31/03/2012

Keep Calm and Carry On

Last weekend, my cousin and I visited London for a few days. It was a great trip, and we really lucked out with the weather - I even had to put on some sunscreen at one point!


We both had been to London several times before, but managed to visit a lot of spots we hadn't been to so far which was a lot of fun. Amongst other things, we went to Borough Market, Portobello Rd. and Carnaby St., and did some shopping at one of Europe's largest bookstores (Waterstones on Piccadilly), the M&M-store, Japan Centre at Regent's St. (I think I actually squealed when we stumbled upon it...), Liberty department store and, of course, Harrod's (where I bought a somewhat authentic Japanese bento lunch - it was yummy!).


 At the M&M-store, the cashier tipped us about the Big Egg Hunt. During Lent, 200+ eggs are displayed throughout London this year. We didn't go on a true egg hunt, but did stop at them when we came across them.


We also stopped at 2 (two!) Hummingbird Bakery-shops (at Portobello Rd. and in Soho), where we naturally had to sample the goods ;-)


We stayed at the same hotel my mom and I stayed at 2 years ago, and had dinner at both the wonderful Chinese restaurant and amazing Indian restaurant that my mom and I tried back then. And of course, a trip to the Hard Rock Café was a must as well.


We came across a lot of "Keep Calm and Carry On" merchandise while (window)shopping, and while I was  familiar with the posters already (thanks in large part to Pinterest), I didn't know the story behind it.
Coincidentally, I checked Nienie's blog today, and lo and behold, one of her recent posts was about the origin of this particular catch phrase / poster!

Here's a video about the origins of the "Keep Calm and Carry On"-poster (and can I just say that I really want to visit that bookshop some time?? It looks awsome!)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Keep calm and carry on , inderdaad jammer dat we dit niet eerder hebben ontdekt , erg leuk om te bezoeken , volgende keer dan maar.
Cousin Ellen

Naiyaru said...

What a coincidence! But I guess the phrase is used so much nowadays that it just has to get people curious to it's origins. That seems like lovely day you had, wonderful!