B is for Bon Voyage: London (Portobello Market)

We woke up Saturday morning bright eye and bushy haired tailed to head out to Portobello Road Market. The BHO had found the market on a blog that said it is a fabulously fun place to be on Saturday mornings, so long as you clear out before things get congested at 10. We got there just as they were setting up, and wandered through the ridiculous amount of booths and tents selling everything from silver antiques to very tasty looking pastries. I came away with a deck of cards for the smartest and I's card collection and a cameo necklace, while the BHO purchase an adorable silver tea pot (in case you were wondering, she packed it on the way home with room to spare. I, on the other hand, ended up discarding the uglier of my clothing in order to fit my souvenirs).

After we exhausted the market (and customers started appearing in droves) we hoofed it over to the nearest bus stop and headed for St. Paul's cathedral, home to the whispering gallery, gorgeous mosaics and the longest bathroom lines known to man.

As per usual, no photos were allowed inside- but it is AMAZING. Here, I stole a couple photos from the internet to give you an idea (from here and here)

 

You can actually climb up to where the first railing is in those photos- its a large amount of steps. Seeing the whispering gallery was very cool and worth it... though the hike from there to the balcony/roof area was decidedly not. But here is the photo I took from there, so we can pretend it had some semblance of purpose:

While we were there, someone was actually getting married, so as we left we snapped a couple photos of their double decker "just married" bus. People really do wear hats to weddings in London, as it turns out.

Next up... we cross the pedestrian bridge to the Globe theater (awesome) and the Tate Modern (abysmal).