Day Out: Wandering London

One of my absolute favorite things about London is that, while it can be an incredibly expensive place to spend a day, it doesn’t have to be. 

Saturday started at 10:30, when M awoke to the realization that the British Lions were playing IN HALF AN HOUR and the bastard developers had shut down the only pub with rugby on in easy walking distance.  (That’s another story, or rant, for another day).  After a quick shower, he dashed up to the Northcote (just south of Clapham Junction) to watch the British rugby team struggle valiantly against the Aussies.  As I am neither a happy morning person nor an avid rugby fan, I followed at a more leisurely pace, stopping for a pastry at the market and arriving in time to see most faces in the pub looking like this:

(COST- Pastry: £1.50, Coke: £1, Total: £2.50)

A tough 15-16 loss later, we decided to vent his misery (I don’t entirely understand the rules of rugby, and as an American, still have a healthy skepticism towards sports not played in the good old USA) with SNACKS.  Northcote road has a lively, if not entirely cheap Saturday market, where we picked up tea, a crayfish sandwich, a baguette, cheese, peaches, a cupcake, and macaroons.  After adding a bottle of wine from our rapidly depleting stock at home, we headed over the river, up the Kings Road for some window shopping, through Sloane Square tube, and into St. James Park for a Saturday afternoon picnic.

(COST- Sandwich: £4, Cheese: £5, Fruit: £.50, Baked goods: £5, Starbucks Iced Chai: £2.50, Total: £17)

My little legs were exhausted from all that walking, but after 2 hours of lying in the sun, Martin got restless, so we headed up to Picadilly and into Soho.  There we found an enormous party going on for PRIDE. 

Did we know there was a party going on?  No.  Did we join in anyway (especially after SCOTUS overturned DOMA)?  HELL YES!  The fantastic atmosphere almost demanded that we stick around for another pint. 

After beers and an hour of wandering and admiring the amazing outfits, we decided it was time to head home, back down along the Strand and Villiers St, over the river to the London Eye and Waterloo. 

(COST- Beers: £4.50)

It was a fantastic day of London fun, and we arrived home exhausted, slightly tipsy, and happy to live in perhaps the best city in the entire world. 

Total price for rugby, market, tea, picnic, gay PRIDE, and all the sights that London has to offer: £12 each