This weekend we had the pleasure of meeting up with 2 mates over from Australia in London. So having purchased our coach tickets we set off for London on Saturday morning. As you may while know from subsequent emails, conversations etc the weather here has been constantly overcast and rainy for 2 weeks now. So we kitted up as per usual and hit the streets of London to sightsee. The main target was Harrods. This is a place that you have to go to at least once during your stay in London.
I was quite surprised at the lack of grandeur of the store when we first spotted it. We only realised we had reached our destination as there were protesters with a picket line outside the building. It would seem that Harrods stocks furs. Not a good start to my introduction to the store. Having paused and checked my conscience I chose to continue and have a look through the store anyway. At first the overall sense of the place was gradeur, wealth, opulence and chaos with tourists everywhere. However, after a while it actually began to remind me of Dubai – it is all these things taken at face value but once you touch the stone columns, peer up into the cornices and scratch the surface a bit more it’s all for show. There is nothing wrong with this but I imagined Harrods to be more solid (if that makes sense). I loved the Eygptian room which continues up through all the floors via its escalator. The lighting here was great and it was a lot quieter than the rest of the store. It is in this area on the ground floor that you find a tribute to Dodhi and Diana. Actually you could probably more call it a shrine with a photo of each of them and a table set up with the wine glass and candles they left “as is” at the restaurant before the accident. Included in the arrangement is the engagement ring thought to have been purchased by Dodhi for Diana. Even more interesting is the statue at the other end of the building that depicts Dodhi and Diana with the inscription “innocent victims”. It is very well crafted sculpture and the facial features are incredibly lifelike, but again, it all seems very Disneyesque.
For the rest of the day we wandered around Kensington Park, Bayswater and finally ended up having dinner at a great Italian restaurant. We decided to splurge out a little seeing as I start my new job on Monday. The 2 meals we have had in England that have been great – both Italian!
Sunday we caught up with our mates from Australia. It was really cool to see some familiar faces. It seems like so long ago that we lived in Sydney. Gosh I miss that blue sky!