Hamleys, Bloomsbury & Harrods

On Wednesday morning we made our way to the Tkts booth in Leicester Square (pronounced “Lester” – not sure why the “ce” is never pronounced!) to get tickets for Oliver the musical, which we thought would be an appropriate show to see to complete our London experience. Unfortunately the ticket man told us that we would not be allowed in the theatre with our little guy. We were a bit disappointed, but quickly recovered by losing ourselves in the magic of Hamleys toy store! Hamleys is an absolute wonderland of a store. Seven floors full of every kind of toy you could possibly imagine! It was especially fun to be there at Christmas time – the energy in the place was definitely heightened to suit the season! My favourite floor was the ground level: wall to wall plush toys! Brendan had the genius idea of putting Liam in with the teddy bears for a picture. The result is priceless:

Here are a few more shots of our Hamleys experience:

The Candy Shop!

Brendan was very pumped about that fudge!

After Hamleys we headed to the Bloomsbury part of town to visit the British Museum, the Charles Dickens Museum, and the British Library. The British Museum is a mammoth place. One could get lost in its countless rooms for days, but since we didn’t have the luxury of that kind of time, we visited only the Ancient Mesopotamia exhibit. We also stopped to examine the Rosetta Stone, one of the museum’s most famous objects. The stone is inscribed with text in three languages, and was instrumental in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics (hence its renown).

The British Museum

The Charles Dickens Museum is in the house he lived in as an adult on Doughty Street in Bloomsbury. We watched a documentary about his life and wandered through the rooms where he lived and worked. It was a simple museum, but I enjoyed it. I like visiting homes and imagining the lives of the people who once lived there.

The British Library was a highlight for Brendan and me. It wasn’t featured as a main attraction in our guidebook, but its permanent exhibit holds many treasures that are worth seeing. We saw a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, Birds of America, manuscripts of music by Handel and Mozart, handwritten texts from as early as the 9^th century, and most notably, one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta of 1215. Being book lovers and history nuts, B and I were in our element there!

Wandering into the British Library

Manuscript of Handel's Messiah

In the library's book shop

 Wednesday night after putting Liam to bed we watched Notting Hill – a delightfully cheesy thing to do while staying in the part of town by that name! We had hoped to be able to stop by the Travel Book Co. (the store where Hugh Grant’s character works in the movie) on Thursday, but didn’t end up having time. It was fun to watch the movie again though!

Thursday was our last day in London, and though we had packing and tidying to do, we still managed to see more of the city. Once the chores were done, we walked through Kensington Gardens on our way to Harrods (a bit of a round about way, but it was nice to see the park and the palace). Harrods is a colossal department store that sells nearly everything. It is also outrageously expensive! We saw a watch there for over £12,000!!!  A watch! We didn’t have much time to spend there, but it was enough to get a sense of the incredible opulence of the place!

Kensington Gardens - spot us in the reflection!

Harrods

When we got back from our little jaunt we had just enough time to eat lunch, grab our things and run to the bus stop. The bus took us to Luton airport where, after long waits in various queues, we finally caught our flight to Amsterdam. Carlo met us at the airport and brought us back to his and Gladys’ lovely home in Hoofddorp, where we looked forward to resting after our whirlwind tour of London!