Weekend of 12th & 13th February 2011

This was the weekend before the mid term break so we decided to spend the days fairly quietly at the London Museum of Transport.  This is near convent garden which is where we were the week before.  As we were making our way from the tube station we came across these huge trucks with spotlights and scaffolding all around.  There were crews busy building awnings and the streets were closed to traffic.  We wandered around the corner and discovered that they were preparing for the BAFTA award ceremony the next day.  There was a huge red carpet out and awnings leading up to the Opera House.  What a pity we were a day early.  We carried on to the Museum of London Transport where the huge buildings that were once flower markets house an amazing display of vehicles through the ages and the history of the tube as well.  A fascinating display that was full of information.  Of course, Rod was entranced and so we spent a good part of the day there.#

From there we headed for Harrods where we (well I was anyway!!) were astounded by the displays and the variety of goods available.  Each room is allocated to a particular group of things such as the seafood area, meat area, cheese area and of course chocolate area.  The ceilings and adornments on each room fitted the theme and it was so beautiful.  Being the weekend before Valentines Day, the fine foods area was particularly busy and beautifully decorated with hearts etc.  They even had heart shaped cheese that was coloured red.  We wandered into the meat department and saw some NZ Wagu beef for £       per kilo.  Rod was horrified.  On upstairs to the toy department where they had all sorts of displays and might I add lots of harassed Mums and Dads trying to get their children out without a purchase. Looking around I think the children were winning the battle.  There were separate rooms for boy’s toys, girls toys, babies, soft toys etc.  At each place there were also life size teddies, figures made from Lego and an array of other things to catch the eye.  Funnily enough, I came out of Harrods with a lovely bag of goodies but for some reason they have all gone home to Melanie, Jamee lee and Phillip & Amy.  Rod and I seemed to have missed ourselves out yet again.  We then dragged our weary souls home at the end of another day exploring.  Sunday we were up and off to explore the area and shops in

Oxford St

.    We arrived to absolutely packed streets.  We couldn’t believe how busy it was.  But all the shops were still closed.  Shopping doesn’t start till 12.00 on Sundays.  Boy, I would hate to be on the other side of the doors when they were opened, there were hundreds of people outside every big store.  We wandered down to the end of the road to see the Marble Arch.  This was a gift for Queen Victoria and built by the architect John Nash in 1828 for the front of Buckingham Palace but she didn’t like it so purposely had a carriage made that was too wide for the arch so it had to be moved.  So it was plonked at the bottom of

Oxford St

where the Tyburn gallows used to be. Prisoners were dragged up from Newgate Prison and stood upon a wooden cart. The horses were then whipped and ran away, leaving them to dangle from a noose. An estimated 50,000 people were put to death between 1300 and 1783.

  There is also a horse’s head that apparently weighs 6 tonnes and stands 27 feet high.  It is made of bronze and has been in the park for the last two or three years.  On the other side of the road there are the jellybabies (that’s what I call them anyway).  They are cute coloured figurines and again they have just been put there to refurbish the park.  We also went to another department store that is along similar lines to Harrods and it is called Selfridges.  They have the beautifully ornate front entrance with a revolving door and again being Valentines weekend they had beautiful displays.