Day 3 in London
May 9, 2005
Sherron worked on my third day, but Heather didn’t, so we ended up spending the day together (Note: They are both supply teachers - or substitute teachers, as we know them, so they would get called to work in the morning if they were needed). I was actually a little relieved that I wouldn’t be by myself that day, as I was still trying to get my barings, and the thought of traveling on the tube by myself was a little daunting. We had a whole day to just roam around, so we started by going to Knightsbridge to see Harrods’s. What a store that is! It’s a beautiful, huge store that I’ve never seen anything like before. It was extremely busy, full of all kinds of people, both shopping and not. In the store is an amazing food hall, with everything you can imagine.
And of course, there’s clothing (which was way out of my price range). After we had finished looking around Harrods’s, Heather and I headed for Leicester Square to buy tickets to “Fame”. We then went to King’s Cross station to see Platform 9 ¾ from Harry Potter. I was a little disappointed in it though, as I guess I had hoped that it would look more like how it looked in the movies. We went back to Knightsbridge and just walked around, looking at all the flats in the area. It’s quite a posh area, where I’m sure only people that have lots of money live. We then went to Covent Garden, which is where Sherron met up with us. Together, we went to the theatre district to see “Fame” at the Aldwych Theatre. It was the first time I had ever seen a musical, and I really enjoyed it.
We really lucked out that day, as the weather was pretty great. Up until a few days before, it had been typical spring weather, windy and cool. Although it had shown a little of that the day before, we were able to do all our walking around in relatively nice weather. Being able to do that without getting wet was nice.
Huge and beautiful. I bought tea and mints because everything else was too expensive. It was nice to see, though. And the doormen in the green jackets were great.
Harrod's
Inside Harrod's
Harrod's
Harrod's
Found at King’s Cross, Harry Potter fans will know what this is. In the book, students going to Hogwarts get to their train by going to this train platform. They run at the wall, pushing their luggage on the cart, and once they are about to hit the wall, they magically go through it and end up in a place where non-magical people can’t see into. Anyhow, this King’s Cross platform has a cart halfway in the wall. Harry Potter fans will get a kick out of it, however, I was expecting a bit more. Maybe more like what it looked like in the book. I thought it looked too much like a grocery cart.
Harry Potter's cart at
Platfor
...
Bright, energetic, loud, and funny. Those are just some of the words I used in my journal when describing this show. It was full of high octane performances, in which those actors had to be super fit to perform. They were singing and dancing pretty much non-stop. It was really fun to watch.
Fame at the Aldwych Theatre
Me and Heather playing peek-a-boo
This is the center of London’s cinema land, including the Odeon, Empire, and Vue Cinemas, among others. This is also the place where you can buy tickets, at a reduced cost, to all the theatre shows that are happening in the West End that day. Also, this is where we bought our tickets for the Hop-on/Hop-off bus tour. There are lots of tourist shops here, and lots of restaurants here. There are a lot of cinemas here, and because of this, the movie premiers will be here. This is a great place to people watch, and just hang out. It’s a really good atmosphere.
