A Festive Day out in London

A Festive Day out in London

Tuesday, 6 December 2022

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Today we headed into London for a festive day out with a friend.  Our plan was to visit Hyde Park Winter Wonderland and to see the Christmas lights in London.

Our rough itinerary looked like this:

* Hyde Park Winter Wonderland

* Covent Garden

* Seven Dials Market

* Trafalgar Square

* Piccadilly Circus

* Fortnum and Mason

* Burlington Arcade

* New Bond St

* Carnaby Street

* Liberty London

* Oxford Circus (views of Oxford Street and Regent Street)

* Selfridges

We started our day at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland.  

None of us had ever been to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, so we were quite excited to see what it had to offer.  We had heard very mixed reviews, so we weren't at all sure what to expect.  Being over 50, and with somewhat limited time, we focussed our attention on the Magical Ice Kingdom, the Christmas Market and the Bavarian Village.  We had a wonderful time and are very keen to go back next year, perhaps taking the "littles" with to enjoy some of the rides.  

Here are some photos we took during our visit:

Having enjoyed lunch in the Bavarian Village, with live music from an oompah band, we headed off to Covent Garden.  

We then followed the map (see above) and made our way around London, taking in the various Christmas displays and the gorgeous Christmas lights.  

We enjoyed a mulled wine at Trafalgar square, although we found the Christmas market a little lacklustre after the market at Winter Wonderland and the Christmas tree (a gift from Norway) is a bit sad to be frank.

We thoroughly enjoyed our wander around London's Christmas lights.  

I have to admit that our photos don't do it justice - taking successful photos of Christmas lights is surprisingly difficult!  

The only disappointment of the day was our trip to Selfridges - we felt it was quite a hack to get there and then it really wasn't that "wow" at all, so it seemed a lot of effort for little reward.  Perhaps we would have done better to pop into Fortnum and Mason, John Lewis or Liberty.  The other thing I would have changed would probably been to have got to Seven Dials a little later, when it was getting dark - the lights there were lovely, but it was still a little early to really appreciate them.

All in all it was a lovely day out and we thoroughly enjoyed soaking up the festive atmosphere that is so typical of London at this time of year.

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