Today we meet Ollie, Clare, and Sheridan and Amy, who arrived from the USA yesterday, for brunch. Everyone is in a good mood and you hardly notice any jetlag. At the “Pain Quotidien” there is a nice selection of small and big breakfasts. Gabi orders a bread basket with a croissant and I get a baked omelette with ham and cheese.

Freshly strengthened, we stroll around London and finally end up back at Forbidden Planet. Here I discover a DeLorean steel model kit which I overlooked during my first visit. Our American friends are quite amazed at the good selection – on the ground floor with all the merchandise and in the basement with tons of books and comics.

After that we part ways for a little while. The others want to cheer on Clare’s husband Dan, who is running the London Marathon today. The spectator area will be really crowded, that’s why we better not come along, but will meet Dan later at the finishing line. We use the opportunity to do our grocery shopping. The Waitrose branch in the former assembly hall of an industrial company hasn’t been around very long, indeed the whole area around Granary Square behind Kings Cross station is still very new. The outdoor area with the many small hip shops was still being costructed during our last visit in autumn 2018. Today there is also a vintage car booth sale going on, where vintage clothes and items are sold directly from the trunks of vintage cars. Many people are dressed very shrill in the style of the 50s and 60s – very suitable for the event. We share a portion of mac & cheese from an old GMC Vandura van (like driven by the A-Team) with Burt Reynolds’ photo on the spare wheel. Mmmmh!

Then we drive to St James Park, where the runners of the London Marathon cross the finish line. Dan and his brother Matt, who both run the marathon, arrive a little later. They crossed the finish line in about five and a half hours – which is an incredible achievement! We’re really proud of them! Clare and Ollie ran the marathon last year and we were cheering them on from Switzerland. Dan was not able to participate due to his health. We are very happy about how well he recovered since then!

  

Later we say goodbye again to Dan and Matt, who want to celebrate together. Or maybe: want to sit on the sofa at home and never get up again. We drive with Clare, Sheridan and Amy to the Covent Garden area for dinner at Wagamama. Ollie had to leave because she has to get up early the next morning. Her film team leaves for Lille in France at five in the morning. I eat my favourite ramen noodle soup, while Gabi, as so often, orders many small starter dishes. Too bad that the Bang Bang cauliflower was already out.