Winter In London

Hyde Park London, 19th December

It's Thursday so it feels a little late to write about the weekend. Yet it was exciting and beautiful and deserves a mention and a few pictures.

On Saturday, hubby and I had a trip to London and spent the night in the West End (the nice end). It was fairly last minute as we only booked the hotel last Thursday.

We left home with lots of greenery. Almost toour train station we were faced with blizzards and arrived to 5inches of snow.  It was chaotic getting the tube trains but we visited Covent Garden, Regent Street and Bond Street (The main shopping streets of London), Trafalgar Square was boarded off so we didn't see much. We took a walk around the famous Hamleys toy shop, 5 floors of toys. The kids would have loved it. Just not the crowds. In the evening we dined at a mexican restaurant with hubbys bro and sister in law. We then visited a couple of bars and a comedy club before returning around 2am to our hotel.

Back Entrance to The Hilton

We stayed in The Hilton Hotel at Paddington and it was a very nice room. Not as posh as I expected and looked a little worn but when it is something so well used it must be hard to refurbish at any time of year. We were very lucky to get the room at the price we did. We got a £330 room for around £70 as we booked through a late booking company. It was a gamble we took since we didn't know where we were going due to them not publicising what Hotel they were offering until the booking had been placed. The public areas were beautifully and tastefully decorated.

Hyde Park Christmas Market

The morning after, we walked through Hyde Park and thier winter wonderland fayre and market. It was a beautiful walk through the snowy park. Everything seemed to be in monochrome as white was everywhere and the things standing out were black silhouttes.

A touring big wheel dominated the skyline as we approached the market.

We made our way through the park and had a good look around Harrods department store which was just too massive to do the whole thing. We particularly liked the food court, from speciality teas and coffees, to chocolates, to a sit down caviar bar, a sushi bar and an ice cream and soda parlour. It was quite something and something I would certainly tell any London visitors to try and see.

So, beyond the trip to London, we've been super busy with the kids and christmas preparations. I do hope I get a chance to do a quick update tomorrow evening between the food preparations, putting a small truckload of presents under the tree and eating a mince pie or two on santas behalf. If not, I wish you all the very best for the festive celebrations.

Merry christmas to all.