15 Aug 05: Harrods and Hyde Park

With the amount of travelling that I had done when I was in London, I certainly think it was a good idea that I bought myself a day-ticket.

After Oxford Street, I took a tube to Knightsbridge tube station. That day, I had to make sure that I was not wearing scruffy clothes, vests, shorts or backpacks. Before I had left for London, my friend, SH, had told me that in several shops and shopping malls in London, people with such attires may not be admitted.

I had intended to take a look at Harrods, but realising that I was not at all fascinated with it, I decided I shall head for Hyde Park which was nearby.

Anyway, Harrods is big. That may be an understatement, since Harrods has been reputated with being Britain's biggest department store. According to the AA Essential Guide London (6th edition) that I have, Harrods has a selling area of over 10ha and some 330 departments. I went to the chocolate and the tea sections and was already impressed with the great variety of selections that Harrods offers.

Now that I re-read the guide book again, I realised I have no quite catch the glimpses of Harrods'cathedral-like portals. Anyway, here are a few photos of Harrods. I decided that not to take photographs inside Harrods for I fear I might end up being mistakened as a commercial spy.





Harrods

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Finding my way to Hyde Park from Harrods was a little trick despite the fact that I had a map on my hand. The challenge was that Harrods was so big, that I did not manage to instantenously determine the exact spot that I was at after I stepped out of one of the exits of Harrods.

Anyway, with the guidance of kind passerbys, a map and some sense of intuition, I finally found my way to Hyde Park. It felt nice to be in the park. Hyde Park is probably the largest and most famous of the open spaces in central London. The guide says that Hyde Park "was once the royal hunting round of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I". It was first opened to the public by James I. But in times of James I, there was only limited access to the park.

Find out more about Hyde Park by clicking on this link: www.royalparks.gov.uk/parks/hyde_park/



Reaching Hyde Park

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As the sun that day was nice and bright, I could see many people lying on the grass enjoying the sunlight.

I like the greenery and the flowers in Hyde Park. It was a nice change from the scenes of the concrete and busy city streets of London.

For more photos, refer to the post titled Hyde Park and its neighbourhood found on my other blog.