Saturday in London - April 26th - V & A, Harrods, Harvey Nichols

After breakfast, I was ready to go, but unfortunately it was still pretty early and everything was closed. Also unfortunately, it was raining quite hard. Boots, the iconic British chemist's shop, opened at 9:00, so I went there at opening time and bought an umbrella. I had a nice chat with the Filipina woman working behind the counter; she said she had been planning a picnic but would have to cancel and disappoint the children. I assured her that now that I had bought the umbrella, the rain would stop. 

However, it was still raining lightly by the time I got back to the hotel. Oh well, I thought. I stowed my luggage at the hotel desk and set out at about 9:30, grabbing a hire bike and heading north towards Hyde Park. 

a Santander/Barclays hire bike docking station

Almost as soon as I started riding, the rain stopped, so that was great. I rode to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where there was a long queue waiting for opening time -- about 10 minutes away. So I joined the queue.

It's hard to capture the immensity and grandiosity of this museum in photos. It truly is amazing. I could have spent all day here, and I thought about how much we would have loved to have a museum like this when the boys were young. 

Tempus fugit could have been my motto for this trip, as I knew I had only five days to explore everything!

After the V & A, I went to Harrods and Harvey Nichols. Maybe I am weird, but I wasn't that thrilled with either one, except to be able to say I went there. The chocolate section in the basement of Harrods is vast and delectable, but there are so many choices that it was hard for me to decide what to buy -- so I ended up not buying anything. I guess that's a good thing, but I sort of would have liked to take something home.

In Harrods, I was impressed with the Egyptian escalator and there is a whole Egyptian room, which is also quite cool.

Harrods, from across the street