After getting to bed around 12:30am London time, I woke up at 4:30am and couldn't get back to sleep. So, I worked on a post about Nicola's quilt until 7:30am when I decided to try sleeping a bit more. I didn't mange to get to sleep again until around 9:30 and when I tried to get up at 10:15 I had a headache and stomachache. Woodley decided to let me sleep in a bit more and the next thing we knew it was 4pm! Woodley opened the heavy blinds and we realized we were just in time to watch the last rays of sun fade from the sky. Oops! At least we got caught up a bit on our sleep although I fear we are doing a lousy job of adjusting to the time change.
We lazily got dressed and decided to take a stroll down the street to see what we could find. Just a few blocks away glittered Harrods and it was quite visible, even from a distance:
We wondered about the green lights but as we got closer we realized what it was all about. Currently Harrods is completely decked out to the theme of The Wizard of Oz (in honor of the 70th anniversary of the film which occurred this year). The theme can be seen throughout the store and all the decorations are way over the top! Woodley didn't care for it but I thought it was tons of fun. The theme also works well with the green holiday decorations that they have added for the Christmas season.
Outside the store, window displays combine strange visions of the Land of Oz with very very expensive clothing.
I didn't take many photos inside because I wasn't sure if I was allowed to or not, but the store was quite something to see! It was like a huge maze and around ever turn was a room that seemed more beautiful than the last. My favorites were the hall of crystal, the Egyptian escalator, the Christmas area, and the yellow brick road of the shoe area that featured versions Dorothy's red slippers by all the biggest name shoe designers (most of them had 4 inch heels and were covered in red crystals). They even had a room specifically devoted to Dorothy's slippers! The clerks are all dressed up as dorothy and the walls are lined with shoe boxes, each containing the perfect pair of red slippers! (That was the one thing I saw that tempted me the most.)
The Wizard of Oz theme seemed to pop up everywhere. In the cooking department there was a tin man completely made out of pots, pans, and other metal cooking tools. On one of the other escalators we saw this display:
One of the funniest things to me was that, in several places throughout the store, Kansas was portrayed and described as a mythical and magical place. Thinking back to my own experiences of Kansas, I just had to laugh. My memories really didn't seem to match up with the grandeur of Harrods!
Our trip to Harrods turned out to be very valuable because I was able to pick up some moisturizer that matched the kind I use at home but which I had forgotten to pack. Also, we found a universal camera card reader which was also something we forgot. Thanks to the card reader, I can now get photos off the camera! Yay!
On our way back to the hotel we stopped for dinner at a little Italian place. I hadn't realized how hungry we were and it felt so good to eat some real food. Full and cheered up, we strolled back to the hotel. On the way we passed this cute street:
The holiday lights remind me of a scene out of a christmas book we had growing up. I just love them!
Finally we made it back to our lovely little Edgerton House which is also decked out for the season:
Thus ends day 2 in Norway. Hopefully we can sleep tonight, wake up early tomorrow, and see a bit more of the city before we fly to Rome at 2pm!
~ElizabethRose~
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