from this place, way up in the snowy North....
who just happened to be visiting London at the same
time as me! How random is that! So, we decided to meet
up at one of our favourite spots...... Covent Garden.
Sandi is fortunate that she is staying with family at
this gorgeous place that I visited last year:
located on Endell Street in Covent Garden. After
coffee and catch-up at Starbucks, we decided
to hit the shops at Covent Garden.
Covent Garden was originally a famous fruit and
vegetable market - the area has a long and distinguished
history including being a red- light district in its murky
past! By the end of the 60's, traffic congestion in the
city made this area unviable for wholesale trade
and the fruit and vegetable market was located to
Nine Elms in SW London. Covent Garden is now
a booming tourist and shopping venue with pubs,
cafes, upscale shops and a thriving craft market,
called the Apple Market.
Liked the messages on these aprons - hmmmm...
For budding ballerinas........ called The Art of Dance
Handcrafted and scented wreaths......
And the girl who was selling them just happened
to be Polish too- we had a good natter!
Lots of beautiful handcrafted items...
Here's Sandi saying hello!
Covent Garden is also home to the largest Apple Store
in the world!! 3 storeys high and always crowded with people.
I pinched this photo from their web site as I wouldn't
even dream of going in there. It is massive.
Apparently it's doing even better than the Apple Store on
Regent Street and they made £360 million last year!
That's a lot of I-Phones sold!
Covent Garden is also the home to the Royal Opera
House and has lots of street performers that are
really good:
We browsed a bit more.....
Checked out the Burberry store......
We had a giggle at the prices .......
We both lusted after this leather bag....only £650...
But we both resisted.....
And anyway, I was feeling very rich......
I went to the Exchange Bureau and got my travel
money. Having been told to get small bills for my
trip - I ended up with $350 US in ones! They filled my
bag very nicely.
Thanks Sandi for the great visit - see you on the
other side!
Meanwhile time to move on here, just a short walk
away in the theatre district...
the Noel Coward Theatre, named after a very famous British
playwright,composer,director and actor who died in the 70's.
We were going to see an iconic Christmas story, The
Christmas Carol. Now I've seen this every year on TV
with Alastair Sim who plays the best Scrooge ever.....
but I've never seen the stage version. It was an unorthodox
take on the classic story - but brilliantly done and Jim
Broadbent was a marvellous Scrooge.
A view of the stage....
and the theatre - it originally opened in 1903
Before the long trek home.....
some warm soup!
Talk soon
Zoe
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