Day 8 - Portobello Road, the street where the riches of ages are stowed!

Saturday is market day in Portobello Road, so in addition to the regular stores there are street vendors and fruit 'n veg stalls everywhere! Portobello Road is the largest antiques market and the coolest street market I have ever seen! According to Wikipedia Portobello Road was made famous by the movie Notting Hill, but for me it was made famous by Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

After breakfast we took the tube to Notting Hill and literally followed the herd of people down to Portobello Road. For the first few minutes people stayed on the sidewalks but slowly we bgean to ooze onto the road. The first real store we passed was a shop selling signs. I spotted a few I'd like, but thought I'd wait until the end of the day and see how much money I had left. After the sign shops Portobello Road was officially closed off to traffic so we ranged over both sides looking at heaps of silver toast racks, teapots, spoons, knives, forks, trays, and everything in between. There were stalls with piles of crystal, jewellery old maps, Paddington bears, random antiques, old clothing, and lace. The streets were so packed you had to squeeze through like it was Stampede time in Calgary. My Mum and I browsed a few antique shops that had stuff worth several thousand pounds minimum. I'd never seen so many neat shops. One stall at the end of the market was entirely devoted to old military clothing. They had everything from WWII Russian uniforms to jackets worn by British soldiers spanning 400 years.

We spotted a silver stall that actually had its silver in neat rows and columns so we went and checked it out. The stall had some lovely stuff and my Mum grabbed a toast rack. She was so patient waiting for the stall owner to finish with some very impatient ladies that he gave the toast rack to her at a discount for being so polite.

After grabbing the toast rack we strolled by some musicians playing music in folk fashion. They did a really good version of the Animals "House of the Rising Sun" in a more upbeat fashion. We stopped to listen for a bit and donated some change to them. I really wished that my camera did videos with sound at that moment.

After wandering one mile of the two mile market we stopped in at the Duke of Wellington  for some lunch. We even managed to snag a table we spotted through the window! Excellent food as usual and I became acquainted with a cider called Aspall. For lunch I tried a scotch egg for the first time and am in love with them mmm delicious!

After lunch we did the other mile of the market looked at top hats, dresses and old swords! Some of which I desperately wanted to take home with me, but as they were several hundred quid and the size of me it wasn't going to happen *pout* Reaching the end we turned around and headed back to the tube. On the way we stopped at the same silver stall and purchased a cream pitcher and I went on the hunt for a silver locket. I saw several neat ones, but not one I loved so I left without a locket. However, I did hit up the sign store and got a retro Tin Tin one and a Keep Calm Carry On one. Tired after a day of jostling and walking we headed back to the hotel via tube and walked through Hyde Park a bit.