a little too posh

This morning we made plans to meet Megan, Cristobal in the courtyard at 11 – with bags packed with sack lunches we headed off towards London town again. Cristobal ended up not joining us because he wanted to do laundry instead. (laundry…London, hard to decide.) We got off at the Knightsbridge station and walked up the stairs of the station to find Harrods towering before us.


I kept telling everyone that this was just more than a store; it was something special. I think they got the idea when we passed the front windows that displayed a formula one car, and a luxury car that cost £300,000: around $600,000. Harrods is made up of different rooms, there is the meat room, the chocolate room, the produce room, the purse room, the perfumery, the pet shop and so on… It is kind of what I imagine Santa’s workshop to look like, and they were getting ready for Christmas nonetheless. The father of the late Dody Al-fayed owns Harrods (Dody was killed alongside Princess Diana) there is a fountain commemorating the two at the lower level of the store. The engagement ring that Dody was going to give Diana is a part of the memorial.

We walked over to Hyde park to eat our sack lunch. Hyde Park is a huge park in central London that is great for walks and sitting in the shade. JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan lived across the street from the park, and wrote much of the book under its trees. There is a statue of Peter Pan in the park as well. As we were sitting under a tree, the Greek club coincidently walked past us and we hollered at them to come join us – imagine, the entire city of London, and we see people that we know. Despina, Joanna and Teripsy began walking with us toward the duck pond, and Despina would flip out every time a horse passed because she loves animals so much. In a thick, deep Greek accent, she would scream, “DUNCAN! Get your camera out and take a picture of that horse, ok!” It suddenly began to rain, and we decided to keep walking on towards the tube stop, what is London without a couple of sprinkles.



The Greek club got excited when I described Harrods to them, and they left the group for some shopping. The rest of us headed to Saint Pauls Cathedral. It was truly impressive to walk around this world famous cathedral, and I was keeping an eye out to see if Mary Poppins was right that it only costs tuppance a bag to feed the birds, but there was no bird woman. David pointed out that the cathedral doors were open, and we walked up the steps and found ourselves walking inside. The detail of the ceiling and flooring was incredible, and the size of the main hall was jaw dropping. To add to the beauty, they were about to start a service and the organ began playing along with a trumpet accompaniment. It was sad to see how some of the tourists treated the cathedral; many were taking pictures – which were prohibited, and munching on snacks as they walked around.