This morning we had booked The Great Notting Hill Bakeoff Tour from Eating Europe, which they had now renamed the Great Notting Hill Breakfast Tour because, as our guide would explain, too many Americans thought a baking tour would be only sweets and not savory bakes. We set off for Notting Hill on the Tube from Westminster via the Circle line and walked to Pembroke Square to meet out guide Isaak and another couple, one of whom worked for Eating Europe and his fiancee.

Our first stop was Cheeky Scone, where we settled the debate on how to pronounce scone but did not settle on whether the Cornish (jam first, then cream) method or the Devonshire (cream first, then jam) was best. Cornish tradition uses the jam as a base to showcase the clotted cream on top, while Devonshire treats cream like butter, spreading it first. We tried it both ways and they both were very good as was the tea they served it with.

Isaak led us down Portobello Road, stopping to show us the 'secret' door at 80A that was supposedly used by celebrities like Kate Moss to sneak past paparazzi after parties held behind the wall, before leading us to the Notting Hill Bakery. Here we sampled a Steak and Guinness Pie on the street corner, which was one of our favorite items on the tour.

We continued our walk down Portobello Road, past the Notting Hill Gift Shop that was used as William's Travel Book Co. in the film. There is another bookstore down the road that has painted itself to look like the movie site but the gift shop was the actual location.

Our next stop was Maison Puget, a small bakery where Isaak got us pistachio macarons and madelines.

We walked to the Chai Guys bakery for spicy chai and a samosa danish, which was spicy and delicious.

Isaak led us through Notting Hill, past a bookshop where daily they make recipes from cookbooks they sell onto the famous blue door, which was open as people were moving either in or out. We stopped at the place where Notting Hill Carnival was started and the community center where Bob Marley and others recorded albums. We ventured on past the famous painted houses, including one George Orwell once lived in.

Our last stop was a restaurant that by night is Empire Empire but during the day is a bakery called Moi et Toi where we had a bakewell tart along with tea and coffee.

We said goodbye to Isaak and our breakfast companions and walked back to Notting Hill station to catch the tube back to Westminster. We headed back to our hotel to rest a bit before our evening show.

We had to walk to Waterloo to catch a train two stops north to Charing Cross. From there we walked to a restaurant downstairs in an alley called Blacklock where we had a couple of well cooked steaks, sweet potatoes and some of their own local beer and wine. It turned out to be a very good choice for our last night in London.

One of our good friends had posted on Facebook about being at The Alchemist in Glasgow, a bar we had gone to when we were there. J. R. saw they had a location in Covent Garden and since we had plenty of time before our play, we headed over there. Janie had the French Kiss with vodka, Mouse Kingdom dark berries, raspberry, pineapple, cranberry, citrus, meringue and popping candy, topped off with a candy tongue. She thought the drink was good but the tongue was disgusting. J. R. started with the Pipe Dream with Diplomatico Reserve Exclusiva rum, Born Irish stout whiskey, discarded vermouth, Licor 43, Alchemist spiced sugar blend and "smoked opulence". It was served in a glass pipe, which was cool to look at but tough to drink out of. J. R.'s second drink was the Bru-Loma with Neurita Citrus Tequila, El Jimador Tequila, Taylor's Velvet Falernum, Nogave, Lime and Irn Bru and Janie's was the Cherry Bomb with Dutch Barn Black Cherry Vodka, Kaveri Ginger Aperitif, Cherry, Apple, Lime and topped with a smoke bubble. We enjoyed sitting at the bar and watching the bartender make all of their fancy cocktails.

We walked to the Duchess Theater and waited outside for only a short bit before going upstairs to our seats, which were along the railing in dress circle, giving us a good view of the stage. We had seen an amateur production of The Play That Goes Wrong at a theater in Winter Haven and enjoyed it so we had booked it again in 2025 while Rebecca was studying in London. That trip was cancelled due to Janie's ankle injury and Becca used our tickets to take two of her friends. So we decided to try it again this time and it was even funnier than we remembered. We could not stop laughing, even though we knew some of the jokes were coming.

We got turned around coming out of the theater and missed the stairs that would have taken us down to water level to get to Charing Cross so we ended up walking home across the Thames and along the waterfront back to our hotel, where we finished packing up for our flights home the next day.

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