in Notting Hill.

The colorful homes and crowds of shoppers give a fun vibe to the area with all the street vendors,

mostly selling antique jewelry and other small pieces.

I'd mapped out a few walks for the area to see cute streets,

but couldn't get our bearings and in the end we all decided seeing the one main street was good enough.

In the future, I need to find an app that gives digital directions.

Dan found a little Mediterranean cafe for lunch and we ate our first real salad that we've had all week!

I'm so glad Tiffany captured this moment of Dan and Kurt having such a good time together.

We loved every minute we spent together!

From Notting Hill we walked across Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, 

grateful for another beautiful day with the sun shining.

Next on our route was the Victoria & Albert Museum.

(Have I mentioned that all museums are free in London? 

So it's easy to just pop in and have a look around.)

Hello Chihuly!

Gosh, I thought she was so sweet.

This Michelin Tyre store was much fancier than I'd imagine a tire store to be

See the Michelin Man?

Harrods

The Tube also uses tap-to-pay so we easily got on and off without needing to purchase an Oyster card.

We went back to our hotel to dress up for High Tea at Lanesborough Hotel

and by the time we were out at 3:00, it started to rain.

Mocktails, a variety of herbal teas, four flavors of sandwiches,

and decadent desserts. We'd heard it might feel light and that we'd be hungry soon afterward,

but we were stuffed!

We waited for our teatime in one of many decorated lounges. Parlors, if you will.

There was a door leading outside that was shut with a curtain over it. 

We learned it was where the queen would enter when she came, 

so they've now closed it off. Kind of like retiring her jersey! 

After tea and before our show, we had time to walk back to the hotel and change shoes.

Thankfully! My nice shoes weren't the greatest for walking long distances!

Tonight we saw the musical, Operation Mincemeat, recommended by Jason W.

and Olivier Award Winner (Tony equivalent) for best musical and best actor.

It was great fun, with a cast of only five taking on multiple roles, similar to Come From Away.

The singing and acting as well as the part changes were phenomenal

and the script and story great fun.

Light-hearted and funny.