We were pumped to have some free time on day 3 of our trip in London to use as we pleased. In typical HC fashion, it was time to SHOP. Contiki had given us an unlimited tube pass to use and our Tour Manager Petula had filled us in on some good shopping areas. Our hotel was conveniently located to the tube and lots of good areas in London so navigating was easy.
Our first stop was Harrodâs, Londonâs UBER upscale department store. The prices were clearly well beyond our budgets, but we had a fun time looking through the different departments and ooh-ing and ahh-ing at all the gorgeous designer clothes. Check out these mannequins in one of the windows!
Luckily we were clued in that Harrodâs had a specialty chocolate/coffee/tea/confectionary department downstairs, which contained things we could actually afford. We all picked up various chocolates and teas in beautiful packaging to bring home as gifts for people. The stationery department there was also BEAUTIFUL.
The outside of Harrod’s and the tube entrance
Here we are outside Harrodâs, with our shopping bags with the chocolates we bought!
Next we headed to Topshop, a super stylish/trendy London store that does now have a location in NYC, but we knew we had to hit up the London store. There I scored a blue and white polka dot sundress, while Annie picked up a bathing suit and two skirts on the clearance rack. After Topshop, we were starved, so we stopped in at a sushi place next door for lunch. I have never seen a sushi place like this in the US- it was fast food-style in that you ordered at the counter, but the restaurant was super hip and new and cool-looking. We loved it.
After lunch we hit up Zara, which was having an incredible sale, and I got a few chunky scarves (it was SO cold in London) and some incredible gold pants for 15 euros that I am still devising how to debut. The Zara was HUGE and we tried on SO many things and took 3+ trips each to the fitting room. When we finished at Zara, we had literally shopped âtil we dropped, and it was time to take the tube back to our hotel to rest for a bit before that nightâs outing.
That night, Contiki had arranged for us to all go see a production of the musical âChicagoâ. We werenât very hungry so we grabbed some quick sandwiches at Pret a Manger before the show. Unfortunately Annie had some urgent HC work to take care of that night (the website was acting up!), so she stayed back at the hotel while Chelsea and I saw âChicagoâ with the group. The play was fantastic! #AnnieWasWorking
When the play ended, we took the opportunity to take this shot with the HC banner in a London telephone booth!
We headed back to the hotel and met back up with Annie, and got on our computers to catch up on what we had missed at work that day. Having been away from work was tough, so we ended up practically pulling an all-nighter catching up on work and dealing with the website bugs! Though we were tired the next day, it was actually really fun and sort of felt like a middle school sleepover! Check out Chelseaâs post tomorrow about the next leg of our trip where we headed to Paris.
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