Leslie at the busy Portobello Market Stonehenge, about 50' behind us - it was surprisingly small! A nice view from the London Eye The 450' tall London Eye and the Thames The main, huge greenhouse at Kew Gardens Inside a greenhouse at Kew Gardens

Having been to London before and conquering most of the tourist attractions we could manage, this time around we decided to focus on the finer points of London - shopping, particularly the markets. Not food markets (although some of them did have great, inexpensive produce) but more like flea markets and swap meets with cool English antiques and other goodies. We hit the Camden, Portobello Road, Greenwich Pier, Bermondsey, Brick Lane and Covent Garden markets. Leslie found some great old pins and china, and Jon found a nice Moroccan drum. We also hit a number of antique stores and, as expected, the items in those shops were noticeably different... somehow more authentic than what you'd find in the States. The prices were just as high for the most part. Jon did his share of shopping in a copious amount of CD/vinyl/video stores, coming back with a suitcase-full of CDs and Al-related UK videos for his archive. In a drum shop, he got a Master Blaster, one of those loud truck-sounding horns that fans blow at the soccer games. We also went to Selfridge's and Harrod's, both very large, opulent department stores with amazing "food halls" filled with gourmet meat, fish, produce and other sundries, and each with its own Sushi bar and other food stands. We visited the Twining Tea main store, Foyle's Bookstore, the main Dr. Marten's store filled with overpriced clothing (to go with their overpriced shoes,) D.R.Harris Chemists (who, among other things, hand make bone-handled, real-bristle toothbrushes,) and dozens of other shops in-between. One obvious and frustrating difference between London and almost anywhere in the U.S. is that very few stores stay open past 6pm, and even fewer are open on Sundays. Harrod's advertised that they were "working overtime" by staying open until 7pm! Even Tower Records, known in the U.S. for staying open until midnight, closed at 9pm... 6pm on Sundays! The food was wonderful, and as we're both fans of Indian cuisine, we only let one day go by without enjoying it. We found a great place near Notting Hill that we went back to a few times, Durbar Tandoori Restaurant. We'll definitely visit there again! We also tried Geale's for fish & chips, which was great. Getting around town was very easy on the Underground, and we never got lost despite exploring some new territory. Jon's favorite part was hearing "mind the gap" whenever the doors opened (as the platform and train spacing was usually uneven) and found it necessary to buy 2 t-shirts and several stickers with the slogan. Despite all the eating and shopping, we did manage a few London sights... Kew Gardens, the London Eye (the huge ferris wheel from the Millennium celebration) and Stonehenge on June 20, just one day before the Summer Solstice and all the neo-druid celebrations therewith.   All in all, it was a fun vacation and we loved every minute! Jon & Leslie   (visit our Hawaii vacation page!)