Saturday October 29 - London

Each day when Ferris and I go to breakfast we spend the first 20 minutes or so on the internet.  While the Cumberland is a nice hotel, WiFi availability in room is spotty at best.  But reception is excellent in the breakfast room and we have an opportunity to download the news, read and respond to emails and I write and send the 'blog'.  In addition we make a habit of checking the weather.  When you're traveling, especially in London, having some sense of the expected temperature and how likely it might be to rain is critical.  I was convinced that today would rain.

The group's plan is to go to Kew Gardens today, where Scott and I went several years ago to see a special orchid show.  So given the weather and the fact that I'd been before - and given a special brochure we'd picked up advertising a craft fair for British artisans - we decided to remain in town.  

We got a leisurely start on the day and got on the tube headed for Chelsea to visit a craft show.  Got half way there and found out that the tube line we needed to transfer to isn't in service on the weekend so were forced to take a taxi the remainder of the way.  There were oodles of people on the street ecstatic about some kind of football (what they call soccer) match and traffic was snarled to a halt.  Eventually we arrived at the Old Chelsea Town Hall for a look around.  Our consensus was that the overall quality of goods was high but only a hand full of artists really struck our fancy.  We enjoyed looking around anyway and were glad we'd gone.  [But this fair is a far cry from the real Chelsea Craft Fair of old that I believe has been renamed Origin.]  

It wasn't until leaving that we realized what a beautiful day it was.  Since we knew we'd have difficulty returning by metro we decided to try taking the bus.  We walked to Sloane Square passing a steady stream of trendy shops and boutiques and tall women wearing tight jeans and boots.  I had no idea how to navigate the bus system and after much searching and not finding the right bus stop we asked a darling 18 year old boy/man where we should go to catch the bus we needed.  Turns out he was going to Marble Arch also.  Ferris and I went to the upper deck and sat in the very front seat.  We got to have a perfect tour of London from just above the tree tops.  Next trip I'm going to ride all over London on the upper deck.

Returned to the hotel to pack up all belongings that had been strewn about the room.  This was no easy feat.  At 6:30 had comfort food dinner with Trisha across the street (yes that means spaghetti).  Found out that clocks set back one hour tonight which makes getting up at 5 am tomorrow a little less painful.