September 13, 2004

Hello from London,

Last I wrote, I was headed off to a festival. As it turns out, we were a day early but had fun anyway and went back Sunday. Kate and I arrived in Banglatown at noon when the festival was scheduled to kick off. Lucky us. By the time we left at 2:30, there were so many people in the area we couldn't control where we were walking! We did find some very good curry to eat. I thought I didn't like curry; I was wrong.

We were also back in that neighborhood today, because as we were wandering
around on Saturday we found a very inexpensive fry shop. Lunch today was fish and chips for 1/3 the price of the same in our neighborhood. Greasy, delicious.

Before we accidentally met up (odd to run into someone you know while out in a strange city), I spent some time this morning in Harrod's. It's the most extravagant department store in the world. The food halls are incredible. The display cases have butter carvings of Pavarotti among others. One hall is dedicated to meats, one to cheeses, one to chocolate and the like, one to fruits and veg...you get the idea. Weirdly though, when I went to the ladies “Luxury Toilet”; it wasn't so luxurious. Hmm. The perfume hall is huge. There are at least 75 black-clad perfume girls swarming around trying to spray everyone. I didn't make it through the entire store, but I will go back to check out the pet and toy departments at least. I'll probably wait until December though, because their decorations and displays are supposed to be fantastic.

Before we went for lunch, Kate and I went down to Christie's auction house to thumb through catalogs of upcoming sales and check out the preview rooms. Beautiful clocks and furniture were on display today. I will try to get back there for an auction while I'm here.

What all this doesn't tell you is that I must be walking 5-10 miles a day. We take the tube to the general area where we think we need to be, but Kate and I have a habit of getting lost. We have learned to embrace our lostness, though, because we have run across some really incredible sights. I am enclosing a couple of photos of one of our stumbling-down-an-alleyway shortcuts (don't worry, it is remarkably safe in this city, and we don't do this alone).