We had four days in London
Okay, serious long blog! Just a warning.
Tons of pictures in this blog. I may not write as much about each one. This was what we stopped in London for. We wanted to relax a bit, see the markets, and experience the Christmas spirit around London.
The first night we were here, they hotel had a choir in singing Christmas carols
They also served hot chocolate
I like his all the lights reflected and glittered on the marble floor
So the big “market” here in London was at Hyde Park
Which was right across the street from our hotel
After settling in, we went over there
This was the crowd just to get in.
They charged just to get into the festival space
It was called Winter Wonderland
There were plenty of lights
And tons of attractions
There were a bunch of chalets type booths
Most sold either sweets, food, or drink
Mass market goods filled the few that were not food
They did have plenty decorations
And large food booths
Even some “buildings”. Many of which I have know idea what they held as they required you to buy special tickets to get in.
You could pay to try your hand at ice craving
This Santa seems fairly jolly
There were also a lot of tent areas with tables to eat the food from the booths
This carousel was lovely
This was more a representation of the theme, than Santa though
They had a lot of venues inside that required additional tickets to enter, many were themed food and entertainment, from what I could tell
As you can see it was crowded and this was a Thursday evening
Their were a few performers in the general areas
This was their big fun house, spectate ticket required
As I said, there was a fair amount of places to sit and eat the things you bought
Like many carnivals, there were a large number of games you could play for chances to win things. Of course each one was an extra cost
One of the few non food booths, it looked like things you could pick up at a discount store
Some of the area carried out a Christmas theme in decorating, but most were just decked out in lights
Another of the game booths
Some kind of ride or another fun house, I am not sure which
There was a large decorated Christmas type tree in the center of the ride area
This old sleigh on top of one of the food booths was fun
This was their Christmas Market part. Less than twenty booth in total, I think
And another pay to get in Bar
One of the two group preforming that were included in your entrance fee
This decoration was another I liked
As you can probably tell from the picture, their rides and games area was huge
According to the write up there were over 100 activities to do, all you paid for separately
I would bet Disney did not license this ride, but it was one hundred percent a ripoff of animated characters from Alice in Wonderland
Some of the rides looked like they were real thrill rides
These guys almost tempted me, the plush were very cute, but after listening to Dale talk about working the games at Lagoon, I passed
The bars were everywhere. I wonder how many passed out people they had each night
And what says Christmas more than a house of horrors?
I thought the fun house out of place, I don’t feel red and green light make a haunted house Christmas
The smoke is from all the opening BBQ style cooking tents
They dressed up the Ferris Wheel by putting a Christmas decorated house with a set of games to win plush n front of it
I am not even sure what went on in this area, but again it was an extra ticketed event
Cute themed ride for little kids. So if you got the idea from my comment that I did not really enjoy this evening at the Winter Wonderland, you were right. I am sure if I had been looking for a loud, crowded, expensive carnival, this would have been outstanding. From what I gathered, if you rode some of the rides, played a few games, and did any of the activities, it would have cost you more per person than a day at Disney World. If you included food, a person could easily have spent between $200-300 per person
So the next day was Friday and a sunny, but cold day, these next several pictures were taken as we walked down Oxford Street. We were headed to an umbrella and cane shop that we had visit on previous trips
The next several are window displays at Selfridges
It is one of the larger stores on Oxford Steet
I had to pop into the Disney Store, just to say high
Loved the Disney stores tree
Many of the streets had decorations up high. As it was below freezing at night, we opted out of the 90 minute open top bus tours to see the lights of London
The store all about Harry Potter
They had a fun tree
A mini cooper was the centerpiece of this stores holiday decor
More of the overhead decoration, even unlit they were fun
Giant trees were scattered in squares as we walked down the road
After visiting the shop with canes and umbrellas, we headed down some streets towards the markets I wanted to check out. This was just a fun place on the way
We arrived a Covent Gardens
They were very festive
The center hall was ringing with Christmas cheer
Their tree outside was delightful
It was well attended that day at the market
Many of the restaurants we passed had greenery out and about
The streets of London can be such a nice place to walk
Some of the stores looked like Santa’s workshops
Another set of high decoration, each area had their own style
This building is the London Hippodrome. It started out around 1900 as a place for the circuses and shows
Harry Potter is flying outside the temporary wall around the Leicester square
This is the entrance. It was quite a bit smaller than I expected. About half and half between food booths and stocking stuffer, but nothing looked unique
As with most of the areas around London markets and shops, it was fairly busy
It had about 20 booths selling things
Cute, but nothing tempted me to take it home or consume it
We stopped into a restaurant nearby to warn up and get lunch.we wanted to try here, but no room at the Inn
This bus blocked a good piece of the church, but this is St Martin-in-the-Fields
The royal symbols adorns it’s roof line
This was the other Christmas Market at Trafalgar Square
It was even smaller with about 15 booths, about half food
The square itself was pretty this day
With the sun shining
And the fountains dancing
So more cute stuff, but pretty much the same as I had seen elsewhere
Back to fun windows as we were walking back to our hotel
Oh my gosh sugar overload
It all looked so good, kind glad I was cold and wanted to hurry back to our hotel. Otherwise I might have gotten one of everything😁
This is St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe church. They are having all kinds of free Christmas concerts in December.
I imagine it takes a lot of work to keep this building in good shape
Fun shop along the way
More Christmas season window from our walk
They had some very festive Arcades, which we would call covered shopping streets
Another of the fun over the street designs
What makes this window interesting is the background is totally made up on different Christmas ornaments
Even the designer places are in the spirit
They were very clever in the window display for expensive watches
Another of the Arcades we walked through
This is the Brown hotel
Isabell’s restaurant
If it had not been so cold at nights I would have loved to see all of these streets lit up
Several of the restaurants went all out in their decorations
Cakes of unusual design
Every once in a while, a large decorated tree appears
Or even a small decoration as in front of this church
Not the best picture, but a very heavily decorated shop
Sometime stairs leading below ground are decorated
Greenery is placed all around
And highlighting building
This shop almost over did the greenery
I just find the buildings a fun walk on some of the side streets
An embassy
One of the two entrances to our hotel
This is the main taxi and valet entrance
They had done it up very nicely
Each set of trees was a slightly different color set
This was sunset out of our hotel window on Friday night
The tree in the members lounge where we ate breakfast and some dinners
Saturday we headed out to check out the last Christmas Market on my list
It was held on the Queens Walk along the Thames river between the tower bridge and the London bridge. In the middle background you see the Tower of London
They had dancers preforming holiday dances
With drum and accordion
This is the HMS Belfast
Part of the Queens Walk
The start of the outdoor booths
They also had booths in Hay’s Galleria
With a lovely tall Christmas tree
And a Choir singing carols
I like the stars on this tree
And the back of a food booth with tables
This huge steampunk display was also inside
Of all the London Markets this one was the one that was what I was hoping to find
It was called Winter by the River
The tower bridge
The booths were all style in a tutor style. Lots of food, but also crafters and some unique gifts
Closer look at the fair side of the Tower Bridge
One of the booths that tempted me to spend some money. Also the place we found out that most of the British money we had was “old” money that was not accepted anymore
These bon bons might have tempted me, if I had not been heading to a bake shop booth that also offered crepes
Like this giant nut cracker
If I had thought I could safely get one of these home, I might have picked one up, but as it was, I was pretty sure we were going to have to buy another bag to get the stuff we already had purchased home
This place snagged me with the brownies
Dale with the raspberry tarts
And the Belgium dark chocolate crepe with fresh strawberries from the other end of the booth. The treats were brought back to the hotel, but the crepe we shared standing off to the side. The forks they offered did not work, so my fingers got very chocolate covered. After the crepe was gone, it took several minutes of licking my finger before the napkins could clean them enough to put my glove back on.
Walking back to the tube station we passed these sculptures
We found them whimsical and fun
The shipyard pub caught my eye and my fancy
The way the homes were built just fascinate me
Not sure what this is, but it is so different from it’s surroundings
This entry was beautiful
The other main entrance to our hotel. This one faces Hyde Park. Saturday was fun, but we both got cold and enjoyed hot chocolate in the lounge after our walk
Sunday was rainy, so we stayed inside at the hotel all day
We did have the couple of hours at a special tea around lunch time
They had open face sandwiches, which. I had cut them up before I thought to take a picture. Shrimp and cream cheese was one. Salmon, quail egg, a caviar was the other
Then came the tower
All the treats were inspired by the story The Snowman. The song Walking on the Air was created for the animation of the book
That evening I took a couple of last pictures of the Winter Wonderland from our hotel room window
In spite of the rain, it was quite pretty. In fact I think I enjoyed it more from my room, than actually going to it.
This morning we were out and about again. We had a late check out of 4pm at our hotel, so we went for a walk to the one place we could turn in our old money for the current currency
Also enjoyed some more holiday windows
A walk through a small park
Where this display was. It was at Annabelle’s, which is a member’s club, whatever that is
Also the Fortnum and Mason building done up like a huge a countdown to Christmas calendar. With each window having a different number
My family were big Wallace and Gromit
And Shawn the Sheep fans
This window was especially unique and fun
I guess these were adult toys, because they were not something I would give kids
Our walk was successful, we changed our old money for current currency. We found a very nice Italian leather bag to put what would not fit in our suitcases (Dale had been looking for one since we were in Italy). And we found Dale a dashing Burberry overcoat.
Then we took the Heathrow Express train to the airport and checked into our hotel at the airport for the night. Tomorrow with luck, we will be traveling home. It was a fun trip, but I will be glad to get home.
Depending on how things go, I might have some other fun blogs yet this month. Stay tune and happy holidays.
