our weekend

We had a very relaxed weekend. Just stayed in Friday night and watched the movie Michael Clayton. Saturday we set out to do a walk from our “30 Walks Around London” book. We stopped at a little café for lunch and decided to sit outside since it was not that cold. Wrong idea. We had a great lunch, but by the end we were frozen and decided that we would go to a museum instead due to the cold & iffy weather (it looked like rain, but it almost always looks like rain). On our way to the Victoria & Albert museum, we passed the Natural History Museum and decided to check it out (we really wanted to get inside!). It is a beautiful building!! Check it out (those are the London Fashion tents in the corner. I had to pull Pat into the museum to divert his attention from the fall & winter 2008 fashions).



We were immediately surrounded by millions of rug rats and figured that this was not our kind of museum, but wandered around a bit to warm up. They had a section about evolution and pre-historic man. It was kind of interesting. This wailing kid was “following” us, which I found amusing. Anyway, we wandered a bit more, then back to the flat.

Saturday night was supposed to be our big night out for Mexican. I have been craving it since we arrived and researched the options diligently. There is only one place, Crazy Homies in Notting Hill, that has the possibility of living up to our expectations. I called ahead to book us in, but they don’t take bookings (American: reservations). A table for two should not be difficult. Yay!! Except that when we show up at 10 o’clock they tell us they will not be able to seat us bc they close at 10:30 and they still have a couple people on the list. I was sad (to say the least) and almost grabbed a basket of chips as a consolation prize. Nothing sounded like a good alternative after my week long dream of nachos and margaritas. We wandered around Notting Hill (new territory for us) and ended up at a Persian restaurant. At least they had good naan. Pat’s lamb was very good (he said). It was a nice night, warmer than the afternoon, and the pubs were closing (great people watching) so we ended walking around. We just kept walking and before I knew it, we were more than halfway home. How did that happen? We ended up walking the rest of the way (3.5 miles total to be exact). And no, we were not in trainers (American: running shoes) . . . it was actually the debut of my new London shoes:



I am still not sure how I made it without a problem in those bad boys. The platform helps. A lot.

Sunday we set out to do another walk and were sidetracked a g a i n. See a trend here? I am beginning to feel like we will never get one of those cool walks under our belt! It was raining most of the afternoon, so not the best day for a walk anyway. We found our way to a little tapas restaurant we had heard great things about and thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon inside reading. The food was fantastic and our spot by the window made it even better. We will definitely be back!