Today we were tossed out of Harrods but more of that later...
Being our last day in England, the first part of our day was taken up with some domestic chores - dropping the dirty clothes off for a service wash (much better that sitting watching your clothes go round and round in a Laundromat), finding a dentist to get some more antibiotics (mostly as a precaution), picking up our tickets for tomorrow and trying to change some Travellers Cheques (I'm sorry Sir, we can only change those if you have an account with us...)
The chores out of the way, we set off for a little last day sightseeing. With the sun shining and one or two threatening clouds, we jumped on a Tube at Russell Square and surfaced again at Piccadilly Circus. As we made our way along Piccadilly towards Green Park, we realised that we had walked into Mayfair where the shops were so posh we didn't think that we could even afford the price of breathing if we went inside. The pinnacle this part of our stroll was the Burlington Arcade near The Ritz.
We escaped with our life-savings in tact and made it into Green Park and to normality. It was pleasant stroll through the park down to Buckingham Palace where we crossed over into St James Park. As we walked the length of the park beside the lake, the skies became more threatening and eventually opened up. Down came the rain and like just about everyone else, we took shelter under a tree. When the rain eased off, we decided that perhaps a little souvenir shopping was in order so we set off for Harrods in Knightsbridge using the Tube from St James Park station.
Even though their sale is still on, Harrods was nowhere near as berserk as it was the last time we were there. It was a pleasant but mostly unaffordable walk through the shop as we made our way to the Harrods Shop department on the second floor. After select our purchases, we joined the queue to pay. While we were in the queue there was an announcement: "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are investing an alarm in another part of the store. There is no need for concern but please follow any instructions of our staff". Thinking nothing more of it, we completed our purchase and started to make our way out. As we went down on the Egyptian Escalator, there were security staff making sure we didn't stop on the first floor. On the ground floor, there were more security staff making sure we left the building. So there we were, like everyone in the place, very politely and very efficiently tossed out of Harrods. All credit to theme actually, they managed to evacuate the building with very little fuss and no panic.
Of course with everyone out on the street, staff included, it was absolute chaos. We escaped as best we could and made our way to South Kennsington and the Tube (to get back to Knightsbridge station would have meant fighting our way past Harrods again...). Making full use of the daily cap on the Oyster Card (London's version of Myki), we traveled around to Westminster and continued our sightseeing beside the Thames. By Embankment we were getting a little tired so we headed back to Russell Square and our hotel.
When it was time for dinner, we decided to go into the theatre district. We went up to Russell Square station to catch a Piccadilly Tube. With one of the three lifts out for maintenance, there was a big crowd waiting so we decided to walk down the 175 step emergency stairway. That wasn't too hard but those walking looked like they were wished they hadn't. We caught a Tube to Leicester Square and wandered around checking out various restaurants. After a while we ended up going back to Le Garrick where we went the day we arrived back from York.
An old Michelin garage in South Kensington
Not your usual stained glass window
A Circle line train at South Kensington
No comments:
Post a Comment