A Walk Down Portobello Road

We've had a lovely day wandering through Notting Hill and down Portobello Road. It was our first time visiting the market, and it was quite inspiring in places!

It was a glorious day - cold and crisp, but dry, and not a cloud in the blue, blue sky. After getting off the tube we missed the road that would have led us quickly to Portobello Road, and instead continued walking away from the market. This was nice, though, since it took us past some pleasant Georgian architecture and locked subscription only gardens. And eventually we realised our mistake and found some great little specialist bookshops - travel and cookshop in particular - on our way to the famous street itself.

We walked along past the market stalls selling colourful scarves, dresses, floppy hats, rasta flags, old army uniforms ... having our nostrils pricked by the Italian aromas of olives, fresh bread, salamis, French crepes, the salty seaness of crab, red snappers, prawns, the Turkish scents of falafels, coffee and incense ... our eyes feasting on fresh vegetables and fruits, our ears filled with jazz and street traders calling out their wares ... pausing now and again to touch soft cashmere, or to pick up old binoculars, to fondle amber beads or to feel cotton tops. We walked under a bridge, hearing the roar of a train passing overhead, and decided to have lunch. At Thai Rice, to be exact. I had delicious red curry with chicken and coconut rice, and H had stewed duck with noodles. Both delicious, aromatic, filling. The photo above is of the sink, filled with pebbles, which I quite liked, too!

Having eaten our fill, we headed off into the darkening street, visiting the many antique market stalls as we proceeded. We saw a complete set of "Chapman and (something!)" Dickens for £165, a set of four medals for £100, old sets of wooden and iron golf clubs, Nazi helmets and stars, Victorian lace nightshirts, many amber beads, Box Brownies and other antique cameras, canteens of ivory cutlery ... in and out of the mini-markets we wandered, until we reached some of the more mainstream shops. Here we saw many colourful and tasteful dresses, jumpers, jackets, a pub lit by candlelight, shops filled with London memorabilia, coffee shops ... We stopped at the Oxfam Book Shop, where we met an author publishing his first book about Hollywood, but decided (regretfully, embarrassedly) not to buy it, but did buy many Classics for small amounts of money.

Reaching the end of the Road, we turned along a smaller street, where I was drawn to this Italian deli selling pizza, which had an eyecatching window display!

We finished our buying in another secondhand bookshop; in all we bought about ten secondhand classic books today, so hopefully I'll be able to get closer to reading all 1001 Books! I also finished reading "Hideous Kinky", by Esther Freud, on the tube, so that's another one crossed off my list!

All in all another wonderful day, and we even managed to get a little bit of Christmas shopping done as well! We will be back ... some time!