The sun is shining on our first day in London. We sleep in a bit and feel relaxed.

We park behind the National Gallery near Leicester Square where we first visit the LEGO store. There’s an exclusive poster available for those with a black Star Wars VIP card (which I have), but I learn that you still have to buy GBP 30 worth of LEGO Star Wars stuff. No thank you.

Apart from that annoyance, the store has a great variety of sets and there even are two of the large Millennium Falcon sets to buy. And many boxes of the Y-Wing Ultimate Collector Edition that was released today.

We then continue to the Japan Centre. Gabi buy some things and I’m astonished by how well-prepared she is. She knows exactly what she wants to get.

After the grocery shopping, we stay for lunch. There’s a wide variety of sushi, salads, and other Japanese delicacies as well as hot food that is prepared on site. Gabi orders a chicken katsu curry while I have some sushi.

We bring the groceries to the car and then head back to Leicester square, where we meet (from left to right) Linda who has arrived from the United States yesterday, Joke from Belgium, Tor, Julia, and Clare and Dan. The weather really couldn’t be better. We enjoy sitting in the sun, sip on our lemonades, talking about this and that, and listening to Linda telling about the day she spent on the Avengers: Infiniti War movie set as Benedict Cumberbatch’s guest. That’s incredible!!!

We then say goodbye to the others for now and visit Forbidden Planet, our favourite science fiction & fantasy store, as we always do when visiting London. I would say that the merchandise on offer has improved compared to other visits. And they still have tons of funko pop figures. Gabi buys a plush porg she wanted for a long time, and I get a Star Wars t-shirt and change into it… it’s Star Wars day today – May the Fourth (be with you) – so there’s no better day than today for that!

After four hours, we need to move the car. We park near book store Foyles and spend some time there. Again, Gabi knows exactly what she wants to buy. Impressive!

We’re starting to get tired. And have bought enough for today. We visit a new Thai fast food place that opened only some days ago, by the same people that own the Leon restaurants where we love to buy food. Gabi tries their Massaman curry and I go for a pad thai to take to the hotel. Both dishes are very sweet and we’re not convinced… but hey, we gave it a try!

I head out again after dinner to King’s Cross station. We have used up all of our water supply and I want to get some more. And bring back a nice little dessert from Pret.