Portobello Road, headed up to the market. It's just as picturesque as you can imagine.
(update: just went this week and this particular spot is covered by construction :( )

You'll find food, produce, clothing, leather goods and antiques up and down the length of Portobello Road. On Saturday and Sunday, it is a fully pedestrian market.

Colourful houses all around Notting Hill make for FAB photo op (this is on Lancaster road)

I can't help taking a run by this place any time I'm near Notting Hill Gate. Also, get some Thai food here :)



AFTERNOON TEA

sketch london
Sketch for afternoon tea - It's just off of Regent Street so there's plenty of shopping and transportation around.

Sketch London - Soho/Regent Street

St Pancras Renaissance Hotel

If you go on Saturday, there are more food stalls up than during the week. GET THE CHURRO. Or don't. But do.

The Old Royal Naval College is now the home of the University of Greenwich. Even before it was either one of those things, it was home and favorite hunting ground of Henry VIII. He and Elizabeth I lived here (building marked near the river, not standing)

Take the time to head up the hill in Greenwich park to the Royal Observatory. Not only is it the home of time but you get this view!

FORTNUM & MASON
If you don't know this place, you should know a few of things:
1. This is where the Scotch Egg was invented (YUM)
2. Heinz Baked Beans were introduced to Britain for the first time here in 1886
3. F&M Hampers are historic and vary from gourmet to the most posh picnic you could ever have!
(here's some more if you want to see F&M's timeline)

A charming place where the banisters are covered in velvet and the biscuit tins are music boxes. And that's just the ground floor....

Walk around the first floor and fantasize about alllll the china patterns, find the beautiful Christmas floor and buy some tea/biscuits!

SUNDAY ROAST 
A British Classic
So far, my favorite Sunday Roast has been at the Grazing Goat! I love a good place for fish and chips but for a happy Sunday meal, go for the roast. Make a reservation directly on their site or Opentable.co.uk if you're into that.

The Queen's Walk
This walk takes you along the River Thames from Westminster over to St Paul's (similar to LGH-Part 1) But let me add pictures to entice you to go see Tate Modern (if you need enticing).


P.S. I smell a LGH Part 3 coming at you soon!

The Nativity

Directly above baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph you'll see the tree of life. It looks like a real life tree!

THEN YOU STEP INSIDE

The whole building is like a living, breathing thing. Trees instead columns stretch to the ceiling which is covered in stone vegetation. Gaudi was inspired by three passions: architecture, nature and religion.

An interesting thing I read about him: he preferred to create 3-D models of his designs and rarely drew any plans, molding the details as it came to him. He followed the organic forms found in nature.

And can we just talk about the stained glass for a minute?

There is so much light allowed to flow through this giant main room that the feeling is unlike any other cathedral/abbey/basilica that I have ever visited.

He thought of every single detail, down to the thickness of the glass; varying the thickness to control the light's intensity.

It's not hard to see why it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, 5th on the World's Top Landmarks. I see a Gaudi-specific trip in our future....

We made a beeline direct to our favourite ride from last year. WILDE MAUS

Tokens are steep but worth it.

The smell of German bratwurst is everywhere. We grabbed some sweet potato fries and watched a long line of men try their hands at one of those impossible carnival games: 'Hang on a bar for 2 minutes to win £20.' It was so entertaining to watch the big, burly men try to hang on and the crowd groaning with them when they fell short of the 2 minute mark.

Every kind of Haribo! Extremely fitting in a German market and sure made Taylor a happy guy.

Bratwurst served with soooo much sauerkraut. But smells oh so good.

Creepy, creepy man in Bavaria Town.

Walking away from the park toward the Knightsbridge underground station. London is such a gloriously beautiful place.

Harrods Christmas Lights.

London Black Cabs.

Tourists clogging up the sidewalk. 

(I added to the chaos by taking some photos myself and I don't feel that badly about it)

(taken from the train from London Kings Cross headed north to Cambridge, UK)

While we figure out where we go from here, we get to investigate the options.

This day of adventure took us to Cambridge University!
Taylor found information about an MBA experience day at the Cambridge Judge Business School and he asked if I would like to go with him.
I love spending time with my husband and, hello? Hang out in Cambridge as a prospective student? Yes, please!

Cambridge in the fall...

Cambridge Judge Business School

Does this remind anyone else of Harry Potter?

We spent the morning in information sessions with professors and alumni of CJBS. It's an accelerated program so the MBA is done in one year. To be perfectly honest, they did a great job selling their program. They even had ME considering the MBA program.

We wandered just around the corner after a lovely lunch of sandwiches and cakes. The sign by the door reads, "Charles Darwin lived here 1836-7"

Fall colours look goooood on these old buildings.

Mathematical Bridge. See my last Cambridge post to see about the bridges and punting tour we did on the River Cam the last time we were here.

Has everyone seen The Imitation Game? If not, worth the time!

Guess who graces the side of King's College?...(hint: he married a lot of people)

The Senate House, used for degree ceremonies though it was formerly used for meetings of the University's Council of the Senate.

I love the shopping lanes around the market square

Smelled like lots of good cheese and they offer more types of crackers than I ever imagine would have existed in the world....