(London, UK)

One wouldn’t expect that the famous British Museum and the well-known Harrods shopping center could possibly have a connection. But I will make one clear in this post. But before we dive into this thread, I would like to present some photos beforehand.

We walked through St. James Park and managed to come up to the street leading to Buckingham Palace. And just like in the B-rated movie Cell, starring John Cusack, we saw a flock of people walking in one direction down the street. Ok, I’m exaggerating but we did see groups of people walking towards the palace. So we stopped a police officer and asked where everyone was walking to and he mentioned that the “changing of the guards” was about to occur at the palace and that if we continued down the street, we too could witness it. So, we joined the throng of people and headed to the palace. Fortunately, we were able to catch the tail-end of the guards changing.

 

 

 

Next, we headed to the British Museum. This famous museum was established in 1753 and contains some of the finest collections of objects from the ancient world spanning many cultures. One of the most impressive was its collection of Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greek artifacts; which range from antique common household items to whole facades of ancient temples.

 

 

A funny thing happened when we entered the museum. We couldn’t really find where to pay for the entrance tickets but did see a stand that sold tickets for 64 pounds, which seemed like a lot for a day’s visit. So I decided to end this confusion, since we were walking around the large lobby trying to figure it out, and I stopped one of the museum curators and asked, with admittedly bad English grammar, “How much is the museum?” To which he looked astonished and asked, “As in what? To buy?” and I was a little confused but replied, “Yes! how much does the museum cost?” I meant a ticket to visit of course and normally I can speak much more coherently but there was a lot of rain outside and I was out of sorts… see, I’ll blame it on the rain.

Well, this curator looked around like he was doing some massive calculations in his mind but he said, “I’ll have to put you in touch with the museum manager to get an exact number but I imagine it will cost you in the millions”. And I said, “Oh, I can’t afford that! I just wanted a ticket for today.” Which completely cleared up that confusion. I was a little flattered though, I don’t think I look like I carry around millions of dollars. But then again, in this crazy global economy, I guess someone could walk in and inquire about buying the British Museum and who knows how they would be dressed.

The museum is free. You can sponsor the museum in the form of a membership for 64 pounds a year. The museum is definitely worth a visit and is huge. It would take a person several days to see it all. We only saw the highlights, such as:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After this, Grant’s stepmom and I felt like our London visit wouldn’t be complete without a stop at Harrods. So we sped over there in a taxi, we wanted enough time before it closed.

Walking in to Harrods, I was surprised by the interior. It has an Egyptian theme to it and surprisingly, the different stores open right on to other stores so it feels like you’re in one big house layout. Because of this, it is easy to get lost in if this is your first visit. The prices were astonishing. There were mostly name brand items: for example, a jogging shoe cost 874 pounds on up. And there were a lot of handbags for 1000’s of pounds. Some fashion shoes were kind of funny, they were decked out with one or two feathers sticking out. I don’t think this decoration could last more than one wearing.

We got a snack at the cafe on the “lower ground floor” called Ca’puccino. Our fancy house coffees were delicious:

 

 

This made me feel like I stepped back in time:

 

My favorite store was the bookstore. I picked out two classics – Oliver Twist and The Road to Wigan Pier. The irony of subconsciously picking two books about the poor in an environment where wealth is on display, only came to the surface while writing this post.

 

 

The jewelry section of Harrods was really impressive with all manner of high quality jewels; from rubies, to pearls, to topaz. I love stones so it was nice to just wander through and look at the various gems.

For dinner, we went to a trendy restaurant called Greenwood near Victoria Station. I ate a shrimp salad and Grant and his family ordered burgers.

 

 

 

 

This was a great way to spend the last day of our London trip with Grant’s parents.

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