Walking on Sunshine!

As promised, today the Firefly is publishing a few photos from the Notting Hill walk we did on Saturday.
Things got off to a bit of a shaky start when London Underground transport (Tube) elected to close part of the Central Line, forcing us to change Tubes more often than we would have liked to and thus making us late for the rendezvous with Fran, who was patiently waiting at Notting Hill Gate Tube station.
We eventually got there and began the walk - admittedly taking the wrong road and therefore doing the entire walk the wrong way around. (Shhh!! I don't think they noticed!!)

As per usual, just click on the pictures to enlarge!

We walked past impressive large Victorian houses wondering who on earth could possibly afford to live there.


Who lives in a house like this?

The little mishap of walking anti-clockwise was however soon forgotten when we came across a lovely Italian delicatessen shop.
It was with great effort that we managed to crow-bar Gill, Jan and Victoria out of this shop - not however before they had bought some cakes and nibbles even though the walk hadn’t even started in earnest!!


The Italian shop

Everyone seemed to be in a good mood and the sun was shining on us as we walked up Westbourne Grove past the church and some nice clothes shops, food shops and restaurants towards Portobello Road.


At least we picked the right weather!

We soon arrived at Portobello Road with its nicely painted houses and its many shops selling everything from antiques, fashionable items to wear and ceramic pots to modern jewellery and pictures at the upper part of this road.


Portobello Road's multi-coloured houses

Looking past the sea of people into one of the little side streets, you could almost imagine living there. You’d have the best of all worlds - the cosmopolitan bustle of Portobello Road just around the corner from a quiet street, London at your feet and a property worth a mint!!


Pretty little side street off Portobello Road

Walking the other way, Portobello Road meanders down the hill towards Blenheim Crescent.
The shops and stalls here are stacked with ‘objets d’art’ and collectibles of all types and your eyes are drawn to so many different things that it is virtually impossible to keep track of each other.
This is where our mobile phones came in handy, as we only managed to re-group after informing each other of our whereabouts.


Silver . . .


. . . and all sorts of other stuff sold on Portobello Road

Just around the corner from Portobello Road in Blenheim Crescent you find the little Travel Bookshop made famous by the film “Notting Hill”, where Hugh Grant first met Julia Roberts. We just had to stop there and take a picture.


The gang in front of the Travel Bookshop, made famous by the film "Notting Hill"

Back at Portobello Road the market now turns into a food market selling fruit & vegetables, bread and other food stuff such as olives, feta cheese, cakes, herbs & spices to name but a few.


Portobello Food Market

We just took a little detour here to take a snapshot of the multi-coloured houses in Lancaster Road and see the old record shop in All Saints Road, the owner of which is sporting the most gigantic afro hairstyle ever seen! He definitely will scare children as well as the elderly and infirm and those of a nervous disposition.


I love those different colours!


From here the scenery deteriorates somewhat as we have nearly arrived at the Westway flyover. Chris is trying to blend into the surrounding and almost succeeds!


So, who's the animal?

By now everyone was getting hungry, prompting a ‘Why did you not organise a restaurant, Erik?? You always used to organise everything so well.’ outburst from Jan.
All my attempts to explain that I could not have possibly known at what time we would arrive where and that I thought we’d just grab a bite somewhere fell on deaf ears.
Luckily Jan found a little Greek place just under the flyover and I didn’t argue.


Jan spotted this Greek pitstop

We ordered some stuff and this arrived! It tasted great even though the owner of this place was a bit of a miserable son of a b*tch!!


Chilly Chicken Wrap! Mmmmm!

Towards the end of our walk we strolled past what was supposed to be the Portuguese area but as we looked at the shops and restaurants framed in the distance by Trellick Tower, all we could see was Moroccan stuff! Odd!!


Trellick Tower, the 31-storey concrete tower, completed by Hungarian architect Erno Goldfinger in 1972. For years it was a symbol of urban decay and disaffection, but now some of the flats are privately owned and the tower has become a fashionable place to live.

By now the sun had disappeared and there was an unpleasant breeze chilling nose, ears and fingers so we decided to call it a day and return to the Tube station.


Time to go home for a hot tea or coffee!

Personally I thought this was a great walk with much to see and with great company and would certainly do it again or recommend it to anyone.
Erik

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My target weight is 199 pounds and if you haven’t sponsored me yet, please do so by going to http://www.justgiving.com/firefly and adding yourself to the list.

Throughout the next weeks you will be able to follow my progess (O God, I hope it will indeed be progress!!) on my Biff-o-meter and can comment on this blogsite with words of encouragment or by throwing abuse at me.

Here then is the Biff-o-meter after week 6 of my Challenge!






Weight now = 211 pounds
Weight lost so far = 18 pounds