Guess what this is! No, really. Have a guess. That would be Harrods, London's department store par excellence. The store takes up an entire city block, has over 200 departments spread over 7 floors, and employs over 6000 workers. One store! While it has kind of become a shopping destination for lots and lots of tourists, ignore that fact and visit their food halls anyway.
Ignore the handbags and scarves costing thousands of pounds on your way in and make your way through the expensive stuff to the food halls. You can ignore the rest of the store, but this is worth a visit. Forget Wegman's and their food stalls. Harrods has everything, from rows of delicious baked goods and chocolates to Indian, Malaysian, Chinese, etc etc prepared food and (best part) a Krispy Kreme! There are a few krispy kreme shops scattered around the country, but there's not many and none in York, so when I saw that, I had to have a taste of home. Even if it did cost me 1.10 for a plain original donut. What I love most about Harrods is the decor- the candy rooms look like the set of Pushing Daisies- dark wood floors and trim, bright colored paint and gold ornaments... Its really neat. (But they get mad if you try to take pictures, eep!) I went through around 6:30 and they had end of the day discounts on a lot of the prepared food, which was awesome. I got myself a whole bunch of different goodies for dinner for under 5 pounds. Delicious! And the whole store is fun to explore because each room is decked out differently. There's the gleaming marble and stained glass ceiling in the Asian food hall, the magical chocolate shop, the snobby "luxury goods" room, and the Egyptian escalator room decorated in consultation with experts from the British Museum to check for authenticity!
Fun story, Harrods was also home to Britain's first escalator (also the first department store in the world to get one), installed in 1878 and the proper ladies & gents were so confounded by it at first that Harrods used to employ someone to stand at the top to offer complimentary smelling salts to the ladies and port to the gents! (Alas, they don't still do that.) They've also got really neat window displays. When I was there, they were all takes on the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland. Here's the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, Harrod's style.
Harrods also used to employ Dave Prowse, who you might not have heard of but you totally know. Hint: "Luuuuke *breath* I am your father.... *breath*" That's right, Dave Prowse was Darth Vader in the original trilogy of Star Wars, but they dubbed his voice with James Earl Jones because Prowse had the whole British accent thing going. (Personally I think Darthy would've been that much more awesome if he'd been British, but oh well.) He used to be a fitness consultant in the sports department while Pierce Brosnan used to work in the pharmacy. So there you have it. I totally think Harrods is worth a visit, even if you aren't going to buy any of their luxury goods. The food halls alone are totally cool and a great place to grab something to eat on the go!
And now for something... well, not _completely_ different, but magical in its own way.
Hamleys Toys! You know it has to be an amazing toy shop if it is OLDER THAN THE UNITED STATES. That's right, founded in 1760, Hamleys has brought joy to young children (and not so young children) for 250 years. To (loosely) quote one of the tour bus commentators, "I highly recommend a stop in Hamleys. I guarantee that everyone remembers the last time they went in. I remember the last time I was there. I was 24. I'm still 24. It was yesterday." Gotta love the British. Or maybe its just that guy- hysterical. But more gems of wisdom from him later on. Anyway, I'll just say that I was thankful I came out of there without an armful of new stuffed friends. Thank goodness I'd just packed a rucksack so I physically couldn't take home too many purchases or else I'd probably have a new teddy right now.
And how about this shop for all of your Sherlock Holmes paraphernalia needs, conveniently located a block away from Madam Tussauds. But ignore the green building and instead check out the door on the left. You can't really make it out, but that would be 221B written on the window above the door. And this would be Bakers Street. The man might be fictional, but his address certainly is not! I actually stumbled across it almost by accident. I got off the bus at Madam Tussauds to grab a waffle for breakfast (not at Madam Tussauds) and noticed that the sign down the way said "Bakers Street." So I thought, hmm, let's go see. And there it was. There's a bigger/better Sherlock Holmes Museum down towards Westminster by the pier, but I thought it was kinda cool to see where he would've lived, y'know, if he'd been real.
Ahh, Camden Markets area- home to 2 markets that kind of run into each other, plus a street full of fun shops & cheap eats. If I had known my flight to Istanbul was going to be canceled, I would have bought stuff from here, but I was good and saved room in my pack. Alas. Anyhoo, here you can find the Camden Lock Market & Camden Stables Market.
Here you can find all kinds of things, from jewelry (both nice & costume), clothes (both goth/punk and normal), antiques, leather jackets, purses/handbags, statues, t-shirts, costume supplies, scarves, art- if you can think of it and it is portable, they probably sell it. There's also a number of vintage shops both within the market stalls and in buildings along the streets nearby. I also got delicious Chinese food for 3 pounds. Priorities, right?
So there you have some of the more interesting shopping options. Worth seeing- I didn't buy anything at any of them! But I would have. Silly volcano. In fact, I limited my purchases in London to some postcards, little souvenirs to mail to various people, and a zip up tote from the British Museum a) because it is awesome b) because I'm dorky like that and c) because it was cheaper than those totes at the MFA that I never talked myself into splurging on. Oh, and a London A-Z because maps are good things to have in London, although it is surprisingly easy to get from place to place. Or maybe that's just me coming from a mass-transit background. The only time I ever got turned around was coming out of Victoria Station by different exits & having to find the road to my hostel, but that just involved walking around the station until I found it. (Is it sad that I had an easier time navigating London by tube/bus than I did trying to find the rows in Chester by walking through the town? To be fair they don't mark the rows on the free city map at the train station. You have to know that the rows are at "the Crossing" and follow the signs pointing there. But still.)
I think next post will cover the awesomeness of the British Museum, because everyone should go to the British Museum. So if you can't, you can go there by proxy through the 97 pictures I took there. Don't worry, I'll only post the best ones ;)
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