It was going to take a lot more than a bit of ‘mizzle’ to stop me from running in one of the world’s most iconic locations! The Shard was in hiding, while Tower Bridge and the Tower of London remained solid… they don’t build them like they used to 🙂
The icons of London are everywhere… phone ‘kiosks’ are protected for future generations, the London Eye, and Westiminster. At 6:00 on a Friday you virtually have this normally-bustling city to yourself. Highly recommend it!
I love a good bridge, and London has them in spades! The majority are low and flat due to the landscape, with their unique style being more decorative than engineering inspired. This run gave me 6 bridges… Tower, London (still standing), Southwark, Millenium (connecting to the Tate Modern), Blackfriars and Waterloo. Waterloo created the ultimate earworm that just didn’t budge for the rest of the day.
We walked over to Covent Garden early to see the markets waking up and grab some breakfast. The Summer art installation is “Little Cloud World” by FriendsWithYou. It symbolises ‘peace and connectivity, with a calm joy that can be felt universally’… perfect for our time away together.
We meandered the streets around Covent Garden and down to Trafalgar Square. The step count was really ticking up, so we hopped on the bus to Knightsbridge for a dose of Harrods. Harrods was established in 1849, and the 5 acre site houses 330 luxury brands. As a retail family, it’s a fascinating place – the layout and architecture is like nothing else, and I just can’t work out how on earth they would have organised the rosters in years gone by!
The food hall took the cake for me – luxury and high quality in take home packages. I love that you can buy a premium prawn cocktail, a $36 lobster roll, and a $500 box of macarons… and judging by the volume of stock, people do!!! They’d have to be good…
The V&A Museum in South Kensington is a short walk from Harrods. It’s one of Rachel’s favourite museums in the world, and as soon as I walked in I could understand why. The building is beautifully restored, and combines history and tradition perfectly with playful modern elegance. There’s a huge courtyard garden and pond in the middle, complete with signs that confirm paddling is permitted ‘but please keep clothes on’?!?! I just can’t imagine that the English need that instruction!!!
The V&A is known for the largest and most extensive fashion collection in the world, spanning 5 centuries. Parts of the current display of Mary Quant dresses were a trip down memory lane, and thankfully the striped bathing SUIT for the Modern Woman is long gone! It was also one of the last days of the Taylor Swift Songbook trail featuring many of her costumes.
One of the other current exhibitions is ‘Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish collection’. There were hundreds of stunning photos of people, places, and moments in history. I’m assuming this is only a small part of their collection, so their investment in this art form and the artists behind it is substantial. R would have spent hours in this one…
Finally, the highlight of the girls’ trip… ABBA Voyage. It’s touted as a concert like no other, and it delivers. It’s an incredible physical and digital immersive experience in the purpose-built ABBA Arena, taking set design, lighting and technology to another level. No spoilers, but I couldn’t quite comprehend what I was seeing for at least the first 15 minutes, and then was astounded that the whole Arena was out of their seats at the end. Makes me wonder what the next phase of entertainment will look like… PS. Isn’t ‘Pudding Mill Lane’ the best station name???
It’s the end of a HUGE day for the Dancing Queens!!! We’ll all be humming Waterloo for the next few days!
Love M & BB xx
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