Today starts differently than planned. Actually, we wanted to meet Clare and Linda and have just parked near their hotel when a text message arrives from Clare. The hotel had overbooked the rooms and now moved them to a partner hotel. They had just got into a taxi cab to the other hotel. Because of all the traffic and closed roads, which Google Maps doesn’t know about, it takes almost an hour for us to drive up there as well… and find no parking space.

(In the photos, we drive across Oxford Circus, down Regent Street and past Piccadilly Circus)

So, willy-nilly, we decide to drive on and just meet them tomorrow at Letters Live. Until we arrive at Spitalfields Market, some more time passes. On many roads there was almost a complete standstill. Rather hungry, we rush to get lunch from the many small food stalls. I order a “dirty bagel”, a pulled pork sandwich with flamed cheese slice. It looks spectacular even as it’s being prepared. Gabi eats spicy noodles, which are made and cooked by pulling and folding a small ball of dough when you order them. Wow! With full bellies, we then walk up and down the many small market stalls.

It is not far to the Barbican building complex. To be on the safe side, we head there early enough to be sure to be there in time for the theatre play we are watching tonight. But first we enjoy the peace and quiet here and eat our snack.

“My Neighbour Totoro” is a very cute Japanese anime film from 1988, in which a father and his two daughters move from the big city to the country to be closer to their mother, who is being cared for in a hospital. Little ghosts live in their new home, which the girls follow and meet the forest spirit Totoro. It is absolutely magical how in the play the little and big ghosts and the cat bus are brought to life. Oh yes, I know several people in my family who would have enjoyed the play as much as we did.

It is late again. Luckily, on the way back we find a street with open fast-food shops. Gabi has spotted a Taco Bell and decides on a Crunch Wrap Supreme, while I take a somewhat strange kebab from a kebab chain.