Day 11

Day 11 Talk about a mystical experience and the hype of Harrods exploded as we stood like crazy fans waiting to get in to do our last minute Christmas shop. That is if we can afford something in that castle. Harrods only opened at 11:30 so as soon as the doors opened we rushed up the elevator to the Disney section as Olivia (Ryan and Natalie’s daughter) wanted to try on Cinderella’s glass slipper. Once there a prince fitted the slipper on Olivia’s foot but they never had her size. It sounds like she was one of the unfortunate ones not to marry her prince Charming. Instead she went to the mirrored Ballroom where she could try on any Disney character’s dress and spin around while you were waited on hands and foot by people dressed up in the tuxedo’s to assist you. Olivia walked away with a Repunzell dress with a hair piece extension just like her Disney hero. They certainly didn’t have this type of experience in my day. We passed Toy Story and Cars characters which just added to the adventure of Disneyland. I headed straight for Harrods pet store. This is for the Rich and Famous, where they take the dogs to the parlour to be groomed so they could be fit for the Queen. I must admit I thought that their dogs weren’t worth the price that they paid. One thing was for sure I was going to buy my little babies Christmas prezzies here, at Harrods! Duke and Bear got spoilt but the weirdest thing occurred while I wanted to pay. They told me that they could only accept my money at 12:00 and not a minute before. They had this strange law about only working for 6 hours on a Sunday. So there Brian and I stood like monkeys wanting to pay but couldn’t for 10 minutes. Finally the clock struck 12:00 and we could pay. The Harrods experience was amazing to say the least. We went down an escalator to the food court for lunch and Brian turned to me to say that the Singing over the speakers were Spectacular. Only then did he realise that it was a live Opera singer singing from her balcony to all the visitors of Harrods. What can we say, a different class altogether! Once at the Disney food court the children each received Mickey or Minney Mouse’s ears to get into the spirit of the day. The menu was spectacular with Disney castles and Tinkerbell printed on everything. Brian ordered a Chicken Mayonnaise sandwich with a Cranberry Lemonade while I ordered a Cheese pancake and a Cranberry Lemonade. My Pancake arrived with a Mickey Mouse’s head sprinkled on it with Paprika. Wow it looked special and it added to the entire mystical experience. This was until the bill came. Would you believe my Pancake came to 11, 50 Pounds alone forget the rest of the order. Never in my life have I had an R 190 pancake and juice. That just made me laugh, when Brian and I paid R 450 for our sandwiches. Thankfully we didn’t have to pay Ryan and Natalie’s bill as that was a joke. Well at least this doesn’t happen every day, a once in a lifetime experience for sure! No Harrods experience would be complete without tea and scones. After walking around in the castle as it is huge, the size I cannot explain. Visiting the harry potter Toy store, Jonathan and Brian boxing against one another while the crowd gathered to support them and cheer for them. Brian felt like a true victor after beating Jono. Once again the scones were very well priced at 6 Pounds for one scone and jam. So needless to say the little jam jars were going into my handbag as souvenirs. Brian got very excited when he saw a tv that he would love to buy until he saw the price- 81 000 pounds. Who in their right mind would pay over 1 million Rand for a tv. Finally it was time to leave after walking around Harrods for 5 hours as this was talking its toll on everyone. Ryan and Natalie got a shock of their lives when they had to pay 45 Pounds just for parking, thankfully we came by underground. As we left Harrods our next adventure was the London Eye. Marching around London what seemed to be late at night but it was only 5 o’clock in the evening. Once we arrived at the Eye we were great full to receive a discount of one person if we filled in a form. So that is exactly what we did so we borrowed a foreigner’s pen that could barely speak a word of English. The Eye was spectacular but first we went into another 4D cinema of how the London Eye was built and the history of London which included all the London sights seem from the Eye. The 4D cinemas are definitely something special. Just like the Eye itself. It was light up as the sun had already set. The blue light of the London Eye was resonating over the Thames River with Westminster Abbey glowing in the background in all its glory. It took approximately 30 minutes for one revolution of the Eye which was the perfect length as it gave you enough time to see Buckingham palace, Saint Pauls Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, London Tower and plenty other attractions that you could see from 900 m up in the air. Jonathan suffered a little bit as he is petrified of heights and he found himself sitting in the middle of the carriage staring at the floor so I am not sure how much he saw of London city centre light up at night. After buying some more London souvenirs we boarded the slow train back to Carpenders Park, Watford. Another day down and one more day to go.