Taking in Some of the Essentials

I woke up today with the following itinerary:

1. 221 B Baker Street
2. Harrods Department Store
3. The British Museum

What's at 221 B Baker street? Why, Sherlock Holmes. That's what! There is also a museum at the site now, but I didn't want to pay to check it out. So I simply strode into the gift shop prior to getting my picture taken outside of this famous door.


After Baker Street, I went to Harrods Department store. I knew that the store would be huge and gaudy, but it was a little beyond my expectations. For example, have a look at this cake. Nice, isn't it? BUT IS IT WORTH 4,999 POUNDS! (Hint, that's around $8,300)


But, the store does have plenty of rooms that are simply fun to be in. Here is a wall of candy canes.


And you cannot forget the caviar display:


I can promise that there are more pictures where that came from, but I will leave Harrods with my favorite picture:

A 10,000 Pound ($16,000) box of chocolates.


After Harrods, I caught the underground to the British Museum. On the way, I had two cool stops. First, I finally found a grocery store that sold granola bars. Kind of boring, right? Well, I just wanted something that was easy to carry around.

Second, a gaming store!


After that, it was off to the British Museum. Yawn, another spectacular museum. No, it was quite grand. If nothing else, these ancient civilization museums have sparked a new interest in the Assyrian and Babylonian Civilizations. The Egyptian section was spectacular, as were the sections on African, Chinese, Japanese, and British civilizations. They had a few booths setup throughout the museum where you could handle the artifacts. Here I am with an old roman bank note. This bad boy weighs about 5 roman pounds. I don't know what that equates to in "modern" terms, but it was heavy.


I really like this picture, but sadly it came out a bit blurry because the person taking it moved the camera before the second flash fired. Oh well, the coolness came through.

I was also able to see the real Rosetta Stone, which was quite neat.

Also in the Egyptian area, was this portion of a statue. Watch out! FIST COMING AT YOU!!!


And here I am outside of the museum.


So, before I depart, I found this one particular store which embodies London.


Tomorrow, I go to Paris. I thought about this the other day, but by the time this trip is over, I will have been in 9 different countries: Germany, the UK, Holland, France, South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Egypt, and Italy. I should try to jam another country in somehow. Get that count up to 10.