Day 21-Harrods and Derailments

05 July 2007

Today I decided that it was time to finally go and see Harrod's Department Store. After hearing about the fantastic Annual Clearance Sale in July I decided today had to be the day. Harrods is located at the Knightsbridge tube station. To get to Harrods from #99 you have to get on the Underground and take the Central line to Holton Street and then transfer to the Piccadilly line and take that to Knightsbridge. The entire journey to Harrods was very easy. I was not surprised to see that the tube station at Knightsbridge is very nice and clean and far more updated than some of the other tube stations in town. This station actually had marble floors in the main entrance area and you were literally at the front door of Harrods as soon as you made it up to the street. How convenient.

Because everyone has already told me a million times how lavish the Harrods Department store was I was not surprised at all by what I found inside. It is an extremely large building (about 7 floors total) and has tons of departments, impressive lavish food halls and 28 restaurants some of which include: Harrod's Chocolate Bar, Champagne & Oyster Bar, Mo's Diner and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts to name a few. It's definitely an extreme shopping experience. One of the more impressive sights in the store is the Egyptian Escalator which has some very nice carvings and hieroglyphics and such and at the bottom has a memorial tribute to Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed. It was extravagant and interesting. My favorite part was definitely the toy department. I wish that Olivia would have been able to see all the cool stuff that they had there. It was very impressive. I had lunch in the Mo's Diner which was a little overpriced but tasty nonetheless.

After Harrods it was time to get back over to #99 for work. This transition was not nearly as easy as getting to Harrods. The Piccadilly to Central trip was really pretty unremarkable, except for ignoring the little voice in my head telling me to get off at Liecester Square and take the Northern Line home. So, when we got back to Holton Street we learned that a train had derailed on the Central Line and that our train would be delayed which was a bit of an understatement. It took over 30 minutes for a train to arrive during which time I could have walked home from the Holton Street station but again ignored that rational voice in my head and remained in the stuffy tunnels waiting on the train. I spent quite a bit of my time waiting watching a little brown mouse sniff around at different things down on the train tracks and about 2 minutes before the train finally arrived I got into a conversation with the lady standing next to me which was nice. This was actually the first time I have gotten into a conversation with any Londoners while out and about. They generally just sort of keep to themselves around here. And that is definitely something I like better about the states, making small talk with people while you are out and about.

So, I did make it back to the center and here I am now at work killing time. I still have over 3 hours left here tonight! zzzzzz So, I guess that's all I have for now. I am leaving for Ireland in about 10 hours :-)

Hope that you all have a nice night!

~Jenn