Batavia stad outlet-village, Amsterdam

We went to this outlet with train from the central-station. Mind you, all the information at this train-station is in Dutch! The train takes about 1 hour and 10 min. depending on the route, how many times you have to change train, 1 or 2.

From the train-station in Lelystad there is a bus, bus number F, which takes you to the outlet-village. The bus takes about 10 min.

The bus stops at the Mexx outlet, which is outside the village itself, but only 100 meter. The selection were good, with some very good offers and some 30% discounts.

In the outlet-village there were some nice shops (look at the link), but the offers weren't very good. Some of the shops had mainly 20-30% discounts! Seriously, I don't mind paying for clothes, but if buying clothes from last season, or even older, I demand 50%. This is what you get at the ordinary sale, so why not at an outlet-village? With regarding the discounts, this is the least exciting outlet I have ever been to.

If I would go back to the outlet? Maybe, to go to Mexx...

OMG!!!!!

Today, when I went for a walk, I "bumped" into this small shop. First I thought it was "fake", but after browsing around for... eeeeewwww... well.. some time... looking inside the bags and purses, looking for stamps etc.. etc... I found that it had to be original. Haha, after all, with all the designer-stuff the Japanese are buying, it has to END somewhere when they get tired of it! :-D And it ends here, in this shop... Some of it looked a little bit used, but most of it looked perfectly new! And the prices? OMG... I have been looking for a brown bag/purse for a long time and I found it here! Normally I am not very fond of LV as it "flashes" too much (in my opinion), but these purses didn't look very LV and they were what I have been looking for.

I also bought the white Ferragamo. That neither "flash". I would never have bought it full price, as it's not that usable, but I got it for... hahaha... 25 Gbp (it had some scratches, but not much. The steel also has to be polished.)! The reason why I like Ferragamo is that it is very good quality and I HOPE LV is the same. I have a Ferragamo-bag I bought 5 years ago. I have used it VERY much, all over the world, at planes, airports, trains, buses, cars... you name it... and it still looks very good. There are a few scratches here and there, but it doesn't look *used*.


And the price for the small LV was 45 Gbp. and the big 250 GbP. I saw a red LV on sale... I MIGHT NEED that too... :-D

The shop is very close to the hotel. Unfortunately it's kind of difficult to explain, but I can try... If you go from Tsukuba Express. Go to Q1 center, follow to the next shopping-center (J-something, can't remember the name) and follow that shopping-center to the end. At the corner go straight ahead (over the road) and follow the buildings there. After walking for about 5 min. you should see a 7/11 at the left side of the road. The shop is the house before the 7/11. Hmm... I think this is the direction... :)

Shopping in Tokyo

The prices are pretty much the same as in Europe and USA, some of the European brands are even a little bit more expensive, but they are also more expensive in the USA. Like Ferragamo, as I am always looking for, are less expensive in Europe than in Japan and USA.

It’s only in Tokyo they have 4-5-6 Hermes and LV shops (I don’t know how many, but I have seen at least 4 Hermes at different places in Tokyo!) As I said previously, it also now looks like it can be possible for a size M. to get clothes in Japan.





You get Chanel, Burberry, Ferragamo, Hermes, LV, Prada… everything… They even have a Harrods!



I have always thought that Ginza was the place to shop. It is, but nearly everywhere you can find nice shops with most of the high-ends designers. Some places are even better than Ginza because they are not that busy.

You can find perfume and cosmetics everywhere. Kanebo, Shiseido and Shu Umuera are made in Japan. You can get Kanebo and Shiseido cheaper than home, but they are sold under another name. Kanebo is sold as Lunasol. I never saw any Kanebo-products, only Kanebo signs and Lunasol products. I bought some Lunasol last time I was in Japan and I am going to buy some more now.



This is the floor-plan from the Sony-building. The Sony building is a 7 floor building where you can try and see all the newest Sony-products. They have one floor with overseas products, more expensive, but with English manuals and international key-board etc... You also get a 1 year warranty. I fell in love with a VERY small Vaio-pc, in fact, it is the lightest notebook in the world! I haven't seen it in Norway yet, so don't think it has come..... I WANT IT! :-D

What to shop in Aberdeen?

Well... I didn't shop much in Aberdeen. They have all the department-stores, but if you don't like shopping there, it's not much to shop. I bought some books at Waterstones, as I always do while in UK. Since it was close to Easter I also filled my suitcase with... Easter-eggs! :-D




Buying Easter-eggs is a tradition in UK. In Norway we have smaller Easter-eggs, with marzipan. In UK they have those very big eggs made of chocolate. I bough a lot for presents to friends and family.



Because of all the chocolate, I had to buy some tooth-paste too... Haha, no... It's just that I LOVE this tooth-paste and we don't have this in Norway. Since it was on sale at Boots, I filled up my suitcase... Chocolate and tooth-paste...:-D

Bicester outlet village

I took the tube from the hotel to Marelybond and then an hour with train to Bicester North. There are always mini-buses outside the station, and it's only a 5 min. drive to the outletvillage.





My favorite shops are there, and as always I found something nice....

Furla bag. And guess what? My laptop fits! (To make a long story short, some years ago I bought a very nice laptop-bag... the only problem was that my laptop didn't fit! I refused to change it, so it has been laying in my closet until I got my new laptop some months ago. The only thing that mattered when I got the new laptop was: Will it fit the laptop-bag? :-D)

Molton Brown toiletries. The last months I have been collecting Molton Brown toiletries from the hotels I have stayed at. I thought it was on time to buy some myself!

And at last.... A pair of Ferragamo shoes. At first, I didn't like them, but now, I REALLY do. Hmm.... I have lots of shoes I have to "walk in". In shoe-language this means: Walk with the shoes until you get really bad blisters, and then the shoes, in a miraculous way, will be fine. You only have to have blisters for about 1-2 weeks. It's a process, a really painful one, trust me, I know ALL about it... I have to do it, sooner or later, my nice shoes can't be in the closet forever!

La maison du chocolat

I LOVE this shop at Piccadilly. I love the chocolate and I love the nice boxes.

Books in London - Waterstones

If you're looking for books in London, you should go to Waterstones in Piccadilly. 7 floors of books! I can be in that book-store for hours! Of course, I bought lots of books, even some I have but haven't read.....:-/ :-D

The January sale in London

Oh-la-la... This year, the sale was FANTASTIC for spavers like me. All the shops had at least 50% discount! Normally the designer-shops have 30%, but this time it was FROM 50%! I got a pair of DAKS gloves at 60% discount! A bargain! :-D

We even queued up outside Harrods this year! And it was worth it... :-D Harrods had 50% discount PLUS 10% for those with a Harrods-card, which I of course have. On top of that I got about 12% VAT refund. The Ferragamo shoes was SCREAMING at me! :-D

London in January - SALE

T and I are going to London the 4th. of January. I got an offer from Radisson SAS Mayfair that I just couldn't resist, so it will not be Le Meridien Piccadilly this time, maybe next...:)

The sale in London is BIG, especially the January sale. It begins at the 26th. or the 27th. of December, depends on the store. Earlier years the high-end marks began later, but it seams like they are as afraid as the others to have too much in stock after the sale, so now, they are all starting the same dates.

I have been at the starting at the Harrods sale. The queue was MASSIV and I went in... and quickly came out again...:)

Another year I had been looking for a pair of Ferragamo shoes the day before the sale started. I was told to wait to the day after, queue up an hour before they opened and wait, then I would get 30% off. Because I wanted those shoes so badly, and didn't want to pay more than I had to, I did as I was told... It was unbelieveble! Me, T (he had to go with me...:-)) and a "bunch" of Japanese queuing outside Ferragamo. In the end, I got my shoes! :-D

Oooooh, I can't wait to go to London again. I just love that city!

Shopping in Rome

If you're looking for designer-clothing you have to go to Via Dei Condotti. The prices are the same as in London, but the selection vary from place to place. Just be prepared that if you look, ask for help and don't buy anything, they'll be angry at you!

Via Del Corso is also nice for shopping. Nike and Adidas have stores there. Oh, yes, and Sephora...

I found all the small streets close to the Spanish Steps to be nice for shopping.

If I found anything? Of course... I went to Ferragamo....:-D





This belt is a "reverse". Brown at one side and black at the other.

Rome, Wednesday

Hotel Valadier

The hotel is a 4-star hotel. It said it should be close to the Spanish Steps, but it's closer to the Piazza Del Popolo. It's about 10 min. walk to the Spanish Steps. Not very long, but not VERY close either. The hotel is nice. The reception area is ok, but you don't get the feeling of a very nice hotel. The rooms are small, very small and a bit tacky with mirrors all over, even in the ceiling. The room is so small I got the feeling of being in a coach at a boat. I am a bit disappointed as it was a very expensive hotel. On the other side, we are not planning to stay much at the hotel!

For lunch (or dinner?) we ate at the café next to the hotel. We both ate pizzas and it was real Italian! Very nice!

After dinner we headed to Mimmo Siviglia, a very famous Italian tailor, close to the Termini Station. I think we used 40-45 min. to walk from the hotel. Mimmo, his wife and his daughter are all tailors and they make bespoke shirts for men. T had made an appointment before we went to Rome and when we came, Mimmo and his daughter Francesca waited for us. It was 2,5 interesting hours. The old man didn-t like T's shirt, which is a shirt from Hilditch and Key, he even said it was horrible!!! T had to try a sample shirt and at once he had gotten it on, we saw what the old man meant. Oh my God, I am afraid T will never wear a shirt that is not bespoke again!

We went early to bed as we had been up since 03.30 to get to the airport.

Shopping clothes to exercise with

Oh no... This is not easy, even for a shoppaholic... Yesterday I went to a store... I went in, felt very uncomfortable, and went out again....:) I felt really clueless... How can I know what people use when exercising these days?

Shoes I've bought, but not used much

Pink: Used once in a wedding
Red/beige: Used some times, when I had a beige suit
White: Bought in Spain, never used... Plastic fantastic! :-/





Red/black: Bought at Rhodes some years ago, used once. Not suitable to WALK with... Sitting shoes...
The two next: Actually not that bad to walk with, but still, not been used too much.





Bought in Japan last year. Used once in a wedding. Absolutly sitting shoes, but oh so nice... Look at the heal!

Shopping in London

If you want designer clothing like Chanel, Burberry, Ferragamo, Aquascutum, Dior, Nicol Fahri etc? You have to go to New Bond Street, Bond Street and Regent Street. Or visit Harrods, Harvey Nicols or Selfridges.

Oxford Street is the main road for High Street Fashion like Top Shop, H&M and Oasis. You will also find Marks & Spencer, HMW (music and DVD?s) and the big departmentstores like Debenham, House of Frasier and John Lewis, All the big departmentsores usually have a big area with cosmetics at the ground floor. The best selection is at Harrods and Harvey Nicols.

Carnaby Street is also a good place for High Street Fashion.

My favourite places/stores are: Ferragamo, Burberry, Aquascutum, Harrods, Mexx in Oxford Street, Waterstone (books) at Piccadilly.

For menswear you have to visit Jermyn Street (the paralell street to Piccadilly) and Saville Row. The big department-store also have a wide selection of menswear.

For kids: Go to Hamleys!



Here is a glance into Hamelys





One of the windows at Hamleys

Been shopping... 15 kilo.... :-D

I don not want to tell you how much money I have spent on this trip. The only thing I will say about that is that I have been shopping 15 kilos. (Yes, the shoes were VERY heavy!)

Well, well, we have to eat noodles with ketchup for several weeks from now on..... :-D (The worst thing is that noodles with ketchup is one of J's favorites!) :-D

Best chocolate cake EVER!

I am now eating the best chocolate cake I have EVER tasted! I am still at the "Le Pain" and decided to go for dessert. I am not sure if I dare to take a picture... let me think... no, they will think I am totally insane... :) Sorry... or maybe... wait a min.....



I am insane....

My new Ecco shoes

Oh, I think I am beginning to be old....... Practical shoes....

Travelreport #5 from London: Harrods

As some of you may know, it's 10 years since the death of Lady (?) Diana. At Harrods there was a condolense book and pictures... And yes, I HAD to write my name and country, I WAS THERE! :-D











Haha, I just had to buy this cute little box... Did I tell you I am a "box-collector"?

My flat shoes....

These are not my nicest shoes, but maybe the most practical... :-D

Travelreport #4 from London: More shopping!

Got up early and went to eat breakfast. It was the same as yesterday, nothing special...

Went out to go to Harrods, or in fact, I was not going for Harrods, but for the Mexx shop very close to Harrods. I bought a day ticket to the tube for 5,10 Gbp. This is the "off-peak" ticket, you can not use it before 0930. I bought it 09.30... :)

When I came, I looked for the Mexx shop... It was GONE!!!!! I was really gutted because that shop was fantastic, and I didn't remember there is a Mexx shop in Oxford Street.... :) I just looked it up at the internet and found there are actually two shops very close to my hotel... :) Anyway, I went to Harrods and bought some underwear. Haha, no, I will not show you pictures of that! This time I just had to try the Hanro brand as I have heard good things about it. I find it strange to wear a blend of silk and wool as underwear.... I am sure it will be nice in the wintertime! :) I also bought some Chantelle bras and some small souvenirs.

On the way back to the tubestation I found a new Ecco store. And of course, I found a pair of shoes. Not the nicest once, but I am sure they will be nice on my feet!

I then took the tube back to Piccadilly Circus. On the way back to the hotel I bought some "hair-stuff" and some cardigans at Zara. Normally I never find much at Zara (I am not trendy and young enough!) but their cardigans are nice.

Back at the hotel I dropped all my bags and went to a cafe very close to the hotel. They have free broadband and very nice, organic food. I ate a salads with shrimps, avocado and mango. It was delicious and I can highly recommend the place. The name of the cafe is Le Pain and it's located in Great Marlborough Street.