Monday evening in London: after a little nap and a shower we went exploring. We went to Westminster to Shepherds Market. This is an area of little shops and stores and many sidewalk cafes. We walked around quite a bit and then picked a cafe. It was about 6pm and the people seemed to be coming from work. It was cool and breezy, a wonderful relief. 85 in London. There were pubs at each end of the street with people inside and out. A group of street musicians were walking around singing and playing. They were very good and played songs and sang music from several countries.
We had a delightful waiter, from Colombia. It was a riot ordering as he didn't really speak English. There were six tables flowers in window boxes very pretty and fun. There were people strolling all around. What a fashion show. Men in suites, ladies in very fancy evening wear, earthy types(hippies) long skirts and overblouses. Many ladies in office suits. Most men didn't even take off their ties, but seemed to have fun anyway. The latest trend was scarves for the women. Every color and material, knit, silk, wooly looking, and fabric. Long, long and wrapped around their necks. Shoes and purses were very fun to see. Very beautiful, and ugly mostly very large. My granddaughters would love it. High high heels, every color and style.
Andy named many name brands very she/she.(probably not spelled correctly. We sat next to 2 charming British older ladies(older than me) They were very interesting and fun. They told us all about London and places to go. We were all enjoying the unique peoples. Sometimes we were just plain embarrassed by some of the scantie clothes. Right in the middle of the street, a couple squatted down and ate food from a box. About 9pm a garbage truck pulled into this little street to pick up garbage. The trash was in bags laying on the street, but the bags there were black and not yellow so they wouldn't take them. There was no smell so they couldn't have been there for long. We saw people of every culture and economic type. All in all it was great fun. Our waiter and the other waiters from our cafe would suddenly run down the street and into an alley, or around the corner. In a short while, one or another would return. The ladies and us disgussed this for a while and finally asked where they went. The owners owned 3 cafes and the ran from one to the other waiting on people. What a job! Eating seems to be at a very slow pace everywhere. We had a lovely soft cheese and fruit and bread for the first course and Andy had a mushroom rattitoie which was yummy, and imagine, I had lasagna with goat cheese. We had bottled water and bread every other minute. We did not get back to hotel until 10:15 and the little old ladies were still enjoying the evening.. Above the cafes are appartments I was taking pictures and a group of students from a roof top started cheering and waving. Not that we looked like American tourists much.