Winter Wonderland, Liberty & Christmas Lights

Yesterday Mrs C and I went up to London. This is something that we don,t do very often since moving to Deepest Darkest Sussex. However with Christmas on the horizon we decided to visit 'Winter Wonderland' in Hyde Park which opened last weekend. It would have been better to wait until closer to the Festive season in order to get that real Christmassy spirit but this is a very busy time of year for us. Wonderland had been hyped up in the media and proved to be as great as I hoped that it would be with a Giant Ferris Wheel, Fairground rides, a Christmas market, a Bavarian village and loads of places to eat and drink.

After a slow journey through the beautiful Sussex and Kent countryside, our train arrived at Victoria Station at about noon. We then took a slow stroll up Grosvenor Place past the rear of Buckingham Palace and Wellington Arch to Hyde Park corner, where we entered 'Winter Wonderland'. It was a crisp cold day so our first port of call was to one of the German bars for a glass of mulled wine to warm us up.

We enjoyed a lovely couple of hours strolling around the Bavarian village and the various market stalls soaking up the Christmas atmosphere. I drew the line at the rides though, some of them I was much to old for and the others looked too scary. At my age I am no longer an adrenaline junky. I limited my excitement to the food and drink. If anybody is looking for a good day out on the run up to Christmas I can thoroughly recommend a visit to 'Winter Wonderland'.

As the sun began to set we decided to visit Regent Street to see the Christmas lights which were as spectacular as ever. It has been a few years since I last saw them and they did not disappoint. Mrs C somehow persuaded me to visit Liberty store to see their decorations as well. We then walked down to Piccadilly Circus where the statue of Eros had been decorated as a giant snow globe. From here we continued into the bright lights of Leicester square and Charring Cross road, back to the station to get our train home to the sticks. It was a really fantastic day and a brilliant start to the Festive season.

This Policeman is in an amusement arcade somewhere near Piccadilly Circus and I'm sure that I used to work with this guy some time in my dim distant past.