Shopping and earthquakes. Yep, you read correctly. You see, I love to explore stores of any kind, just looking at the different products we don't see every day in the states. Harrods fit the bill. John even loved it and we were probably in there two hours. His usual s.s. (store stamina) is about 10-20 minutes. Harrods has to be seen to be believed. We just happened to enter the door that led to the Princess Diana/Dodi al Fayad (his father owns Harrods) slightly creepy, but not to be missed, memorial. You go down an escalator to a dimmed space with an altar-like table featuring photos of Diana and Dodi as well as the monstrous diamond ring Dodi had given her (locked behind glass, of course). Fresh flowers and candles completed the memorial.
Next stop in Herrods: the food hall (3 floors of it)..OMG, it makes Draegers look like a 7-11 store! We started with the pastry area, full of elaborate cakes, some 10" ones going for over $100. Then came the cupcakes, the tarts, pies, muffins, turnovers, éclairs, Napoleans, and myriad other pastries. This was followed by the bread section with every size, shape and kind one could want. We strolled through the charcuterie, with fresh hams as big as a whole pig, salamis, and more. The butcher section was gorgeous with perfect cuts of roast pork and prime rib, as well as other meats I'd rather not see. There was a caviar section, wine hall, frommagerie, candy section, fresh produce sections with every exotic thing one could imagine, tea and coffee section, confiture department, and so much more! Then came the best part--the chocolatiers. Several famous ones were represented and we each chose a piece of chocolate from Maison du Chocolat. Yum. We had hoped the whole food section would have samples out like Costco, but no, these proper Brits don't condone that. The gall!
We then headed upstairs through mazes of toys, at least 8 restaurants (including an ice cream parlor), fur coats, hats and fascinators (look that one up), stationery, the obligatory tourist gift shop, home furnishings, and a technology hall complete with all kinds of spy apparatus (a plastic Kleenex cover that was a nanny-cam, for instance). James Bond would have definitely shopped there. They also had Segway type transporters and even a child-sized one. We landed in the children's book section and I have to admit I grew quite nostalgic, especially since today would have been the first day of school, had I not retired. Shout out to all my teacher friends.
After a stop for lunch, we continued on to John's choice of place: The Natural History Museum. After a 20-minute wait in a long queue, we entered this amazing museum. We only saw 1/3 of it and it was spectacular. I'll add here that the lovely folks in London have made all their museums free and that allows so many to go that might not otherwise have the means to. We went to the volcano and earthquake section and it was one of the best I've ever seen. Of course, having my own experienced docent/certified interpretive guide at my side helped a lot (thanks, Docent John).
Sharing our interests with each other today was a joy and education.
For dinner we went to The Devonshire Arms Pub near our hotel in Kensington (the pub my brother-in-law frequented in his younger years) and it was fabulous! I l-o-v-e pub food, and this was high quality stuff. I had gnocchi with mushrooms in a tarragon cream sauce, and John had a Cottage Pie (sort of a shepherds pie). Both were delicious. For dessert we had the "sharing dessert" that had little bits of all their desserts ( or puddings, as they're called) on a huge plate with two spoons. Dare I tell you what we consumed? A salted caramel and chocolate tart slice, a lemon and lime tart slice, two different brownies, clotted cream, raspberry sorbet, and a very interesting apple sorbet. We were two happy campers!
Tomorrow we return to Paris. This has been a nice little side trip to get our English language fix, as well as our Italian food fix (last night's choice). There's so much more here to see, and we feel lucky to have experienced some of the more interesting things.
Pictures to come as soon as we get back to Paris.
--Gail
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