Laundry, Mailing, banking

Today was partly catch up day.  I found out early the hotel doesn't offer laundry service but will send items out for a per item price.  Forget that.  I had seen a coin laundry on Queensway so I loaded up and walked down there.  Had my laundry done in about an hour and headed back to the hotel.

I was going to mail back some of the quilting books I have picked.  Stopped after laundry at post office to buy a smaller box as the one I bought yesterday proved to be much too big.  Loaded, sealed and labeled the box and then toted it 4-5 blocks back to the post office.  Only to find that it would cost £78.00 to ship it.  It should cost a lot less to just pay for a heavy bag coming back.  So I toted it back to the hotel.  Now I must admit in the days before menapause by now I would have been having a bad day and probably a good cry.  But I soldiered on. I went over to the bank to withdraw some cash and got a message that I couldn't get any.  Now hang on a minute.  I know I set up a good reserve for my vacation, what was going on.  I decided to check on it further when I came back.

 I was looking for a shop I had found online that sold patchwork cottons.  What a disappointment.  No cottons at all so I walked down Bond Street (the Rodeo Drive of London) to Piccadilly and then onto Piccadilly Circus.  But decided my feet hurt quite enough, shin splints are still terrible and it was time to head back.

When I got back decided to check quick with the credit union about the cash.  Seems they had been taking my withdrawls out of the wrong sub account.  Hopefully I have that straightened out.  It's only about 3:45 pm now so after I give my feet a rest I will head over to the bank again to be sure.

I have a 5 am pickup tomorrow morning for my day trip to Paris.  Fortunately the tour company will pick me up at my hotel, so all I have to do is be up waiting for them at 5 am.  It will be a late day tomorrow and I will not be back until almost 11 pm. So there will be a gap.

Cheers for now.

Kempton Park Antique Market

With my ticket in hand from yesterday I set off before 7 am to catch the train to Sunbury on Thames for an antique market Dennis had told me about.  I had looked it up on the internet so knew that it would be a bit of a walk from the train station.  Imagine my dismay as I approached as saw a sign about the Thursday market.  But I proceeded on anyway hoping that there was a market today as well.  And I was in luck, there was.

The market kind of reminds me of the Ann Arbor market or the old antique shows at the old Civic Center in Lansing 30 years ago.  There were vendors in the betting area, in front of the stands, behind the stands and along the back road.  It was very interesting, lots of people, vendors from France as well as England.  I only found one small items that loosened my purse strings.

Caught the train back at 12:15 and arrived back at my home tube station by 1:45.  Had an early dinner/late lunch, picked up a few items and settled in.

Tomorrow is Bond street and some of the fabric shops.  Thursday is Paris at 4 am, ugh.  Well, must close, have to look up direction to a fabric shop.

Cheers!

Covent Garden Market & Tour of British Museum

Long day today.  I went to Covent Gardens this morning for the antique/flea market.  Found a couple of treasurer's but nothing spectacular. I went round and round as I always do.  Some vendors were still setting up so you never know what else got put out if you don't check back.

Then I had decided to take the 2:15 London Walks walking tour of the British Museum which I had never been too. I had a good amount of time between the Gardens and the walk so I got some lunch, but I was still about an hour early to meet the leader of the walk outside Holborn station.  It was much colder today, low 50's if that and it threatened rain all day, but I lucked out and it never did rain. 

Madeline was the leader of our walk.  She reminded me a lot of my mom only about 20 years younger.  We walked about 6 minutes from the station to the museum. This was just meant to be an overview of the museum's collections and to entice you to revisit often.  We saw the "marbles" from the Parthenon, ancient Persian guardians and egyptian objects.  We quickly moved through several time periods but ended up where I think I and Dennis would spend the most time.  English hoards uncovered over the years.  It was a very good tour.  Of course we finished up about the start of peak rail time.

I was going to go to an antique market tomorrow at Sunbury on the Thames.  Dennis had told me to leave from Victoria Station, and the Rail information people told me King's Cross, another one that escapes my mind and lastly Vauxhall.  So after the museum tour I made my way to King's Cross to check for sure and to see if I could buy my ticket there.  Vauxhall ended up being the one.  So bought my ticket and then struggled back to the hotel. Ten hours on my feet, no nap/rest and I am done in.  Had a sandwich and bought one for tomorrow.  Early to bed tonight.  Maybe I'll have my pear Magner's when I get back upstairs.   That should make for a sound sleep.

If I get back early tomorrow I plan to do up a box of books to ship back ahead of time.  A little something for Jack and Molly and the quilt books I have acquired.  I hope the Stars have a good meeting tomorrow night.  Anyone else working on their mystery?  Well, it's 7:35 pm, time to take these blasted shoes off.

Cheers!

Hyde Park and Liberty of London

Finally a quiet night last night.  Figuring it was Sunday I allowed myself to sleep until 7:30. Left about 8:30 to go and check out the artist along Baywater Street.  Walked back and forth a couple of times before making a selection from a nice gentleman.

Artists set up along Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens

Since I bought some fabrics yesterday at the V&A I wanted a couple more to go along.  Kept walking until I reached John Lewis which I knew from yesterday carried fabric.  Didn't find much there.  So I kept walking and looking.  I came to an area that I thought was pretty close to Liberty of London, so thought I would look for the store.  I found it.  They had quilts displayed in their display windows and inside the store as well.  I found a couple more fabrics to join the others, and then headed out.  It seemed an awful long ways before I finally found a tube station at Tottenham.  I figure I must have walked a couple of miles today. 

Liberty of London

One of the window displays at Liberty. 

An art quilt on display at Liberty.

Quilts on display inside Liberty were also for sale.

I had thought to take a London walk this evening, but after all the walking today, didn't think my feet would be up to it.  So stopped and bought more water, a pear Magner's (which I haven't tried yet) and a sandwich. Had a nice lunch at Garfunkel's today to make up for sandwich tonight.

Tomorrow is the antique market at Covent Gardens and a tour at 2:15 of the British Museum.  Also have to get my ticket for Tuesday to the antique market at Kempton Park.

Covent Gardens

British Museum

Rosetta Stone

Still haven't worked out the bugs with the Wi-fi here.  I may have to try the internet cafe around the corner tomorrow night.

Cheers!

Portobello Road & Victoria & Albert Quilt display

Well the neighbors were at it again last night.  I got to bed relatively early but was woken up in the night.  Oh well.  Went to Portobello Road by 7 am.  Surprisingly I beat many of the vendors.  Very crowded, probably because the weather was nice.  I think it got to 68 today.  Came back to hotel but stopped at Greg's sandwich shop for a tuna crunch sandwich.  very good.  Took a bit of a rest but was back out by 1:30 to head to the Victoria & Albert Museum.

A view of one of Portobello Road shops.

Quilting friends, I finally found where all those antique sewing machines go when our grandmothers upgraded.  It is clothing shops in England called Allsaints Spitalfields.  See what I mean...

They have quite a wonderful exhibit on of quilts from 1700 to 2010.  No photos were allowed so I picked up 2 copies of the show book.  One for myself and one for our guild library.  They also have some fabrics designed for this exhibition that were available in 1 metre, 1/2 meter and fat quarters.  So I picked up just a few.

Wandered through Harrods, in one door, out the other side.  Would rather shop at John Lewis or Selfridges.  Will head up to my room shortly and try to finally download some of my photos using the laptop from work.  Have had supper and a lager.  It's about 6:50 pm now.

Cheers!

Portabello flea

Today was supposed to be the Portabello flea and the quilt exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum, but things didn't quite go as planned.  My neighbors partied until 1 am this morning so I had a very late night.  So I didn't make the 5:30 alarm that I had set.  I was up by 7 though. 

Decided to try to find a tube station near the end of Portabello and make my way back toward the hotel.  After a couple of missteps I fould the Hammersmith line Ladbroke station got me just where I needed to be.  There were a medium amount of vendors today.  Dennis, not sure the banana box vendor was there.  Then walked back up Portobello road to the tube station.  By that time the feet and shins were bothering again.  So I picked up a cheese and tomato sandwich and some crisps and went back to the hotel for a rest.  That rest turned into a 2 hour nap, but this is vacation. 

Portobello Road

But then it was too late to do the V&A because they close at 5:45.  So I took the tube down to Oxford Circus and worked my way back toward Marble Arch.  Forgot it was Friday night, never seen so many people out, but I would get it hit 68-70 degrees today so everyone was enjoying the weather.  Came back to Queensway and had dinner about 7 pm at the italian restaurant, risoto and an italian lager.  It's about 9:05 now. 

Bella Italia is a chain of restaurants in England.  It was a good reliable place for dinner, where the food was always good and the Italian waiters were always friendly.

The full Portabello flea is tomorrow.

Cheers!

Off to York

Today was a lovely sunny morning.  So it was off to York to the quilt museum.  I was a bit shocked to find the train fare was £83. but it was a 2 hour ride each way which was only £40 per leg.  Didn't leave London until 11 am and then was held up because a lady showed up at the last minute, and while she put her luggage on-board, the train started to leave, leaving her 2 young children still on the platform.  After her frantically running through the train and yelling to stop it, someone pulled the emergency stop and she was able to retrieve them.  And we were off- about 20 minutes late.  Arrived in York at 1 pm.

York was wonderful and crowded.  I walked from the train to the city center, enjoying looking in some of the shops and the outdoor market.  The quilt museum proved harder to find than I thought, but finally about 2:30 I figured it out. They had about 25 quilts on display, a mix of antique and contemporary.  I did more walking but was getting terrible shin splints from walking the cobblestone streets.  Had wonderful fish and chips for lunch about 3 pm.  More walking, more looking, decided I wanted to catch the 5:20 train back to London. So had to hot foot it to the station.  Got back to London about 7:20 pm

View of the Roman wall that surrounds York.

View of the Minster Cathedral from the Shambles in York.

 

Another view of the cathedral in York.

Signage outside the quilt museum in York in minimal to say the least.  I think I walked by this at least once before I saw this other sign.

And then a river runs through it...

One last shot, of the train station at York.  I'm always making note of architctural detail that serve as all sorts of inspiration.

Supper was a grilled cheese and tomato pannini from the bar with a pint of Magners. Cheers!

Wasn't able tonight to get photos on blog.  Maybe by tomorrow night the wi-fi will be fixed and I can use my own laptop.

Well time for a couple of Aleve and bed.  Not sure what's on schedule for tomorrow.