On the Second Day, I left my room...

..and went out walking in Mayfair. Asked the concierge for a tea/breakfast restauarant idea, and he gave me a good one. Turned out it was only a block's walk fron the hotel. Can't believe I missed taking a picture of it, because I loved that little place. Oh, well.

Anyway, when I walked back in the lobby late morning, my sister-in-law, Jan (she's posting comments here, you all, so if you get a chance, please go say hi on her brand new blog!) was there.

Seeing Jan was a great surprise, because I didn't expect her for close to a couple of hours more - so we got a good early start on our combo-plan walk-athon, wine-athon, and since she's often in London, and attended college at the Royal Academy of Art in London, she's one helluva good tour guide.

So we took off touring - I hate to shop - A LOT- so we were gonna get that part over with, but instead, it turned out to be good when we walked inside the store called Liberty('s?)





The place was fantastic, except they had so many mirror-walls, we kept walking into them on one of the floors, trying to find the right place to get out.

And we hadn't even started drinking yet.

But we did soon enough. We walked down Carnaby Street, land of 60's mod squad people and places, Beatles and Mary Quant et al...



...saw an old-timey Pagan Green Man...



and on down, we ended up on Wardour Street next door to Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club (OK, I admit it, I didn't know where we were sitting having the first glass of wine and having lunch, but Jan did, so it still works).

Then another drink at a table outdoors around the corner from this area of Covent Garden.



Then this nice guy rickshawed (OK - not a real verb) us over to Haymarket to get us close to the theater we were going to...



and Jan said Wanna wander over to Trafalgar Square?

And I said Do they have wine over there?

And she said Yes.

So we went rickshawing on over there, walked inside the (wine free zone of the) National Gallery and checked out The Impressionists, then walked outside and actually noticed that people there were barely British. No, make that weren't British at all, but instead were Dutch. Wearing orange all over the place. Because there was a big party going on in the square, with a Dutch band.
Because they were all celebrating the Dutch Queen's birthday.



I thought it was pretty damn nice that the British Queen was good with Trafalgar being overrun with the Dutch Queen's partying subjects. I mean, nice as they were - as this guy was, explaining it all to us about the party and everything (he says hi, by the way - when I asked if I could pop his picture on my blog, he said Yes, and hello to your friends, or something like that)....



Where was I? Oh yeah. These transient Trafalgar Squarians were, ya know, Dutch. Not British. Ya know.

(A while back, I don't think that would have gone over all that well, but maybe that's just me. Remember how much of a pain studying European history was - what with all their freaking 10 and 20 and 30 Years and Roses and Napoleonic and Your Mama Wears Untidy Whities Dueling My-Weenie-Is-Bigger-Than-Yours Take-That-You-Barbaric-Ruffian-With-The-Ruffly-Cuffs-Wars all the time, back in the day?)

Okay. I'm ready to go. To bed, that is. I still have a jetlagged self.

Tomorrow: last couple of pics of Saturday, and on to Sunday, and the South Bank White Wine Society.

Nighty night.