London Day 3 - Harrods, Brompton Oratory, V & A Museum, Royal Albert Hall, The Proms

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Travelling solo for the morning as Jim had some work to get done. Caught buses into Harrods for the obligatory visit. The facade was covered in scaffolding as were a lot of the buildings in the area, so it didn't look as welcoming as my previous visit 22 years ago. My favourite place is the food hall. So many amazing products and all presented so very beautifully, also all costing a pretty penny. The flowers were stunning, I was admiring a beautiful bunch and then looked at the price - £200!!!!! Oh boy! The Harrods merchandise section that was a small corner 22 years ago has morphed into most of the basement. You can buy anything imaginable with the Harrods logo on it.

Continued down Brompton Rd and came to Brompton Oratory , the parish church in the Catholic Diocese of Westminster. Popped in for a look and Mass was about to start, so rested my legs and attended Mass. Very interestingly the priest celebrated mass "ad orientem" facing the wall behind the altar, with priest and people looking in the same direction, as opposed to the priest facing the congregation as happens in Australia and I thought what all did after Vatican II. It is the first time I had ever experienced it and not say I'm a huge fan. Communion was taken by kneeling at a communion rail and predominantly on the tongue, another new experience, so all in all I'm glad I popped in as I got to experience something very different to my mass experience so far.

Next into the Victoria and Albert Museum. I was only there for 2 hours but you could spent at least a whole day there. Such amazing displays and a stunning building. It was a warm day and and there were lots of young children playing in the pond in the courtyard which really showed what a wonderful family museum it is.

Onto Royal Albert Hall to meet Jim for high tea. When we arrived we realised that the Proms were on.The Proms are concerts which are part of a big music festival. “Proms” is short for “Promenade Concerts”.The Proms started in 1895. Concerts were expensive in those days, and not many people had enough money to go and hear good music. Most people were only able to hear good music when they went for walks in the London parks where there were Promenade concerts. Orchestras and bands played in bandstands. Most of the music was popular and easy to listen to. People could enjoy the music while they walked about. A man called Robert Newman organized concerts and he wanted to start a series of “promenade concerts”. The idea was that people could have standing places which would not cost much money. There would also be seats for people who could afford to pay more.

We thought we would see if there was any tickets for that night. All seated tickets had been sold, but "if we went outside to the lady in the high vis vest we could get a raffle ticket. Come back at 6.15pm and line up and the first 300 people would get into the standing area." So off we went and got our ticket 194 and 195, so we felt positive. The concert was "Goddam: A Portrait of Nina Simone".

In the meantime we had High Tea to get to. It was spectacular and such a lovely experience, the food was incredible and atmosphere was calming and relaxed.

We went for a walk after tea before coming back to line up with everyone else to get into the Proms. Arriving there were a few people milling around, so we just sat ourselves on the wall to wait and see what to do. Soon people started coming up and asking what number we were, and we soon found out that 194 needed to be much further back than where we were and a couple were a bit annoyed, in a polite English way, that we were in the wrong place. After moving back a little man in a high vis vest came out and gave some instructions. If ever there was a use for a megaphone that was it, but no, the instructions were given in a polite English voice that about 10 people heard. From following the masses we all seemed to self seed ourselves, and if I had a pound for the amount of times I was asked what our number was I could have paid for my holiday! The line then started to move to the door and after 40 minutes, £6 and a detailed security check we were in. We were standing about 2 metres back from the stage and had a great view. The concert was AMAZING! The 2 singers Ledisi and Lisa Fischer had the most incredible voices. What a fabulous experience to cap off a brilliant day.

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Photos

Harrods
This is what 200 pounds (could find the pound symbol!) looks like

Harrods
Selfie with the Harrods teddy

Albert Memorial
Amazing

High Tea
Too pretty to eat. Mmmm, no they weren't!