Harrods

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On Thursday the 20th Karalyn, Stephanie,and I went to Harrods! It's a very ritzy department store off of Brompton Rd. and just a 30 min walk from where I'm staying in Chelsea. It is said that you used to be able to buy anything at Harrods even exotic animals like elephants and giraffes! I had no idea what to expect when I went in there and thought it was just going to be like a mall with a ton of store fronts but instead it's a huge department store. Think of Macy's with 7 floors! Of course they have a lower floor which is the basement and this is where all of the menswear is located along with other random things that are of no interest to me like a gentleman's lounge with a cigar area and you can also have a personal shopper by appointment! Then they have the ground floor which is the floor you enter on which we would call the first floor and I just thought of it as the glitter floor. You could find tons of jewelry, watches, beauty, accessories, and then there was the food halls. Basically this is the floor where you could find anything that glitters and could make you glow. The food halls were really neat though. They had several different departments for every type of food you could think of and they also had restaurant areas that were in the form of bars with the grill in the middle and you would just sit around and watch them cook it for you. Though be prepared to spend $30-$50 or more per person if you want to eat in one of these restaurants. There was a food hall for chocolates & Confectionery with tea & coffee in the corner, fruit & veggies, meat, fish & poultry in another food hall, and a boulangerie & patisserie that had a charcuterie, fromagerie, & traiteur in the middle which just means cooked meats, cheeses, and deli. Of course I got some chocolates and cupcakes which were mouth watering! I bought a Rose Ganache, Strawberry Champagne Truffle, Marzipan, Red Velvet Cupcake, Caramel Apple Cupcake, & a White Chocolate Bar. They were scrumptious! The red velvet cupcake was the best one I've ever had! The meat and fish area was really interesting though to see all those different types of meat and fresh. They even have a fish display where it's in any type of design and this day it was a huge tower! I had never been in an area where they had so many designer names and clothing. The first floor had womenswear and shoes and if I had the money I would probably go broke in there. They even had a wedding center were you could plan your wedding, buy your dress, and register for wedding gifts all in one spot. How convenient! Although you would be spending thousands of dollars to do that at Harrods, its all about the experience, right?! Something I noticed though is a lot of British fashion doesn't have a lot of color to it. There's a lot of black and natural colors like grey and beige. So dreary! The second floor was full of furniture and everything you could need for your home. So if you wanted to buy a subzero fridge you can just go to Harrods. This floor they also had Christmas World which is just a huge store to buy anything and everything you would every need for Christmas. It was gorgeous with all of the sparkling lights and 10 ft tall teddy bears that they had for sale that were well over 1200 GBP. There was also an Ice Cream Parlour where kids were getting huge desserts to share and they were also selling gelato. That is something I'm definitely going to have to try before I leave. The third floor had house furniture like beds and designer couches and everything you could decorate your home with. Then across from that they had all of the home entertainment supplies you could ever dream of. Alex my brother would have been in heaven looking at all of the latest toy's he could ever think of having under the Christmas tree. I would have to say though that my favorite floor was the fourth floor and this is where the Toy Kingdom was along with the pets! They had the toys separated by age and then gender as they got higher in age. What was really cool is that you could play with some of the toys before you bought them and they had these really cool racing cars that could flip over and go every which way as you banged them into each other or against walls. Then they had a magician right in the middle of the toy store doing magic tricks for anyone that stopped by! For the girls they had a huge dollhouse selection and they were so detailed! They had wall paper and dolls that fit with different furniture and clothing! They even had one that had a house maid serving martini's in a Victorian house. It was really neat that they had different houses from different era's and they even had a cottage if you didn't want the elaborate two story houses, but it wasn't underplayed and was still decorated to every last door handle. Across the way were the animals! They had really cute puppies for sale there were daschund puppies and chihuahua puppies. Then they had a pet spa where a dog could run on a treadmill while watching tv. They were grooming two dogs in front of a huge window so people could see and there was another little dog running around while two were getting primped. You could buy anything imaginable for your dog here. They had food, treats, toys, clothes, houses, pedestals, and even dog collars that had swarovski crystals on them! Next to the grooming area they had special shampoos and primping hair care line called Paul. It was absolutely ridiculous. The last floor was for sports and leisure so whatever sport you played you would be able to find clothing and equipment there as well as exercise equipment that I've never seen before. On the lower floor there is a Princess Diana and Dodi memorial. The owner of Harrods is Al-Fayed the father of Dodi who died in the car crash with Princess Diana. Next to the beautiful memorial fountain is a huge Egyptian Escalator that goes from the lower ground to ground floor. You go down the escalator and there is a huge Egyptian statue in the middle of the escalators. When you look up and see the balconies surrounding the escalator you see more sculptures under the elaborate and beautifully decorated balconies. Overall Harrods was a great experience just to walk through and I would never buy anything there because it's all designer and that's really not my thing. Although I think I will take another trip there just to get those delicious red velvet cupcakes that melt in your mouth.

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