Photos again today! They're located
here, second row, third picture from the left. (Tip: Click the indicated picture and then use the "Next" or "Previous" buttons on the right above the picture. If you scroll down slightly, you can see the captions, where I generally try to say something that's not repeated in the LJ entry.)
I started by going to Camden Market, which had both been recommended to me and looked interesting in the guide book. It was a lot of fun, although it started snowing while I was there - crazy. I picked up a couple of cool crafted objects and then headed to Notthing Hill to purchase some tea from Tea Palace, which was highly recommended online as the best tea shop. I had tea there, where I tried some Lady Gray (a more delicate and flowery version of Early Gray, and wasn't actually called Lady Gray because apparently Twinnings has trademarked the name), which I subsequently bought. I also tried toasted crumpets and am happy to report that although the US is absolutely losing the scone wars, it is ahead in the crumpet wars, with the Pike Place Crumpet shop firmly ahead of my UK crumpets. Go us!
Afterwards, I was planning on heading to the Geffrye Museum, which is a sort of interior design museum from the 1600s on. Unfortunately, I hadn't written down the address before I left the room, and the Rick Steven's book didn't include the street name or number. From prior experience, I know navigating in London with limited information is doomed to fail. London streets are a little like what might occur if at every corner, a city designer rolled dice to determine how to rename the streets proceeding from the intersection. Small streets rarely stay the same name for more than a block, and wander crazily about as if someone wanted to make as many funny-shaped intersections as possible. The numbers wander to and fro across the street so that at one point, I stood staring at 176, 176b and 174 and couldn't find 175 until I walked about a half block down the other side of the street. That was actually easier than in some places, where the odd/even convention of the US doesn't seem to hold.
Anyhow, I knew that with little more information than a tube stop, there was no way I was locating the Geffrye. Instead, I noticed that the Transport museum was near the Covent Garden market, and so I went there instead. Amusingly, I still got lost getting there (again, Steves didn't bother to provide a street number, though I could guess from his map which street it was on). Just as I was about to give up, I saw a small street fair labeled "London's Arts and Craft fair", which I naturally had to wander through. When I came out on the other side, I realized I was directly in front of the museum. Yay!
The museum was an homage to all things tube and underground, which was actually quite fun. (It also had a section on buses, but I mostly focused on the tube history.) It was somewhat overpriced (for what it was) at 10 pound, but it had some particularly interesting things to see and read about. For example, apparently the original underground railroad was powered by steam, and they built grilles above the tracks to vent the steam (sometimes surprising pedestrians on the sidewalks above)! The fumes were apparently extremely noxious and foul smelling, making it somewhat amusing that smoking was originally banned on the underground rail.
Anyhow, it was a diverting way to spend the afternoon. Afterwards, I just grabbed a stack of fruit and a veg sandwich from Marks & Spencer Simply Food (think an extremely upscale 7-11) and ate in my room. I was thinking about getting pub food, but I'm a bit pub-fooded out for a while; the stuff is fantastic, but also low on vegetables and quite heavy.
Tomorrow I travel home on a 2PM flight, so not sure what I'm going to do in the morning, if anything. Probably going to sleep in and then just head to the airport.