Day 2 (24/3/2007) London

Timeline of the day:

8:15am: left Hotel

8:20am: met a guy in front of our hotel offering to take photo for us, then demanding £5 from us so that he can mail to us.

8:30am: boarded tube at Russell Square

9:15am: arrived at Portobello

12:50pm: Lunch at Stix & Bowl

2:15pm: Chanced upon Baden Powell House

3pm to 5:50pm: Science Museum

6:15pm: Harrods

7:15pm: Dinner at Yo Sushi

7:50pm: Supermarket shopping (Waitrose)

Spendings of the day:

Toilet: 20p

Donut (on the way to Portobello): £1.50

Cupcake (at Portobello): £1.45

Souvenir magnets (from Portobello): £3

Spicy chicken burger (at Portobello): £1.45

Winter cap (was freezing cold): £4

Scarf: £5

Oyster card topup: £10 x 2pax = £20

Lunch: Sweet and Sour pork rice £5.20, Hor fun £5.20, Coke £1.20

Scout souvenirs: £18

Dinner at Yo Sushi: £16.05 (Katsu Curry x 2, Tamago, Coke, Salmon handroll, Miso Soup, Gyoza)

Groceries from Waitrose: £5.71

bought a pack of mini Pringles chips (which I eventually ate at Munich...)

On the way to Portobello

still walking...just follow the crowd and you'll reach Portobello. :)

 Will post more pics of Portobello on a separate blog entry 

finally arrived...  It was darn chilly...I believe this was the coldest day I encountered at London during my trip.

bought a burger from this stall

a little spicy but very nice.

Chocolate cupcake with pink vanilla cream

vending machine at the tube platform

I was craving for rice...so found this chinese food outlet.

very oily

hard to bite

We were pleasantly surprised to come across the Scouts HQ in London while on our way to the Science Museum!!
Since Alf is a scout, so we spent some time here to take a look at the place.

More pics we took at the Baden Powell House on a separate blog entry here.

More pics taken at this Science Museum on a separate blog entry.

inside the Science Museum

Harrods

some items sold in Harrods

Dinner at a Sushi outlet near our hotel - *food not really recommended...however we were too hungry by then to care much*

your choice of either fizzy plain water or still plain water.

a very small portion of katsu curry rice

Souvenirs from Portobello...they are now sitting on our fridge door. :)

Text on postcard

Alfred:

The sky began to brighten at 05:30am, London time.  We left the hotel early to go visit the Portobello Morning Market.  It felt especially cold this morning, I don't remember feeling this cold yesterday.  Whatever heat I had was readily lost thru my jeans.  My lips felt dry when I licked them.  "Hmm, better put on some lip protection." I thought.  I haven't had time to keep the lip balm when this middle aged guy with a flattened cap/hat and browny cream jacket came up to us and asked us questions like where we're from and whether we enjoyed London and if we minded if he took our photos.  We didn't mind but I was consciously wary if this guy was a pick-pocket.  He asked for our address so he can send the photos to us.  Then he said something like "that'll be Ten pounds please."  I stoned, "WTH, asking for $$ liao."  We tried to say "no thanks!" He lowered to £5 and we still didn't want to but he persisted, so we gave in and left.  Kena scammed.  We laughed about it on the way to Russell Square station.  Made our way to Portobello Market at Nottinghill Gate station.  The streets were busy with people but not too crowded. Stopped by the display of a little bakery called the Humming Bird and we went in for a look.  Sam got herself a chocolate cupcake with pink frosting on top.  Walking abit more, we came by a German Barbeque and got a spicy chicken burger for Sam, plain of course, to share with me.  We seem to feel the "need to feed" very easily when we're cold.  Had enough of the endless markets, we decided to head for one of the museums in the afternoon.  We stumbled upon this place called Stix and Bowls.  Something like that, and had lunch there.  The owners were Singaporean and some workers were Malaysian.  Did I mention I had to follow Sam shopping at Marks and Spencers for a hat and scarf before we had lunch?  Anyway, while looking for the museums, we stumbled on (we're getting very good at "stumbling") the Baden Powell House. 

Samantha:

To summarise the rest of the day: Science Museum, Harrods, Yo Sushi, and then back hotel.  End of day 2.  Thanks Alf for giving me 2 lines to write.


Note: The guy outside the hotel who took photos of us and asked for £5 really did mailed us the photo!

The photo which the guy took on his camera and mailed to us.