It was a rather long day on our feet today despite the fact it was nearly noon by the time we left the shoebox. We were both exhausted from last night!

We started with a visit to Portobello Road Markets, as you do. As I expected the time of day we were setting of from home meant we ran into a lot of other tourists also visiting Portobello Road Markets. Even though you can never really say that there is an off-peak time on a Saturday in Notting Hill we probably couldn’t have picked a more peak time! Weaving and ducking our way past people we came across the funniest shop window display ever – funny because they used actual real live bunnies as part of the display. I don’t know if it was animal cruelty or not because the bunnies seemed happy enough to be in the display but it was utterly cute! They were so fluffy!

Teesh and I took our time making our way down Portobello Road. She took quite a liking to the antique section of the markets actually and by the time we made it to the Hummingbird Bakery we were more than ready for a break and a sugar rush! The line, though extended out the door and then some, wasn’t as long as normal so we decided it was worth the wait for the delicious cupcakes that the Hummingbird Bakery is famous for. As cute as some of the designed cupcakes were (Teesh went for one with a giraffe on it) I couldn’t resist a red velvet number. Yum.

After that we picked up our speed a bit as we had an appointment at the British Museum for one of their highlight tours. Quickly downing a gorgeous chicken schnitzel sandwich for lunch from the german meat barbecue van we rushed, as much as one can rush through the Notting Hill crowds, over to the British Museum. The British Museum was very busy when we got there but we only had about 15 people on our tour. Probably due to the fact that you had to pay £9 for the 90 minute tour.

We were wondering how they would stop interlopers from joining the tour gratis and they do this by giving you bright yellow badges to wear. That didn’t stop people joining us but interestingly if they did join us they didn’t stay around for very long – I’m not sure why because our tour guide was brilliant.

We had the most amazing tour guide – a guy called William Forrester. I think he said he’d being doing these sorts of tours with the British Museum for at least 15 years so he certainly knew his stuff. William took us around to see the Rosetta Stone, Mexican carvings, the Easter Island statue, Ptahshepses’ tomb, the winged bulls from Khorsabad, the lion hunt reliefs from Nineveh and the Parthenon sculptures. I would like to spend pages and pages re-telling the stories that William told us but I’d be here all day. In my view the £9 was totally worth it for the tour. William is the best kind of tour guide – someone who inspires me to go out and read up more on what we learned today. I just can’t say enough how interesting his interpretations were. Teesh and I later ran into him at the bookshop and he was even then still asking how he could help us. A nicer man you couldn’t meet.

Once the British Museum closed we headed over to Harrods to hunt down some souvenirs. The best thing about Harrods has to be its Food Halls. You could probably spend hours gazing at all the goods on display. Teesh was absolutely outstanded by them. I must admit they are very attractive and as it was nearing closing time we could walk around in almost peace. Though that’s not to say that the tourists were particularly calm around the Diana and Dodi memorial. It was madness and I felt rather disrespectful.

By the time we were done in Harrods we’d been on our feet non-stop for nearly nine hours and our feet were done in so we headed to my local Zizzi’s for some delicious lasagna and baked pasta. Mmm …