Covent Garden

I could walk through a thousand autumn leaves in the crisp, winter freshness, admiring the works of artists who showcase their wares for at least 50 years of London's coldness. This is Hyde Park.

Autumn in the colourful Covent Garden is quite another picture: entertainers galore adorn the 19th century atmosphere, decorating the yesteryear pavement. It's cobblestones indeed. When you're 12 years old and being entertained by a street-performer, throw them a pound or two after you're called to be part of the performance - when you're a magician for a day. Before, or after, the local foodster prepares you a wonderful baked potato a la chilli-con-carle.

When you enter your teens in the same place, you might stop to re-read the red sign-board upon the entrance to Covent Garden, signifying the importance of this olden-day market-place. You notice you read the signboard as an individual with an interest in history as others snap by, recording your expression studying a past that is dear to you.

Years pass, and you stop by the same place as a 20-something, ordering the same baked potato with the same filling, from the same place. Another street-performer fills the piazza with his/her increasingly less exciting stunts. Foreign faces prevail, and less spashes of the pound coin are to be heard, when you toss them from the same spot you once relished your 2.99 Covent-Garden-baked-potato or .99-flake-ice-cream.

Apples & tomatoes - they can be purchased in less visible areas of the market, though the traditional fruit & veg trade in this area has rapidly died out, replaced by other modern-day commodities. Real Covent Garden children always know to find real market delicacies without compromising on culture, or do they.