Hello Again London!

Yesterday we packed up in Ghent, said our goodbyes there, and trammed, trained, and tubed our way to our new digs in London.  We've rented a flat in Fulham which is in the western part of London. We're very close to the Parsons Green tube stop which means we jump onto the District Line and can go anywhere in the city. As soon as we arrived, we felt such a different vibe here than we did in Ghent. As much as we enjoyed our time in Belgium, we just love the feeling here in London, and it energized us both.

The area we are in has a nice sense of community with lots of specialty shops and restaurants. Also kids on scooters and bikes heading home from school in their adorable uniforms. We unpacked and headed out for the essentials - a few easy items for breakfast and a bottle of wine. We also found a great butcher shop, a bakery, and a fabulous gourmet grocery store that had anything we could want! We walked to a small Italian place for dinner called Nuovi Sapori. Great food and the staff was terrific. But so many places to try here that I doubt we'll go back.

This morning we had a brief meeting of the planning committee to determine some activities for the week ahead. Then we were out the door and off to the tube. The first place we went was Old Spitafields Market. (This is where we met up with KF and JF several years ago when we were all here at the same time!) It's a huge covered market that has everything from antiques to clothing to old records. And then there's the food. Every kind of ethnic food you can imagine plus bakeries and sandwiches, and the smells were amazing. Some of the food is sold in stalls or booths and some of it is sold in these adorable little food trucks. Here's a few of them:

Greg chose the porchetta sandwich (slow roasted pork belly, carmelized onions, cheese, and a bunch of sauces). Delicious.

And here's a dress I'll soon need to buy if I continue eating as we are. Wonder what style you'd call this? Looks like something from Les Mis?

We probably spent close to two hours wandering the market. And then we moved our wandering out to the streets. Everywhere we turned, there was something fun to see. Elephant sculptures (for you BB), a multi-media show similar to the immersive artist shows but this one was just available for people to walk in off the street, (giraffe for you, BT), and some fun shops to investigate. We did a little impulse shopping and I bought some highly inappropriate birthday cards for friends. Beware.

Several years ago, someone (maybe you, JK?) recommended that we go to William Curley Chocolates. Greg discovered Millionaire Bars, and he's been dreaming about them ever since. So we found their new location located in a small alleyway with cute little shops, and Greg bought a month's supply of the bars. They are a shortbread cookie, covered with caramel and then everything covered in chocolate. He's a happy guy.

Our last stop of the day was the National Gallery. See? We do things other than eat sometimes. We had thought about taking a tour there, but it seemed too crowded to really move with a group. So we walked around as long as our tired legs would allow and then we tubed home. We did want to take a photo of this famous painting for FW.

The artwork in the Gallery is so impressive, and it's wonderful that it's free for anyone to see. I think if I lived here, I'd just try to stop by periodically and view a few rooms at a time. It's overwhelming to try to see them all.

Staying home tonight to try to figure out the washer/dryer combo (really, it's supposed to wash them and then dry them by just starting it up once. I'm skeptical.)