LISA

Having realised our grievous error in missing Harrods when we were last in London, we headed to the luxury department store as soon as we were settled that night (they're open late) hoping for some great pictures and maybe a souvenir bag.

The ironic comedy of the day continued when we popped up out of the underground and realised that the whole famous façade was obscured by scaffolding, and the big gold letters were barely visible. Having learnt resilience from the mornings efforts we shrugged our shoulders, had a laugh and took some pictures for posterity before heading inside.

After being ushered through various glinting doors by uniformed door-openers, we wound our way through the sections of sparkling jewellery, almost-as-sparkling bags, and fragrant perfumes before locating the Harrods Arcade which sells all the souvenirs. With ideas of a (vinyl) Harrods bag firmly quashed by the £14 price, we scoured the place looking for something in our price range and eventually settled on a collectors tin of tea-bags (the tea-bags are not being collected but are being put to their intended use).

The whole experience was slightly bizarre but we were pleasantly surprised at the politeness of the hundreds of staff despite the fact that it was clear we weren't cashed-up enough to buy anything. After admiring the sheer opulence of the place (of which photos were strictly forbidden unfortunately) we jumped back on the tube. A slight voluntary detour took us to 'Stockwell' tube station, but then it was back to the hostel, and the end of our London adventures.

All in all a fantastic trip!