Tourist Attractions Travel

A Day Out in London (Harrods and Platform 9 3/4)

Hello lovelies! I am officially back from Turkey and now settled in to a lovely abode in Newcastle upon Tyne. To be honest, I am suffering a tad from vacation depression- you know- when your holiday is just out of this world and you’re sad to be back to the real world where you don’t just get to spend all of your time lazing around drinking free beers by the sea with your own special jerkface (Sam).
 
So to help me transition more smoothly back to rainy, grey England, I’m not going to do any posts on Turkey yet. For one thing, I don’t have any pictures uploaded yet. For another, blogging about our holiday will officially mean that it is a thing of the past and I want to cling to it for one more day.
 
Instead, I’m writing about a lovely day out that Sam and I shared in London after leaving Stratford and before going to Turkey. It was part of our “be a tourist in your own city” day.
 
Even after living in England for his entire life, and London for over a decade, Sam had never been to Harrods. Whereas I, the tourist and expat, had been there several times. So I decided to show him around. (Specifically the Egyptian escalator and the exotic pets department.)
 
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 On the famous Egyptian Escalator

I know at one point in time this was the most expensive escalator in the entire world. I’m sure that fact is no longer true, but it’s my only real fact about Harrods.
 
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Christmas goods were already emerging, including this Lego Santa!
 
There’s a Christmas baubles and decoration department so they are permanently ready for the festive season. But I was particularly impressed by this Lego Santa.
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 Me and Professor Lupin’s wand. (It looks like a breadstick though.)
And then we spent the majority of our time in the Toy Department. Sam was impressed that to get to the toys you first had to go through the children’s book section (which is also amazing.)
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 Socks has a rival.
I obviously beelined toward the giant panda stuftie.
 
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He looks sad to be in my arms, doesn’t he?

Sam is more of a gadget man.

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“I look like such a goon in that photo” claimed Sam.
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Is there an age where you are too old for Nerf guns?
 
After a surprisingly long day of Harrods, we hit up another department store flagship that Sam had never been to: Liberty. The Liberty building is stunning. And not pictured here because I forgot. But after all those stores we decided that it was finally time for me to go back to school.
 
platform 9 3/4
The Gremlin goes to Hogwarts.

This is going on 3+ years in England, most of which has been spent in London and shamefully I had never visited Platform 9 3/4. I could never bully anyone into going with me, and I was too embarrassed to go by myself. (Mostly because then I’d have to ask a stranger to take a picture.)

I’ve mentioned a few times that Sam and I read out loud to each other. It’s one of out “things”. And he’d never read Harry Potter or seen any of the films. But we are nearing the end of Prisoner of Azkaban so he is finally starting to see the light. (The light is that HP is AMAZING)

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Ravenclaw for the win!

I’m not sure he loves it enough to do a marathon of all the films throughout an entire weekend, and I want him to experience all the books first. But soon my pretties, soon.

platform 9 3/4
Magic!
 
Do you have any favourite “tourist” activities in your town?

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