A Sunday Stroll Down Portobello Road

In an effort to pack everything I can into our last days in London, I've decided to go see some of my favorite places before we leave. So, on a cloudy Sunday afternoon, I talked (bribed) Mark into jumping on the tube and riding into town to take a long walk down Portobello Road in Notting Hill.

Sadly, no Hugh Grant sightings (although as a side note, my boss, Jo,  did see him in his Ferrari near our office so we are on high alert). Portobello Market goes into full swing on Saturdays so we missed the main event, luckily, tons of the shops were still open  with a few market stalls hanging out for any Sunday stragglers. Like any good London tourist spot, there is a sprinkling of cheap tat shops selling every version of a red bus and black cab you can think of. But, if you're carry on you can discover some truly lovely antique and vintage shops to get lost in. Two or three of the vintage stores have some of the best known designer gear, mostly in pretty good shape. Unfortunately, most of it is still out of my budget (vintage Dior bag or a baby stroller..) so we quickly moved on to the more affordable but no less interesting shop next door with shelves upon shelves of trinkets from days long ago. I always find myself looking through these places like I do a museum, hoping that I'll spot that one piece that everyone else has missed hiding amongst the others. Each piece of jewelry holds a story, maybe a gift from a lover,  the old flask a soldier may have used when he returned from the war or the old typewriter that could have helped to write your favorite book. I'm a bit of a romantic, can you tell?

Here's some snaps from our day out..

 Mark perusing some photos

 Every type of door knob you could want

 

Pizza shop window display

 

No idea why, but we both really liked this piece, so we took it home.

 

Trying to decide what's next on the list as we only have FOURTEEN days left!!!

Hope you are all having a lovely week.

H x