This Day in History v.39: Harrods

What's more well known in the world as one of the top London landmark than Harrods?  I ran across a blog the other day about little known facts about Harrods and it made me remember all the times I walked the streets outside of Harrods and how much anxiety I had when I actually entered the doors.  To say it is "busy" is an under statement....SO MANY PEOPLE.  Anyways, Charles Henry Harrod opened Harrods in 1834 in Knightsbridge when he was only 25 years old...holy cow, what a feat!


Here are some of the facts that blew me away:

• All the customers: On an average day, approximately 100,000 people come to shop at Harrods. On peak days, especially during the Christmas season, this number can jump up to 300,000.
• Everything you want: The store has 330 departments and is 5 acres in size!
• Bright lights: At night, Harrods is lit up by 12,000 light bulbs on the store’s façade and 300 bulbs have to be changed every day. This began with its Christmas lights in 1959 when 1,100 bulbs were used for the decorations.
• It's motto: The Harrods motto is Omnia Omnibus Ubique—All Things for All People, Everywhere

This Day in History v.38

Waaaaaay back in 2006, I studied abroad in England and met Teresa.  It was a magical summer. We studied at University of West England an spent 6 magical weeks in Bristol, Bruges & Brussels Belgium.  Megan was studying abroad that summer in Oxford, England. Hannah was studying abroad in Paris.  Are you keeping up here?  Yeah, I know, my friends are awesome....

Sami decided to fly over for a week and we took the the bus to Oxford to visit Megan. That's a post for another time, but we also flew to Paris to meet up with Hannah!  It was Bastille Day when we flew in, we experienced our first street party and pretended like we were Parisian princesses. Ok, not really, we pretended like we were poor college students. No, we really didn't pretend...that was our reality!

We had an AMAZING few days.  I can't remember all the details, but I remember it was a blast! I had been to Paris many many many times as a child, and then once with my parents as an adult, but this is the first time I was let loose with my friends! DANGER!!!!

Turns out we loved Paris so much, we returned the next year for NYE in Paris!

Exactly what you do in Paris, wine, cheese, croissants and baguettes!

Moulin Rouge! This was super close to our hostel that we stayed in.

Walking around Paris is just beau!

Crazy clouds!

Notre Dame

THE.BEST.GELATO.EVERRRRRRR....

And Le Tower Eiffel!

Just look how amazing this sculpture is!

 

 Peepin up its crotch....sorry, that was tasteless. Ha.

So beautiful!

Look how baby tiny we were! No idea who the chick is on the left anymore, but that's me, Hannah and Sami circa 2006!

Full body shot! Holy cow, I was kind of tan!

Sacre Coeur.
We walked all the way to the TOP! Don't accept anything from anyone handing out things there, they just want your money and get really mad when you don't want to give them money. I didn't do that, but we definitely saw it happen.

Cheers to wine and cheese as your meal!

These were all 2 euro bottles!!! Look how COLORFUL!  C'est magnifque!  This was an AMAZING time and I will remember it forever!

Here are the past blogs I have written:

This Day in History v.1: Oxford Street Christmas Lights

This Day in History v.2: Beginning of This Day in History

This Day in History v.3: Paris, France

This Day in History v.4: Chinese New Year

This Day in History v.5: Pancake Day

This Day in History v.6: Berlin, Germany

This Day in History v.7: Ireland

This Day in History v.8: Platform 9 3/4

This Day in History v.9: Croatia

This Day in History v.10: Rome, Italy

This Day in History v.11: Scotland

This Day in History v.12: Stockholm, Sweden

This Day in History v.13: Cinque Terre, Italy

This Day in History v.14: A Look Back at the Beginning

This Day in History v.15: Notting Hill Carnival

This Day in History v.16: The Breakfast Club

This Day in History v.17: Australia Day

This Day in History v.18: Trafalgar Square

This Day in History v.19: Red Telephone Box

This Day in History v.20: Primrose Hill

This Day in History v.21: Look Both Ways

This Day in History v.22: Kings Head Theater

This Day in History v.23: Tower of London

This Day in History v.24: Cambridge, England

This Day in History v.25: Mountbatten

This Day in History v.26: Dorset, England

This Day in History v.27: Canada Gates

This Day in History v.28: Piccadilly Circus

This Day in History v.29: Stonehenge

This Day in History v.30: Guy Fawkes Day

This Day in History v.31: Cultural Sunday
This Day in History v.32: Bath, England
This Day in History v.33: Greenich, England
This Day in History v.34 Portbobello Market
This Day in History v.35: Big Ben
This Day in History v.36: Bristol, England
This Day in History v.37: Cinque Terre

This Day in History v.37

I was watching an episode of House Hunters International and they were in Stuttgart, Germany and they featured this bridge with locks all over it. It reminded me of the time I was traveling through Cinque Terre, Italy I came across this path with locks and at the time I didn't know what they were. Come to find out, they are love padlocks. This is when locks are affixed to a fence, gate, bridge or similar public fixture by sweethearts at an increasing number of locations in the world to symbolize their everlasting love. Pretty neat!

There were hundreds of them!

Of course I have to pose for a ridiculous picture!

Here are the past blogs I have written:

This Day in History v.1: Oxford Street Christmas Lights

This Day in History v.2: Beginning of This Day in History

This Day in History v.3: Paris, France

This Day in History v.4: Chinese New Year

This Day in History v.5: Pancake Day

This Day in History v.6: Berlin, Germany

This Day in History v.7: Ireland

This Day in History v.8: Platform 9 3/4

This Day in History v.9: Croatia

This Day in History v.10: Rome, Italy

This Day in History v.11: Scotland

This Day in History v.12: Stockholm, Sweden

This Day in History v.13: Cinque Terre, Italy

This Day in History v.14: A Look Back at the Beginning

This Day in History v.15: Notting Hill Carnival

This Day in History v.16: The Breakfast Club

This Day in History v.17: Australia Day

This Day in History v.18: Trafalgar Square

This Day in History v.19: Red Telephone Box

This Day in History v.20: Primrose Hill

This Day in History v.21: Look Both Ways

This Day in History v.22: Kings Head Theater

This Day in History v.23: Tower of London

This Day in History v.24: Cambridge, England

This Day in History v.25: Mountbatten

This Day in History v.26: Dorset, England

This Day in History v.27: Canada Gates

This Day in History v.28: Piccadilly Circus

This Day in History v.29: Stonehenge

This Day in History v.30: Guy Fawkes Day

This Day in History v.31: Cultural Sunday
This Day in History v.32: Bath, England
This Day in History v.33: Greenich, England
This Day in History v.34 Portbobello Market
This Day in History v.35: Big Ben
This Day in History v.36: Bristol, England

This Day in History v.36

In the summer of 2006, I did a study abroad in Bristol, England. Through ODU, I was able to do a month and a half program with 2 other ODU undergrads and about 20 other students from various universities at the University of the West of England. Even though I was the only grad students amongst many many undergrads, I still had a great experience. One of my roommates, Teresa, is actually still a really great friend who lives down the street! I've kept in contact with her since, she was even my roommate in my Mountbatten programme. I told her about the program and told her she just HAD to apply :)

Bristol is a BEAUTIFUL quaint town. Too bad we had a HORRIBLE host mother and she was a complete bitch, BUT Teresa and I still laugh about the family and the daughter's WEIRD obsession with Weezer. So weird. Wish I still had the pictures from the experience but they are burried on my other computer and are linked to an old facebook account.

Funnily enough, my great ancestor, George Clymer, one of only 6 to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, came from Bristol.

Here are the past blogs I have written:

This Day in History v.1: Oxford Street Christmas Lights

This Day in History v.2: Beginning of This Day in History

This Day in History v.3: Paris, France

This Day in History v.4: Chinese New Year

This Day in History v.5: Pancake Day

This Day in History v.6: Berlin, Germany

This Day in History v.7: Ireland

This Day in History v.8: Platform 9 3/4

This Day in History v.9: Croatia

This Day in History v.10: Rome, Italy

This Day in History v.11: Scotland

This Day in History v.12: Stockholm, Sweden

This Day in History v.13: Cinque Terre, Italy

This Day in History v.14: A Look Back at the Beginning

This Day in History v.15: Notting Hill Carnival

This Day in History v.16: The Breakfast Club

This Day in History v.17: Australia Day

This Day in History v.18: Trafalgar Square

This Day in History v.19: Red Telephone Box

This Day in History v.20: Primrose Hill

This Day in History v.21: Look Both Ways

This Day in History v.22: Kings Head Theater

This Day in History v.23: Tower of London

This Day in History v.24: Cambridge, England

This Day in History v.25: Mountbatten

This Day in History v.26: Dorset, England

This Day in History v.27: Canada Gates

This Day in History v.28: Piccadilly Circus

This Day in History v.29: Stonehenge

This Day in History v.30: Guy Fawkes Day

This Day in History v.31: Cultural Sunday
This Day in History v.32: Bath, England
This Day in History v.33: Greenich, England
This Day in History v.34 Portbobello Market
This Day in History v.35: Big Ben

This Day in History v.35

 One of the most iconic sites of London is Big Ben! You may not know that the name "Big Ben" only references the bell in the tower, not the actual clock tower. The clock tower is next to the Parliament and was built in 1858. You can see the London Eye in the background as well!

I just figured out that I could have climbed to the top of the tower and I'm sad I never did this. *Sigh*, the things you wish you would have known! Big Ben has its own website!

 Me in front of the clock

The clock at night! Hannah and I in front of it, along with a double-decker red bus!

Here are the past blogs I have written:

This Day in History v.1: Oxford Street Christmas Lights

This Day in History v.2: Beginning of This Day in History

This Day in History v.3: Paris, France

This Day in History v.4: Chinese New Year

This Day in History v.5: Pancake Day

This Day in History v.6: Berlin, Germany

This Day in History v.7: Ireland

This Day in History v.8: Platform 9 3/4

This Day in History v.9: Croatia

This Day in History v.10: Rome, Italy

This Day in History v.11: Scotland

This Day in History v.12: Stockholm, Sweden

This Day in History v.13: Cinque Terre, Italy

This Day in History v.14: A Look Back at the Beginning

This Day in History v.15: Notting Hill Carnival

This Day in History v.16: The Breakfast Club

This Day in History v.17: Australia Day

This Day in History v.18: Trafalgar Square

This Day in History v.19: Red Telephone Box

This Day in History v.20: Primrose Hill

This Day in History v.21: Look Both Ways

This Day in History v.22: Kings Head Theater

This Day in History v.23: Tower of London

This Day in History v.24: Cambridge, England

This Day in History v.25: Mountbatten

This Day in History v.26: Dorset, England

This Day in History v.27: Canada Gates

This Day in History v.28: Piccadilly Circus

This Day in History v.29: Stonehenge

This Day in History v.30: Guy Fawkes Day

This Day in History v.31: Cultural Sunday
This Day in History v.32: Bath, England
This Day in History v.33: Greenwich, England
This Day in History v.34: Portobello Road

This Day in History v.34

I only visited Portobello Road Market once while I was in London. Too many tourists and it was too hard to get to West London. There were so many different little stalls along Portobello Road and you really can get just about anything you need. I'm not big on sifting through stalls and stuff, so mostly I just wanted to 'check the box' off that I was able to see this historic site. Though I did walk the Notting Hill area when I went to Carnival two years in a row! Now THAT was a completely different experience than the weekly market!

Here are the past blogs I have written:

This Day in History v.1: Oxford Street Christmas Lights

This Day in History v.2: Beginning of This Day in History

This Day in History v.3: Paris, France

This Day in History v.4: Chinese New Year

This Day in History v.5: Pancake Day

This Day in History v.6: Berlin, Germany

This Day in History v.7: Ireland

This Day in History v.8: Platform 9 3/4

This Day in History v.9: Croatia

This Day in History v.10: Rome, Italy

This Day in History v.11: Scotland

This Day in History v.12: Stockholm, Sweden

This Day in History v.13: Cinque Terre, Italy

This Day in History v.14: A Look Back at the Beginning

This Day in History v.15: Notting Hill Carnival

This Day in History v.16: The Breakfast Club

This Day in History v.17: Australia Day

This Day in History v.18: Trafalgar Square

This Day in History v.19: Red Telephone Box

This Day in History v.20: Primrose Hill

This Day in History v.21: Look Both Ways

This Day in History v.22: Kings Head Theater

This Day in History v.23: Tower of London

This Day in History v.24: Cambridge, England

This Day in History v.25: Mountbatten

This Day in History v.26: Dorset, England

This Day in History v.27: Canada Gates

This Day in History v.28: Piccadilly Circus

This Day in History v.29: Stonehenge

This Day in History v.30: Guy Fawkes Day

This Day in History v.31: Cultural Sunday
This Day in History v.32: Bath, England
This Day in History v.33: Greenwich, England

This Day in History v.33

One of the times my mom came to visit, I took her to Greenwich. Now this is a big deal because its SO hard to get to! You have to take the Jubilee line to Canary Warf then the DLR to Greenwich. Quite a pain. Mostly Greenwich is known as the location of the Prime Meridian line (this line divides the world into two hemispheres). It was pretty neat to learn about the history of telling time and learning how people got the time. From my rusty memory, someone had to come from Greenwich into the city yelling the time at certain intervals so people could tell what time it was. Cray-cray.

My mom came on her last visit to London in the summer of 2008. One of our outings, I took her out to Greenwich. I am SO mad that I can't find my pictures from here :/ Maybe they are on my parent's computer or maybe they got lost. Which would be a tragedy, but honestly, my memories are in my head.


While I don't have pictures to prove it, I did straddle this line and actually bent over it!

(source)

Here are the past blogs I have written:

This Day in History v.1: Oxford Street Christmas Lights

This Day in History v.2: Beginning of This Day in History

This Day in History v.3: Paris, France

This Day in History v.4: Chinese New Year

This Day in History v.5: Pancake Day

This Day in History v.6: Berlin, Germany

This Day in History v.7: Ireland

This Day in History v.8: Platform 9 3/4

This Day in History v.9: Croatia

This Day in History v.10: Rome, Italy

This Day in History v.11: Scotland

This Day in History v.12: Stockholm, Sweden

This Day in History v.13: Cinque Terre, Italy

This Day in History v.14: A Look Back at the Beginning

This Day in History v.15: Notting Hill Carnival

This Day in History v.16: The Breakfast Club

This Day in History v.17: Australia Day

This Day in History v.18: Trafalgar Square

This Day in History v.19: Red Telephone Box

This Day in History v.20: Primrose Hill

This Day in History v.21: Look Both Ways

This Day in History v.22: Kings Head Theater

This Day in History v.23: Tower of London

This Day in History v.24: Cambridge, England

This Day in History v.25: Mountbatten

This Day in History v.26: Dorset, England

This Day in History v.27: Canada Gates

This Day in History v.28: Piccadilly Circus

This Day in History v.29: Stonehenge

This Day in History v.30: Guy Fawkes Day

This Day in History v.31: Cultural Sunday
This Day in History v.32: Bath, England

This Day in History v.32

Back in 2007 (and even earlier in 2005) I visited Bath, England. In the South West of England, Bath is mostly known for the Roman Baths that were originally built in 60-70 AD (holy shitznit, right?)

From Wikipedia:

The Roman Baths themselves are below the modern street level. There are four main features: the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House and the Museum holding finds from Roman Bath. The buildings above street level date from the 19th century.

The Baths are a major tourist attraction and, together with the Grand Pump Room, receive more than one million visitors a year, with 1,037,518 people during 2009. Visitors can see the Baths and Museum but cannot enter the water.

A quaint little town, I could see the charm in living here.

Beautiful view from a hill. 

Liz and I with our flask purchases in a fun little local town.

Here are the past blogs I have written:

This Day in History v.1: Oxford Street Christmas Lights

This Day in History v.2: Beginning of This Day in History

This Day in History v.3: Paris, France

This Day in History v.4: Chinese New Year

This Day in History v.5: Pancake Day

This Day in History v.6: Berlin, Germany

This Day in History v.7: Ireland

This Day in History v.8: Platform 9 3/4

This Day in History v.9: Croatia

This Day in History v.10: Rome, Italy

This Day in History v.11: Scotland

This Day in History v.12: Stockholm, Sweden

This Day in History v.13: Cinque Terre, Italy

This Day in History v.14: A Look Back at the Beginning

This Day in History v.15: Notting Hill Carnival

This Day in History v.16: The Breakfast Club

This Day in History v.17: Australia Day

This Day in History v.18: Trafalgar Square

This Day in History v.19: Red Telephone Box

This Day in History v.20: Primrose Hill

This Day in History v.21: Look Both Ways

This Day in History v.22: Kings Head Theater

This Day in History v.23: Tower of London

This Day in History v.24: Cambridge, England

This Day in History v.25: Mountbatten

This Day in History v.26: Dorset, England

This Day in History v.27: Canada Gates

This Day in History v.28: Piccadilly Circus

This Day in History v.29: Stonehenge

This Day in History v.30: Guy Fawkes Day
This Day in History v.31: Cultural Sunday

This Day in History v.31

One of my favourite things to do in London was walking with Hannah in the city, on what we called "Cultural Sundays". We really did our best to take advantage of living in the city and not be complacent. We pushed our usually hungover bodies out of bed and got in the crisp London air and enjoyed living around the city. We spotted a few interesting things along the way. We usually walked in one direction and would see where it took us. I always carried around my London A to Z maps so just in case we got lost, we could refer to that. That map book was the best 10 pounds I've ever spent in my life. I didn't have enough money for a smart phone back then, so paper map book it was! Here are a few of the pictures of our walks:

A castle in the middle of the city?

London is so pretty in the spring time!

Hannah's straight 'outta Compton!

HAHAHAHAH I had to giggle every time we passed this place!!

Of course we had to play with the red phonebooths!

Strike a pose!

I hope one day this will be me!

Cool clock tower near the park that Hannah envisioned she will get married in one day!

We joked that this was Mary, Mary, and Martha watching over us in Lion form :)

And I'm going to start updating my list with every 5 posts I write about London :) Without much ado, here is the list:
This Day in History v.1: Oxford Street Christmas Lights
This Day in History v.2: Beginning of This Day in History
This Day in History v.3: Paris, France
This Day in History v.4: Chinese New Year
This Day in History v.5: Pancake Day
This Day in History v.6: Berlin, Germany
This Day in History v.7: Ireland
This Day in History v.8: Platform 9 3/4
This Day in History v.9: Croatia
This Day in History v.10: Rome, Italy
This Day in History v.11: Scotland
This Day in History v.12: Stockholm, Sweden
This Day in History v.13: Cinque Terre, Italy
This Day in History v.14: A Look Back at the Beginning
This Day in History v.15: Notting Hill Carnival
This Day in History v.16: The Breakfast Club
This Day in History v.17: Australia Day
This Day in History v.18: Trafalgar Square
This Day in History v.19: Red Telephone Box
This Day in History v.20: Primrose Hill
This Day in History v.21: Look Both Ways
This Day in History v.22: Kings Head Theater
This Day in History v.23: Tower of London
This Day in History v.24: Cambridge, England
This Day in History v.25: Mountbatten
This Day in History v.26: Dorset, England
This Day in History v.27: Canada Gates
This Day in History v.28: Piccadilly Circus
This Day in History v.29: Stonehenge
This Day in History v.30: Guy Fawkes Day

This Day in History v.29

 

Back in 2007 on my first study abroad trip, my group and I went to Stonehenge in England. It was the middle of summer but I remember it being rainy, cold, and extremely windy!!! I guess that's what you get for standing in an open field with nothing but a few stones in a circle! There were a few people doing an archeology dig around one of the stones. Wonder if they ever found anything?