March 8-9th. Portobello Market & Birmingham

Had a fun weekend with Inga and Alicia. Though Alicia spent most of it recovering from her flight here at home. On Saturday we went to London to orient Inga with our top spots such as Monmouth coffee shop and cover a new point - Portobello Market. We really liked it - it is a less commercial and has more character than Camden market. We took hours to cover maybe 10 city blocks with all the interesting and tasty detours along the way.

Reconnected again with Ekaterinburg relatives via Skype. It is interesting to discuss events in Ukraine with the aggressor country :)

On Sunday Dan had some business to attend to in Birmingham. We joined in - it is the second largest city in the UK, so we had hopes of seeing a mini London despite the warnings in the tour guide about the "urban planning nightmare."

Our first stop was the National Motorcycle Museum in the outskirts. Excellent museum. Not the type of place one expects to end up after a few hours of driving but Dan's hobby certainly brings us to the most interesting places.

We really loved it. The museum does a great job providing a scavenger hunt for kids to keep them engaged through all the 850 exhibits. It was amazing how many transformations the design of the bike has undergone - starting from an extension of the heavy bicycle with the chain and a small motor over 100 years ago on to the rocket ship looking ones that could clock over 200 miles per hour. We also noticed that all the bikes were shined to the perfection, with hardly a speck of dust on them. It takes a lot of effort and loving to keep them in this condition.

Next we wanted to experience some of the Indian Balti food Birmingham is famous for. Unfortunately both spots we tried were not open. As we were driving toward Birmingham town center we passed through Another English Inquisition street and Dan hit our courtesy car, in much similar way as I did previously - against a large parked truck. That and no lunch certainly dumpened our spirits.

We parked in the center and walked through semi-dead streets looking for some nourishment. We finally found a Bodega and settled there. A few drinks and food cheered us up but then Georgia saw the Kiwi video and got very upset. We did not think she would take it that close to heart but watching our reaction about the car and being a bit hungry must have had some effect too. We knew that we are watching a turning moment in Georgia's life. It will need time to get digested fully but it is unlikely that there would not be any impact. I'll have to talk to her about it later.



We continued our walk before deciding to check out the jewelry quarter - Birmingham used to be famous for it. Like everything else it was dead too, except one store run by Russians. Fortunately we accidentally stumbled into Ink Pen Museum, a former Inc Pen factory, and an absolutely awesome incredible museum of the dying art lovingly run by the dedicated volunteers. We all loved it. Kids went through the circuit of creating the tips for the pen. Cherished their new "goody bags." This and the motorcycle museum made the trip worth our while.

On Monday Inga and Alicia went to London to take the Big bus drive around town. We are glad Alicia got a good overview of the town.