PLANNING ON THE traditional Miami, New York or Toronto trip next year? Think again.
Put London on that schedule.
Like many Barbadians, I perceived England, more specifically London, as the dreary, old, cold, dark place that we read about in novels and saw on the Sherlock Holmes movies.
While those images wonderfully capture the grand architecture, narrow cobbled streets and historic monuments, they represent just a small part of what this cosmopolitan city has to offer visitors.
Yes, there are indeed beautiful gardens, the famed Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the River Thames, and Buckingham Palace. There are also the teeming modern commercial districts, sidewalk cafes and street performers, as well as the dizzying and seemingly never-ending streets of fine shopping and restaurants that range from coffee shops to the most exquisite eateries offering culinary delights from around the world.
London is a melting pot and that diversity is represented in the food, languages and the inclusiveness of city structures that are built around accommodating the millions of London-bound tourists each year.
And for the Barbadian shopaholics looking for some retail therapy, London surprisingly offers a wide range of options to suit our varied tastes. These include the luxury stores such as Harrods, Zara and Louis Vuitton, but there is also Gap, Boots, Primark – the British alternative of K-Mart stores – and several markets. Then there are the British staples like Marks & Spencer and River Island.
I have become an unashamed London convert.
Please go to our facebook page www.facebook.com/NationBarbados to see the first pictures from Geralyn’s London Diary.
