London.  Love, love, love, love, love that city!  But for one little issue and no, not the weather.  It is the most outrageously expensive place I've ever been.  5 bucks for a ride on the Underground, $50 for a little trip to the supermarket.  Tiny apartments in decent areas run $1,000 a week!  It is crazy expensive but so worth a visit.  We got there on Wednesday, checking into our hotel at about 1pm.  Though the flight from Italy is only 1.5 hours, the trip door to door took us 9, (taxi, train, bus, plane, train, underground, walk).  It was warm and sunny so we set off for a long walk through Kennsington, past Kennsington Palace where we may or may not have seen Kate the Duchess of Windsor, through Hyde Park then up to "Chinatown" in behind Piccadilly Circus.  We met a friend of Grace's who is studying in London for the semester in front of the Odeon Theater in Leicester Square, famous as having the premier of the Harry Potter films.  We ate dinner in a little Chinese restaurant, very good, then wandered back to our hotel.  On Thursday we walked for hours again.  The city was packed with tourists, mostly French and Italians.  We couldn't get away from them.  Grace and I wanted to go to the Tower of London but GP is not a huge fan of museums so we dumped him on a bench in the surprisingly bright sunshine to people-watch. ( He informed us that Europeans have gotten fat.)  An hour and a half later when we emerged he was sunburned!  We walked back by way of the river and found a wonderful market in Southwark that had imported foods from all over Europe.  We almost fainted when we saw the prices of Parmigiano.  We also walked down Sloane Street, known for being the place where the "posh" people shop.  We saw lots of posh people.  We were not posh.  Thursday we ate in a Lebanese restaurant.  It was fabulous.  The city has a vast variety of ethnic restaurants and as good, traditional English food is hard to come by, we ate "ethnic" most nights.  Friday was dedicated to the Harry Potter Studio Tour.  GP didn't join us.  Grace and I had a wonderful time and would do it again in a heartbeat.  We missed the Duchess and the two princes by only a couple hours as they were at the studios for some commencement or another that same morning.  Dinner was cheddar, smoked mackerel, smoked salmon, and other "British" goodies back in the hotel.  Saturday was cold and rainy but yet again we stayed out all day walking and walking.  We went to Notting Hill and the famous Portobello Road and market.  I could visit that market everyday and never tire of it.  It is antiques, (silver and china mostly), ethnic arts and crafts, used everything, and food, food and more food, (paella, fish and chips, pastries, crepes, Indian, African, Spanish, French, Italian).  There were buskers on every corner and they were really talented.  One kid was an opera singer, another group sang Beatles songs, some old guys played banjos.  The streets were packed with people of every hue and language and dress.  It was so cool.  For dinner Saturday we took the train out to Southall, a suburb to the northwest, that is home to mostly Indian people from the Punjab area of India.  We had the best Indian food I've ever had.  Last comments.  I need to go back without my dear husband, (and maybe daughter),and see all the museums and go to a show.  English coffee really sucks.  Thank God for Starbucks.  (Hey, that rhymes!)  And London drivers make Italians look like little old ladies out for a Sunday spin.  Pics are coming, just have to figure out how to get them from Grace and GP's shared dropbox to the dropbox I share with GP.  Argh.  I hate technology.   xxoo me