Greetings from London!

Well, actually I'm back from London already. But it was a fun trip!

Marty was on a business trip in England all last week, so I met him in London on Friday for Valentine's day weekend. I wasn't there very long -- noon on Friday until about 5pm on Sunday -- but we packed in a lot of fun!

Friday we had fish and chips (and mushy peas!) at a pub for lunch, and then visited the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street. It's really a museum about Sherlock Holmes himself, not Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was a house done up in late-Victorian style, complete with fires in the grates and "Dr. Watson" (or a man dressed up like him) in the parlor. He was encouraging guests to put on a deerstalker and sit in "Holmes' chair" so friends could take a picture. "Put on the hat," he'd say, and the tourists would giggle and smile for the camera. However, Marty warned me before we went into the room that he didn't want to sit in the chair. So I lied to Dr. Watson (LIED! to Dr. WATSON!) and told him I didn't have a camera.

I'm sure he knew the truth, though.

Friday night we went to the Haymarket Theater (designed by John Nash, the same architect who designed Buckingham Palace) to see the new production of When Harry Met Sally starring Luke Perry and Alyson Hannigan. Since we both love the movie, we thought it would be fun to see it onstage. I was very curious beforehand about how they'd adapt it to the stage, and I thought it was done pretty well. They kept the "documentary" couples (although they were new couples, not the ones in the movie). But seeing the play made it clear just how much the setting is a part of the movie. I really missed New York in the stage production.

The play was fun, though, and Luke Perry did a good job of making Harry into a new character. Alyson Hanigan played Sally much like Meg Ryan (in the movie) did in some places, although in others I thought she brought something new to the character. The play is only in preview right now, so there aren't any official reviews yet. Opening night is the 20th (this Friday).

Saturday morning started with a big English breakfast, then we headed out to the Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill. I've been to Petticoat Lane before and some of the other London street markets, but I think this is my favorite of all the ones I've seen so far. Lots of antiques and tons of other stuff. I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures besides this one of a food stand (at left; click to see the whole picture). This "German Food" stand was doing big business, serving "Bratwurst, Bavarian Spicy Sausage, Schnitzel, Boneless Leg of Chicken, Frikadellen, and Frankfurters." I have to admit that even though I live in Bavaria, the "Bavarian spicy sausage" has somehow eluded me here... unless they mean Münchner Weisswurst, and if that's the case, then England may be the only place in the world where that particular sausage could be considered "spicy." But I guess it's all relative.

Also, "boneless leg of chicken"? Excuse me?

After the market, we left Notting Hill by tube and then walked through Covent Garden, which Marty hadn't seen the last time we were in London. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant near there, Paradiso e Inferno. We spent the afternoon at the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth, which I'll probably write more about later. For Valentine's dinner we went to Soho Spice, a nice Indian restaurant in Soho, where they presented us with a bottle of chocolate body paint (and a paintbrush) after dinner. (!!!) The food was great.

Sunday morning we rode on the London Eye ferris wheel (that's where the picture above is from; you can see the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Thames in the background). It was great, even though the weather was pretty drab and gray. I didn't expect much better from London in February, to be honest. But we really enjoyed the ferris wheel and we'll do it again, sometime when we're there on a clear day. Sunday afternoon we went back to the Imperial War Museum (it's not far from the London Eye), and we still didn't finish seeing everything there that we wanted to. We'll definitely go back there again next time.

I have some pictures to put up in the postcards section, so I'll try to do that later today. Most of them are from the London Eye, or of London train stations and tube stations. I guess I just need to admit it -- I have a thing about train stations. Here's a preview -- three London tube stations (Piccadilly Circus, North Lambeth Road, and Marble Arch).