London's W1: From the Natty to the Creepy

His mouth moves when the wind blows.

23 December 2015

Walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk.

That's what Jack and I did today.

We had tickets to a 2:30 showing of Star Wars at a theater around the corner from our hotel, so we decided to stay close.

We began in the posh Knightsbridge area, dropping in at Fortnum and Mason. It's a department store for the well-to-do. This is in one of the entrances:

It's a short walk from there to Saville Row, where one can be fitted for a bespoke suit. On Saville Row, one does away with the garishness of Christmas decorations and gets straight to the point:

Near Saville Row, one sees signs such as this:

Jack rang the bell and we were granted permission to enter the Quaritch antiquarian book shop. It was less a shop than a house loaded with books priced beyond what even Jack is willing to spend.

Jack had a grand old time, though.

Back on the street, we encountered this:

Money enough for a home yacht jet, but not a couple of commas?

Even the reindeer are overdone:

The American Embassy:  And stay out!

For comparison, here's another embassy (we didn't get close enough to figure out which, but the flag has Arabic writing on it). Other embassies are simple, elegant, ungated row houses.

We were walking towards the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, the carnival I photographed from afar four nights ago.

The theme is Bavaria, and it's downright creepy:

And inexplicable:

There are plenty of wooden moose for sale, many with Trump lips:

Why buy one when we can take a picture of all of them?

I thought this crow was a prop until it moved:

Ferris wheels are fun to photograph:

On our way back towards the movie theater, Jack and I tallied up the indoor car dealerships we'd seen: Rolls Royce next to Bentley; Aston Martin; and BMW.

BMW is selling bikes for prices that make no sense, considering the best they can slap on these things is Shimano Deore.

Star Wars? Two words: Harrison Ford.

After the movie we walked a mile up to Great Portland Street to Nicolas, to surprise Mederic. He retrieved a 50-year-old bottle of an almost-Sauternes and poured us each a glass. It was very good but I didn't like it.

We decided to walk another mile to Chinatown for dinner. Along the way, we walked under these lights:

Then we walked another mile home.

Now we're figuring out what to do tomorrow. I've got the Victoria and Albert page up. I'm looking for the weirdest thing. Here's a good one, in keeping with weird and shoes: "Shoes: Pleasure and Pain." They want £12 per person for that, though (that's something like $18). I'll keep looking.