| The Art of Being a Tourist |
A wise man once said, speak softly and carry a big map. Well, that is what we did yesterday. After finding out that the bus tours recommended to us by my brother were about the cost of our entire day's budget, we bought a map for £2 and decided to hoof it instead.
With a city map and an all day pass for the London Underground, you can see a lot in one day. We started at Picadilly Circus, wandering through Trafalgar Square to see the fountains and watch all the people . We then headed towards Buckingham Palace and continued onto Hyde Park for some lunch. We grabbed cheap sandwiches and cokes and went out into this big meadow next to a lake where lots of people were sitting around in comfortable looking hammock chairs. We grabbed three for ourselves and plopped down under a shady tree to chow down and watch all the people go by. To our surprise, a man with a printer on his hip walked by a few minutes later to collect £1.50 from each of us for the chairs. I guess we were all a little suprised that this guy was talking to us, but we were so comfortable that we just paid him.
Two hours later, we dragged ourselves out of the park to do a little more sightseeing. I think the highlight of my day came next- Harrods Department Store. I don't really know where I recognized the name of this place from, but I saw it on the map and noticed how huge it was, so we decided to drop in. Boy am I glad we did! What a store. Talk about the center of the universe for luxury goods! This has to be the only place in the world where you can buy your whole wardrobe, furnish your whole house (including hardwood flooring), buy a piano, pick up all the gourmet groceries you need, purchase a home theater system, get a haircut, and have a meal in any of about a dozen restaurants scattered around. Oh, and how could I forget the fossils and precious stones section, where you can bring home a £40000 chunk of labradorite or, if you're on a budget, a £10000 table made of solid malachite. And I'm pretty sure there's a pet store on the top floor. Needless to say, with seven stories of awesome stuff and an egyptian-themed escalator to take you to each one, the place was awesome.
Today we're going to hit some of the free museums in town, and tomorrow we get on a plane to Amsterdam! |
|
|
|
|
|
Post a Comment