So our story leaves us at Saturday morning. Our first thing we had planned to do was go to Camden Market. Heather had heard all about the market and I figured it would be a neat outdoor market with fresh produce and we would get one our way . . . turns out we were both surprised. The Camden tube station was extra busy on Saturday morning as we emerged from underground to a street full of people and little shops. We thought it was really neat and started our walk towards the canals that still exist in the city. The shops were selling everything from souvenirs to clothing to shoes to food to jewellery to whatever you could think of. When we got to the canal we could finally see that we had just scratched the beginning of the market. There were thousands of little huts that lined the alleys and backroads and open spaces and inside warehouses. Of course our first order of business was to find food as I've learnt from Heather that "a fed wife is a happy wife". So we duck into where they were selling food alongside the canal. We were immediately accosted on all fronts from vendors nearly jumping out of their huts to give us samples of their food. We made it about a 20seconds before we tried food from a mother and daughter hut selling Turkish food. It was a sort of thin crusted burritto with meat. It was soooo good!
After our food stop we wandered in and out of the stalls, seeing all the fabulous things for sale. I FINALLY found a belt buckle I had been looking for, as well as a UK lanyard to add to my collection, and a hat. We also found one of the neatest huts you could ever imagine. The company is called Zoola and they use fish to clean and massage your feet. You sit alongside a tank full of little fish and dangle your feet inside. The fish go to work eating the dead skin and increasing the blood flow to your feet. They don't have any teeth so it feels like little fish sucking on your skin. Needless to say Heather was up for it and I manned the camera. We got quite the look from people passing by.
We walked through the streets a bit more and then decided we would head over to the famous Picadilly Circus.
From here we picked up our tickets for our evening's West End musical Sweeney Todd. We did a bit of shopping and sightseeing and that brought us to supper. We were almost going to eat at The Maple Leaf, a canadian pub with NHL Hockey and everything, but it was full inside and they were showing a soccer game on TV, so we tried elsewhere. We ended up settling on Garfunkel. They had nachos on the menu so I figured I would try out the British version of nachos. They used stewed tomatoes instead of salsa which was neat, but the rest had much to be desired of. Heather had a good ole' English Breakfast with egg, toast, sausage, ham, giant mushroom and grilled tomato . . . and baked beans . . . soon to be a staple in our breakfast from now on!!!
We then headed to Sweeney Todd, right next door conveniently. We were 4th row from the very back, the best that money could buy;) Spared no expense for my wife and I!!! It was a great musical! Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter was the lead female and she did an outstanding job with great singing and lots of comedy. I would definitely recommend this one to everyone! The neat thing for me was that during our tour of London the night before we had made a stop at Fleet Street to see where the barber shop would have been, where the tunnel was underground, and where a pie shop still exists to this day. Really neat things that made the musical much more meaningful.
Our next day, Sunday begins with great intentions and tired feet. We had planned to get up early to go to church and then spend the day at the zoo. Well we would have had to get up at 7:00ish to take an hour train ride to Hyde Park chapel for 9am church. Well i heard the alarm go off the first time . . . so we ended up getting a late start and were also delayed in the subway because of "planned engineering work" . . . the brit's polite way of maintenance. Their signal system also failed so they couldn't track any trains along a certain line. After that announcement we heard nearly everyone grumble about how its going to be terrible during the Olympics. I'm very happy we are not here for that, its already a busy enough city as it is.
We get to the zoo after a quick stop for a sub-par (or super sub costco) hot dog. But we eventually found soft serve with a chocolate flake for Heather, so the universe was balanced again. haha she just nudged me there.haha So, without going through every animal exhibit and showing you 88 pictures of the Otters (I kinda like them), I will tell you about the highlights and if you want more pictures, email me and I will send them to you or eventually post them on Facebook.
We started with the reptile room and we got to see the cage that Harry Potter stood next to for the snake scene in the Philosopher's Stone. We saw fish and turtles and birds . . . and then the gorillas! They have a silver back gorilla like the one in the Calgary zoo. We saw him up close and boy is he gigantic!!!! We saw penguins and insects and camels and hippos and all sorts of amazing animals. It was my second time at the zoo and I loved it even more this time. The last animals we saw were the otters. I have a ton of pictures I need to sort through as I was using the burst feature. I also have three videos, one with two otters playing together, one with a Galapagos tortoise, and one with the gorillas that I will put to Facebook. They are really neat and worth watching.
After supper we thought we would re-visit Camden Market before heading home as it was right by the tube station. This is where I discovered how dangerous a place the market could really be. Seriously, in no time at all my wallet was forced from my pocket and I had three pairs of shoes in the hands. . . its still all a blur to me, but I warn anyone going there to beware of good deals!!!haha so I ended up buying two pairs of Toms for what we we pay for one pair on sale. And Heather bought a pair of gorgeous purpleish boots (that actually fit her) for only 10 pounds (aka 16$ish). Good times . . . so we finished our day off with a crepe from a street vendor and headed on home.
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