… in London.
Rather than doing a lot of groceries and cooking at home and also instead of
buying each other presents, we decided to give ourselves a one big present by
celebrating a very British Christmas in London and it did not disappoint, but
then London never does, any time of year.
No theatre
visits, no shopping, just looking at beautiful Christmas trees and lights,
enjoying yummy food and long walks, in short: just taking in that very special,
very festive British Christmas cheer!
Let’s start
with – to me – the most beautiful Christmas tree I have ever seen (and it did
not even have lights):
This tree was
at St. Pancras station and we could not get enough of it. The station itself is
a Victorian beauty also, a perfect place for this very large tree. St. Pancras
station is known for its famous Harry Potter 9 ¾ platform but (for all of you
fans) that is actually located at neighbouring King’s Cross station, just a
sign on a wall,
but if you want to take a picture of yourself
with the sign….. then get in line!
We passed.
Back to the
Christmas trees, we went criss cross thru town to see some really nice ones:
Harrod’s ,
with carol singers
near Covent
Garden
someone in
this pub really likes Christmas trees!
our hotel did
not disappoint either.
Of course
there were other decorations as well:
the Blue Bird
at King’s Road
Peggy Porschen
Covent Garden.
Chestnuts
roasting on an open fire…..
In the evening
time we admired the famous London Christmas lights:
Regent Street
Oxford Street
Carnaby Street.
And everywhere really:
If you ever
plan to spend Christmas Day in London you must know that there is no public
transportation at all for over 24 hrs, no Underground, no buses, nothing,
except for a few very expensive taxi’s. Public transport ends at midnight
Christmas Eve and does not start up again until early Boxing Day, the
handwritten signs warning you of this come up sometime during Christmas Eve
day, this one was at ‘our’ Underground station:
Soooooo, what
to do on Christmas Day? Well, I think we had a really British Christmas Day.
Without any public transportation we went for a long walk in the morning
through the very quiet streets (hardly any cars either, I think lots of people
had left the city or were already at their destination in the city), it was a
dark, grey day so it was lovely to see the lights of the Christmas trees and
candles in the houses where people were celebrating.
Back in our
hotelroom we watched the Queen’s speech.
I had
organised for us to go for a traditional Christmas lunch, with crackers, turkey
and the trimmings
After which it
was time for another walk, I loved seeing all the Christmas wreaths on the
front doors, there were so many I made a collage of just a few of them, if you
like making your own this may be inspiration for next year 😊
Then time for
some Netflixing in our hotelroom followed by yes, our third walk of the day,
the mews
behind our hotel:
then some drinks in the hotelbar and sleep, contented after a lovely Christmas Day.
The next day,
Boxing Day, we knew the masses would head for the shops as the big sales would
be starting and since our flight back home was not until early evening we did
have time for another long walk on this bright and sunny morning, this time
through the Holland Park area via Kensington Palace.
Look at the
beautiful, large Christmas tree in the gardens of the Palace
There was even
some quilty inspiration here… quilty
steps!
These were our
last impressions of this wonderful city, our last moments of a very special
trip. A big present to ourselves which we spent four wonderful days slowly unwrapping.
Bev Bannard
(click) left a remark under one of my Instagram posts of this trip: ‘if your
are tired of London you are tired of life’ and I fully agree, we will never
tire of London and we cannot wait to go back.
(if you are
not on Instagram, here is the link (click) for my account )
As I am
writing this on New Year’s Eve, I would like to take this opportunity to wish
you all a healthy, happy and creative 2018!
Enjoy the
festivities tonight and for those in The Netherlands: be careful with fireworks, stay safe!
Phyllis
