Markets, the Eye & Poetry - Day Two in London

Iconic buildings of London's skyline: the Thumb, the Cheese-grater, and the Gherkin

St Katherine's Dock

After coffee in St Katherine's Dock and another trip across Tower Bridge we headed to Borough Market.

The market is housed under a railway bridge

A massive wheel of gruyere cheese

It really was a foodie paradise - like Matakana Market but on a much bigger scale. As well as street food such as curries, salt beef, paella, and carb-wrapped meat in various guises, there also bakeries with golden loaves of bread piled up and delectable pastries.

Indian street food

I wasn't joking - the cookies were as big as your face

Pink grapefruit juice

After buying soup for lunch from a lovely lady who called everyone "love", and cookies as big as your face we wandered through the back streets of London to another little market called Ropewalk.It was down a little alleyway with flags and bunting strung above, again with lots of artisan food stalls.

The walk to Ropewalk

                                                                           Curing Salmon

A stall selling a variety of scotch eggs

A bit more walking took us to the London Eye, and while taking a ride seemed a bit too pricey for what was essentially half an hour for the same view, it was still exciting to see its grand scale - then take a million photos of it.

From here we wandered along the riverside, passing street performers from Charlie Chaplin to an African acrobatics group as we made our way to the Southbank Centre.

Street performer blowing bubbles

African acrobats in 'bird' formation

This building hosts an ever-changing programs of music gigs, dramatic productions and other exhibitions of the creative arts. But apart from this, it's just a generally good place to chill out & read a book, or do some work.

Poem on Counterweight of lift

After a bit of poking around the gift shop we headed up to the Poetry Library on the top floor, where I quickly found some Pinter to read, and even quicker some poetry to do with Poland. Who knew?!

View from the top of the Southbank Centre

Next stop was Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus, and while it was getting dark by this point, it was cool to see the city still buzzing at night as much, maybe even more so, than it did in the daytime.

"MnM Road" in the MnM store

Piccadilly Circus

Oh - and I found this!

Love,

Addie xoxo