Now, in our hotel in Belgium, we are blessed with a couple of English-language TV stations. Two of them are BBC 1 and BBC 2 (British Broadcasting Company). I have been enjoying several British shows. Judging from what they put on TV, the British love home-improvement (who doesn't?) and antiques. I have seen many different formats surrounding these two themes, but I have my favorites. One of them is called Bargain Hunt. The basic plot of the show is that it takes 2 teams of 2 people, gives them each £300 to spend at an antiques fair and then sells the items purchased at an auction. Each team gets an expert to help them pick "bargains" so that they can hopefully make a profit when selling the items at the auction. The winners are those that either make the most profit, which they get to keep, or lose the least money.
Portobello Road is a well-known open-air market on the weekends. For those My Fair Lady fans out there, this is where Eliza Doolittle sold her flowers. It is a huge market, broken down by sections: antiques, food, and new items. Portobello Road was only a few blocks from our hotel, and after watching all these Brits find bargains, I decided that I wanted to try and find one of my own. (Thankfully, D was game.)
I was excited to be at the market and was just getting the courage to go into shops when I spotted the tell-tale blue fleece jackets. I clawed D's arm when I saw David Barbey, in the picture here with the camera man to the left, and started literally jumping up and down telling D that we had stumbled upon a Bargain Hunt episode. (I had had a caffeinated drink for breakfast, which might be part of the reaction, but I was seriously excited.) I was thrilled to shake David's hand, who was so gracious to the over-excited, crazy American, and wished the blue team good luck. I was trying to come down off my cloud when I spotted Tim Wonnacott.
Tim Wonnacott is the host of Bargain Hunt and is an incredibly gregarious, colorful man. His personality is as colorful as his clothes (I LOVE that he has different glasses to match his different bow ties and outfits.) I begged D to take a picture of me with him and then patiently waited for him to finish his conversation with a producer. I look a little star-struck, which is kind of funny to me. I never thought of myself as a being susceptible to TV/Movie star-power, but clearly that is not entirely true. I was a bit amazed that no one else seemed to realize who was there, (this was BARGAIN HUNT!), or not really care, which was equally shocking. My whole weekend had been made and it had just begun.
I was afraid to tell D of the item that I really wanted to find at the market, but I wanted to make sure he wanted it too. We had looked for a mantel clock when we moved into the house because we have a lovely mantel and a great clock store in town. However, we didn't realize how expensive they were, so gave up. But, having seen on TV so many clocks sold in the UK for seemingly little, I had hope we would find it. I finally found a shop that had smallish clocks that were lovely, but the price was outrageous. Thankfully, the dealer pointed us in the right direction (just down the street from him) to this fantastic man. He is the ultimate clock man. The prices were great and the clocks were lovely. We were excited to find a clock we both liked : an art deco model with a Westminster Abbey chime that was made in London. PERFECT! Our dealer did a great job of wrapping up the clock for us as well and educating us on care for it. And, since we bought it just blocks from our hotel, we were able to drop it off before heading off to our next stop, Westminster Abbey.
I had been to London several times, but had never been able to make the time to visit Westminster Abbey. It is a beautiful church and so steeped with history. I liked that the audio tour was included in the price of admission because I would never have appreciated the small (and big) details without such a guide. It also helped provide a good flow. If one area was crowded, you'd just type in that number combination in later and skip over it. Unfortunately, it is not allowed to take pictures inside, because the tremendous variety of style and decoration - the stain glass, the wood carving, the royal paraphernalia and the stones marking the burial places of famous artists, not to mention the caskets for royalty, were breathtaking. It was a remarkable place. I think my favorite (or perhaps most memorable) item was seeing the throne that English kings and queens had been crowned on since the 1300's. It is surprisingly simple. No jewels or stone or fur on it, it is just a big wooden chair. Now, it is beautifully carved and has gold leaf on it, but it wasn't what I was expecting. D and I especially liked the fact that in the courtyard outside, they had a little stand selling soup by the cup. After a long walk and a chilly day, it was the perfect lunch.
We had to hustle to make it to our next activity. D and I love soccer, and it has been a desire to actually attend an English Premier League game for several years. We didn't think it was something that would actually happen, though, because tickets can be very expensive and difficult to obtain. Chelsea tickets were outrageously expensive, we couldn't even buy Arsenal tickets because you had to purchase a club membership card to even have the option to purchase a ticket, and Tottenham Hotspur was similar. However, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that Fulham was not only playing at home, but also had reasonably priced tickets. We got there just after the game started. We were amazed at how many other people were outside either hanging out or coming to the game a little late too. We saw a huge police presence, which turned out to be good since we also witnessed a fist fight. Ahh, hooliganism up close, for the full English football experience.
We were also excited to cheer on an American player on Fulham's squad, Clint Dempsey (in the middle of the preceding photo). We were sitting behind a couple who were wearing University of Iowa gear. Turned out they were indeed from Iowa. It was nice to see and chat with other Americans for a bit.
As you might be able to tell from this photo, the weather was COLD. We were in the corner of the stands and the wind whipped fiercely between the bleachers. I am so impressed that the Premiership runs through the wintertime. We had been told that this was the coldest that London had been for close to 40 years, but still, I have seen soccer games on TV where they had been playing in the snow. We enjoyed the game but once the score hit 3-0 for the home team, we decided to beat the crowd and left to catch the Tube. We had to hurry to back to the hotel in order to change for our next event, going to the West End (the British version of Broadway) to see the show Wicked.
When D and I had come to London last, almost 10 years ago, we had seen a show on the West End that was not very good, but the experience was enjoyable and we wanted to give it another try. My brother goes to London on a more regular basis, and since his wife loves musicals, I learned from my last experience and asked his advice about what we should see. He steered me to Wicked and I am so glad he did. It is a fun story with great music, and we had a particularly good cast. It was funny and entertaining and we loved it.
One of the things I love about the English theater is that although they have a concession stand in the lobby, like in the States, they are unique in that they allow you to take your drinks and candy back to your seat. I had wanted to have some good English hard cider while in London, and thought that this would be my only chance to have it. It was so nice to sit with D and enjoy our drinks for a few minutes before the show began. It had been such a nice day, it was lovely to sit and reflect on it with a nice pint of English cider in my hand.
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