Christmas Time in London
Last year in October, we took a trip to London and I fell in love with this amazing city. Every time we go on vacation, I buy a Christmas ornament to commemorate our trip and London was no exception. I bought a (very expensive) red phone booth ornament from Harrods. I hated paying that much, but to make it authentic in my mind, it just had to come from Harrods. I was so excited to put it on the tree that year, that I told the kids I had to do it myself because if they broke it, I would be upset. I got on the step ladder, put it high on the tree where it wouldn’t accidentally be knocked off – and it immediately slid off the branch, fell down to the floor and broke. There was dead silence in the room as 5 pairs of eyes watched me waiting for the melt down. I stood there for a minute, calmly got down off the ladder and walked over to the computer to try and order another one. After realizing that with shipping it was going to cost over $60 for a damn ornament, I turned around and announced to the room that I was just going to go back next year for Christmas and get another one. Thirteen months later, here we are!!
I am one of those people that start counting down to Christmas in about June, and my tree is up shortly after Halloween – so the idea of seeing London at Christmas time had me giddy. I spent hours googling “Best Christmas Displays in London” and realized there were so many places I wanted to see I may have to go again NEXT year lol! We only had time for a quick trip, so we left on a Tuesday, arrived in London on Wednesday and flew out again on Sunday. That really only gave us 3 and a half days, so we decided to make the most of it. Earlier in the year we were on a trip to Prague and our flight was delayed by about four hours. I contacted United and they gave us each $300 in flight vouchers. I searched for flights to London in December and found some for $400. With our vouchers it cost us $100 a ticket – not bad for flights to London!
Our trip started out with a bang as we got on to our Washington DC-London flight and found out it was so empty, that each of us had our own row. This is the poor man’s first class as we were able to put up all the armrests and stretch out for the 7-hour flight. We got to chatting with one of our flight attendants and immediately bonded over our love of theater. She sat with me for a long time talking about what we wanted to see, and where we wanted to eat as we planned our itineraries for London. We talked her into going to see Come From Away, especially since she was a flight attendant during 9/11. At one point she had me laughing when the captain addressed “all flight attendants” over the PA and it took her a minute when she realized, “oh shit that’s me!”
We arrived in London at 6:40 a.m. and since most things weren’t open yet we took our time at the airport. We visited the Aspire Priority Pass lounge in arrivals as a perk of our Chase Sapphire Reserve card and got changed and freshened up before heading into the city. The Aspire lounge was very small compared to most lounges, (almost claustrophobic) but they had bathrooms, showers and snacks which was all we needed. (See my review on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card and how you can get free access to the lounges here).
Originally, we were going to take the tube into the city since we had so much time and the tube is by far the cheapest option. However, I am a horrible packer when it comes to cold weather since I’m never sure exactly what I’ll need and tend to overpack – so I ended up with a large suitcase on this trip. We decided to use Uber for convenience sake since I didn’t want to lug the suitcase up and down stairs in the tube stations but make no mistake this is the most expensive option and you can definitely find cheaper alternatives. Ubers in Heathrow are a little hard to find as once you call for one you have to go to the 4th floor of the parking garage and go to row H to meet your driver. The ride into the city took almost an hour with all of the traffic and we finally got to our hotel, Citadines in Trafalgar square, at about 9:00 a.m. Citadines offers apartment style rooms with a queen bed and a small kitchen, it also has a great location. If you’re looking for a budget hotel you could definitely find one much cheaper, but since we had luck with them assigning us a room at 11:00 a.m. the last time we visited and we were arriving so early, we chose to use them again. This time they only had a room with two singles available, but had we wanted to accept it they would have let us check in at 9:00 a.m. which is unheard of! We decided to wait for a queen and left our bags at the hotel as we went out to explore the city. (They ended up calling us a few hours later to let us know our room was ready so apparently it wasn’t a fluke and they really are good at allowing people to check in early at no cost).
Our first stop was a coffee shop in Bermondsey that took us about 45 minutes to walk to from our hotel. (If I keep Deb up for 35 hours at a time, I definitely need to plug her with coffee) It was a long walk, but we had the time and everything else we wanted to see that morning was in the same area. The appeal of the coffee shop was simply its name – Fuckoffee! I thought the name was absolutely brilliant and of course had to see it. The coffee and hot chocolate were pretty average, but the decorations were fun. From the neon sign advertising “Girls, girls, girls” (of course there were no girls lol!), to the door sign that read, “Push it, push it real good”, to the customer rewards cards which simply read, “Fuck” and then they would punch a hole next to the words – it, me, this, you, them or coffee every time you bought another cup. The idea was absolute genius!
The real reason we headed to this area however was to visit Borough Market. We’d been to several other markets in London but were told that this was the holy grail of markets for foodies. We’d done our research and had 7 different stalls we wanted to try but had to tap out after about 4 because we were so full! First on the list was the 7£ toasted cheese sandwich at Kappacaseins. I was a bit skeptical about a cheese sandwich being on the list but as I kept eating I realized I really enjoyed the taste and would totally do that again! Their sandwiches are made with a mixture of Montgomery Cheddar, Comte, Ogleshield and London Raclette cheeses in Poilane sourdough bread with leeks and onions – and they were pretty darn good. Next up was what most folks consider to be the number one food in the stalls, the Duck Confit Sandwich at Le Marche du Quartier. This is a little French stall that specializes in Duck Confit that you can get in a wrap for 8£ or on a sandwich or in a salad for 6£. We were their first customers of the day, so we got one right away, but they are known to have long queues just to get one of their confits. Deb felt that duck was quite good, but from the raves she said she was expecting a 10, and thought it was an 8 because the duck meat was a little on the chewy side. The greens were put on the bottom, and the duck was piled on top – but it was really the illusion of a sandwich and you actually had to eat it with a fork. Next up we went to Bread Ahead to buy some of their delicious baked goods to bring back to the hotel with us. We bought a piece of carrot cake, a cinnamon roll and one of their famous donuts. Be aware there are two Bread Ahead stalls in Borough market, but only one of them sells donuts. By this time Bao was open so we ordered one of their classic Baos – meaty pork with mustardy pepper greens and a dusting of peanuts on a steamed bun. Deb liked the Bao as it had a lot of different flavors and textures, though it was expensive for the amount you got. Note there were different menus for the restaurant versus the walk up window where we got our food, so make sure you know which is which if you’re perusing the menu online.
We were so full at that point we couldn’t do anymore, and were so disappointed we weren’t going to make it to all the stalls. The other items on our list that seemed to be on everyone’s “best of” list for Borough market were Scotchtails at Scotchtail, the pork sandwich at Hobbs, and the sausage roll at the Ginger Pig. We’ll have to wait until our next visit, but if you get a chance to try one of those let me know how it is! The market lists its opening hours as 10:00 a.m. on Wednesdays, but most of the stalls didn’t open until 11 and Bao didn’t open until noon so keep that in mind when planning your visit.
I love street art and try to see some wherever I go. I have a goal to see all the Banksy street murals in London, so after lunch we headed over to London Bridge. On the underpass of the London Bridge where it meets Tooley street is the Little Rat mural. Banksy is famous for his rat caricatures and there is small one here across from the London Bridge Experience and Ice Cream Shop. It’s really tiny, but it’s still a Banksy lol!
This put us right near the London Bridge City Christmas market, so we wandered through the stalls looking at all the gifts and food for sale. Scattered throughout the London Bridge City area was the “Walking with The Snowman” trail. The trail features twelve giant sculptures of Raymond Briggs’, The Snowman. Each snowman has been decorated by a different artist to represent one of the Twelve Days of Christmas. We had a great time trying to find them all.
Our room was ready by this time, so we walked back through Southbank Center and wandered around their Christmas market for a while before returning to Citadines. People talk about the markets in Europe and I have not yet been to the ones listed as the best (like the ones in Germany) but what I’ve seen so far in Prague, New York and London is that you don’t have to visit all the markets in the city, they have pretty much the same vendors at each market.
After we changed, we headed out to Kew Botanical Gardens to experience their Christmas light show. We took the Tube from our hotel, which was an easy two train ride. We had an Oyster card left over from our last visit, so we just topped up and used that for this trip. I use the Moovit app while in London as you put in where you want to go, it registers your location, and tells you the quickest and least expensive ways to get there whether it be on the tube, the bus or an Uber. Once you choose your route/method of transportation, it will give you step by step instructions on how to get there. Kew Gardens sells out every year, so if you’re interested in going make sure you buy your tickets well before December. Kew has a mile-long trail through the botanical garden which is illuminated with more than one million lights. We chose to go to the earliest time slot, 5:30 because we’d been up for 35 hours at this point and knew we’d be exhausted. The light show was absolutely beautiful. There was a tunnel of light and a fire garden. There were carols playing throughout the gardens and there was a laser show at the end. There were rides for the little ones and street food booths along the trail. We had steak frites from The Beefsteaks, sliced butcher’s steak on top of triple cooked Maris Pipers with your choice of Bearnaise, Peppercorn, Chimichurri, or Horseradish Cream sauce. We coupled that with Mulled Wine and marshmallow brownies – yum!
The next day we slept in a little bit as we were still recovering from jet lag and wandered through Trafalgar Square to see the Trafalgar tree. The tree is definitely not the prettiest, but it is the one with the most history. The Trafalgar Christmas tree has been an annual gift to the people of Britain by the city of Oslo as a token of gratitude for British support to Norway during the Second World War. The tree is generally 50-60 years old, and over 65 ft tall. It is the focal point for carols sung by different groups raising money for volunteer or charitable organizations. The lights are hung from the top down, rather than strung around the tree as this is the way it’s done in Norway. There is also another Christmas market near the tree where you can get some hot chocolate or mulled wine.
Next up was the Theater Café which is a cute little café a couple of blocks North of Trafalgar Square with theater memorabilia adorning the walls. Each table has a different show on it, and the menu has West End themed items. You can buy a Charlie & the Hot Chocolate, a My Fair Latte, or a Cats-accino. Throughout the year they have live performances from stars of the West End and Broadway. You can also purchase tickets to go see your favorite London shows right at the cafe.
The National Portrait Gallery is also in Trafalgar Square, so we decided to take a peek. Most museums and galleries in London are free, and you only need tickets to see special exhibits. The NPG is no exception. We wandered through for a little while (which was a nice respite on a rainy day) looking at the portraits of all the important figures in British History. I’ll have to admit loving the musical Six made it much more interesting, though it was really hard not to burst into song whenever we passed a portrait of one of Henry VIII’s e-wives! The NPG is scheduled to close in 2020 for two years for restoration, so if you’re interested you should see it while you can.
Next up was something we wanted to do since we saw it pass us on our last visit – The B Bakery Bus Afternoon Tea. I love doing unique things and having Afternoon Tea on one of the iconic red double decker buses definitely fit the bill. The bus picks up at two locations, and one happened to be across the street from our hotel which made it extremely convenient. The bus drove us around Central London for about an hour and a half, all while serving tasty sandwiches and delicious cakes and pastries. If you want to see a full review of the tour and what we ate, click here. Don’t worry if you don’t finish everything, they will pack up your leftovers so you can take them with you.
This was the one rainy day of our trip, so we went back to the hotel to drop off our goodies and walked to the Seven Dials area. The Christmas lights were up and made the area seem so festive. We did some shopping and bought a few Christmas presents for the girls. This is an area that is beautiful at night, but also during the day – especially Neal’s Yard, so if you come for a visit, you’ll have to see it both times of day. Luckily, we had visited Neal’s Yard during the day on our last visit, so we didn’t need to come back. But it is one of the cutest, most colorful courtyards in London – don’t miss it!
Ask anyone where you can find the best Indian food in London, and Dishoom will surely be mentioned. Dishoom pays homage to the Irani cafes found in Bombay, and is open for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, and have several locations throughout London. I knew that we wanted to try Dishoom so I did my research and found that they only take reservations for parties of less than 6 before 5:30 p.m. If you want to go later than that you have to wait for a table which averages an hour to an hour and a half on a normal day. I thought I was being smart and made a reservation for 5:30 p.m. so we wouldn’t waste any time on our trip. When we got there however, they could not find my reservation and I didn’t have a confirmation email – so the reservation must not have gone through. (Note to self, make sure you get a confirmation email when making restaurant reservations or you will be severely disappointed). We couldn’t talk the host into seating us, and the line for the restaurant was an hour and a half. Not only that, but you had to stand in line outside the restaurant and it was raining. We said no thanks and figured we would visit on another trip though several people leaving the restaurant kept telling us to stay that it was absolutely worth it. We wandered a little bit further and stumbled across Brydges Place, the narrowest alley in London which is just 15 inches wide at its smallest point. We had just seen the movie Last Christmas the week before where they visited the alley so of course we had to get a picture. We tried to find the garden that held Tom’s bench, but it was dark and raining and the best we could figure it was in the middle of a locked church yard lol!
Later we came across Bill’s, a quaint little restaurant with whimsical furnishings and comfortable couches a la Friends. The drinks were our favorite however, and I had Gingerbread Hot Chocolate with white hot chocolate, gingerbread syrup, topped with cream and served with a mini gingerbread man. Deb had the Urban Cookie Collective which was Koko Kanu coconut rum, salted caramel sauce & Oreo crumb blended with frappe mix and milk.
The entertainment for the evening was a show in the West End – Six the Musical. We had been listening to the soundtrack on repeat for months and were very excited to get to see the show. Six tells the story of the six wives of Henry VIII in the form of a pop concert. The wives are no longer dead and are vying to see who had the worst time with Old Henry by each performing a song detailing their lives with him. Each queen spins her tale in a different genre from melancholy ballads, to a Beyonce type dance number. In the end they decide they are all better off without Henry, so they form a girl band and embark on a hit tour together. The show promotes girl power and women supporting women, but in a fun, campy sort of way. If you’re looking for something serious, this is definitely not it, but if you want to have a bit of fun this is the show for you.
Friday was an all-out trek to see as many Christmas displays as we could. We started off at Fortnum and Mason at 10:00 a.m. to see their windows and Christmas shop. Our Uber driver in from the airport told us that the displays were not as good this year, and they did seem to have some odd themes. Fortnum and Mason had little cats in red tailcoats pattering away with pipes, gold wheels and machinery.
Breakfast was at Sketch which is a visually stunning eatery in Mayfield. There are four different dining rooms each with a different theme. The last time we were there we ate in the Glade which was decorated like a jungle with “grass” carpets and jungle wallpaper. This time we chose the parlor which had a whimsy theme, tables had legs with ballerina slippers on them and there were pillows on the benches. The main draw for instagrammers though are Sketches pod bathrooms which look like something straight from a sci-fi movie.
Just down the road from Sketch was another Banksy located at 25 Bruton – Falling Shopper, so we swung by to snap a picture.
A few streets further down was Annabels, known for the Christmas decorations at their entrance every year – but you can’t pop in as it’s a private club for members only. It kind of makes me want to know what’s in there 😉
I’m always up for a cute café, so we stopped by Elan Café on our way to Harrods and immediately fell in love with the pink interior. The desserts were beautiful, and the décor was even prettier.
Next up was the granddaddy of them all – Harrods. Harrods sits on 5 acres and has over one million square feet of selling space in over 330 departments making it the largest department store in Europe. An amazing fact is that each day, 100,000 people pass through the store, and during the holidays that number can be up to 300,000. For someone as introverted and claustrophobic as I am, it can be a little overwhelming. Harrods had a Kingdom of Christmas theme, and the windows were adorned with jungle creatures celebrating the spirit of Christmas.
We hadn’t planned it, but since we passed the Victoria and Albert Museum in our walks, we decided to stop in. The V&A is the world’s largest museum of applied and decorative arts and admission is free! One of the most dramatic parts of the museum is the Cast Courts in the sculpture wing, comprising of two large, skylighted rooms two stories high housing hundreds of plaster casts of sculptures, friezes and tombs. One of these is dominated by a full-scale replica of Trajan’s Column, cut in half to fit under the ceiling.
On our way back to Mayfair we took a detour through Hyde Park and Winter Wonderland. It’s a fair complete with rides and games, and even an ice bar for adults. Admission is free, though you will pay to go on each ride. One of my favorite things inside was a Merry-Go-Bar, which is a million times better than a Merry-Go-Round …… just sayin’.
As we were leaving, we stopped at the Marble Arch for Banksy #3, Extinction Rebellion which can be found on a wall just near the Arch.
We weren’t hungry yet, but we popped into Mercato Mayfair just because I loved the concept. It’s a food hall that is housed in the repurposed Saint Mark’s Church on North Audley street. The interior was beautiful, and it almost felt sacrilegious to be eating inside. This is more of an upscale food hall and I drooled at the dishes from the Italian Steak House as we walked by. There are two stories of food stalls and bars, accompanied by a rooftop terrace – and the vaulted crypt basement hosts a wine cellar, a micro-brewery and cooking classes. We’ll definitely be making a stop here on our next trip.
Next up were the windows at Selfridges. Selfridges was started by American Harry Selfridge and is the second largest department store in the UK behind Harrods. Selfridges is rumored to have started the tradition of window dressings to draw customers into the store and Selfridge himself is credited with the phrase, “the customer is always right”. Their theme this year was “A Christmas for Modern Times”. It was a little bit wacky, but festive nonetheless.
We walked through Grosvenor Square where they had an Ever After Garden. 27,000 silk glowing roses were placed in the square, in remembrance of friends and family members, with all donations benefitting the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. It really was an awe-inspiring sight.
Claridges is a famous hotel established in London in 1856. The hotel was refurbished by CW Stephens, who was responsible for redesigning Harrods and it shows. Many a royal has stayed at the hotel, and on June 17, 1945, Suite 212 was temporarily declared Yugoslavian territory. The King of Yugoslavia was one exiled to the hotel as a result of the war, and he wanted his child born on home soil. Rumor has it that soil from his home country was placed under the bed for the birth of Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia. This year’s tree is traditional gold and red and was designed by Christian Louboutin. The Loubi express is stationed in the lobby and guests can sit in its velvet seats to have a sip of champagne if they choose.
Liberty London was our next store which opened in 1924 and looks like something out of a Shakespeare novel. The building was made with recycled wood from British ships and the weather vane on top bears a model of the Mayflower the ship that brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth rock. The Tree of Liberty was probably the best display we’d seen all day. Liberty had a colorful pink bonsai tree made of fabric with blue velvet branches that hung from the store’s ceiling and stretched out over four floors!
While walking to Liberty I realized there was another Dishoom in the Carnaby area, so we decided to pop in to see how long the wait was. We were told the wait was an hour to an hour and a half, but unlike the Covent Garden location they provided you with pagers and you could spend your wait at the bar (or the permit room as they call it) …. Yes please! The wait ended up being about 40 minutes (I had heard they usually overestimated the wait time) so after having a few cocktails we were brought from the bar to our table. The waitress told us that people typically got 2-3 plates per person to share, so we happily obliged. We ordered Murgh Mali – Chicken thigh meat steeped overnight in garlic, ginger, coriander stems and a little cream. Chicken Ruby – Tender chicken in a rich silky Makhani sauce. A good and proper curry redolent with spice and flavor. Gunpowder Potatoes – Potatoes with brown skins, smoky-grilled, broken apart, tossed with butter, crushed aromatic seeds and green herbs. Garlic Naan – With minced garlic and coriander sprinkle. Buttered corn on the cob grilled over a charcoal fire, finished with butter, chili, salt and lime. The waitress brought out three chutneys to go with the food, a tamarind and date chutney, a mint and coriander chutney (which went really well with the prawns), and a fresh chili and tomato chutney. Everything was amazing and this non foodie, non-Indian food lover would even go back to try more dishes. It was definitely worth the wait. I’m told that the Bacon Naan sandwich at breakfast is a must try. Make sure when checking your bill that you are aware they automatically include an “optional” 12.5% service charge so you don’t end up tipping twice lol!
Following dinner, we went to the shopping district, to see the famous lights on Regent, Oxford and Carnaby Streets. Regent had their famous angel lights, while Oxford street had 27 new LED “light curtains” which made dynamic displays along the street. Carnaby Street had an ocean theme, One Ocean, One Planet where all the decorations were made using recycled materials. It has a colorful sea life mural made with 1500 recycled bottles, complete with a 5-meter whale that blows bubbles. I don’t think it could get any more festive
After the lights we headed over to The Knot on Bute street. They are a churro dessert venue whose motto is, “Life is better with sprinkles on top”. I’m inclined to agree! They had churros dipped in a number of different chocolate sauces with all the toppings you can think of. They even had chilled churros and we of course got a few – I had the Little Mermaid: Cinnamon churros dipped with strawberry Belgian chocolate an edible mermaid shell, soft serve ice cream and cotton candy D got the Lotus Lover: Cinnamon Churros dipped in Belgian chocolate sprinkled with crushed Bischof, and drizzled with salted caramel sauce, whipped cream and soft serve. Needless to say, we were dessert drunk on the way home!
On Saturday morning we made our way to Covent Garden to enjoy the Christmas decorations there. Tiffany & Co even set up a free ice-skating rink complete with Tiffany blue packages as decorations. Covent Garden is a wonderful area to wander in with so many shops and restaurants to choose from.
For lunch we ate at Sticks N Sushi, a Japanese Sushi restaurant. Sticks N Sushi serves both Sushi and Yakatori sticks from the grill. Along with fish they serve chicken, pork, beef and vegetable skewers – all grilled fresh to order. We had the mixed emotions platter served with Edamame, Sticks: Organic free-range pork with yuzu-miso, chicken with chile & teriyaki and chicken meatballs with teriyaki. Nigiri: Shrimp, Tuna, Salmon & Hiramasa. Maki: Pink Alaska, Spicy Tuna and Gypsy Big. And just because we had to try them, we added an order of Miso and Beef Sticks with Miso Herb Butter. I’m not big on Sushi myself, but I enjoyed the sticks, and the sushi definitely seemed to pass Debbie’s test as she loved it.
Right near Sticks N Sushi was Frenchies, a Michelin starred French restaurant in Covent Garden. I had originally considered booking this for lunch because the reviews are amazing, but they only had four mains – none of which sounded like anything this non-foodie would eat (much to the chagrin of my bestie). I was disappointed because one of the items people raved over were their bacon scones which I would have loved to try. They are billed as Bacon scones with Maple syrup and Cornish clotted cream. Little did we know until we walked by that they started selling their bacon scones to go for the Christmas season so of course we ordered some … and Oh. My. God. Those were delicious! I put my bestie on the hunt for a recipe to make at home, she’s still muttering about how long it takes to make clotted cream …. You better get on it, Liz! 😉
As if we hadn’t eaten enough this weekend we stopped in at Whipped, which is an all cheesecake dessert shop on Drury Lane. We tried a Cheesecake Cookie Dough Slice and eyed some of the other cheesecakes for later.
This afternoon we saw our second show of the trip, & Juliet. This was another show that seemed to be cashing in on the success of Hamilton and Six and offered a what if scenario – what if Shakespeare’s wife wrote the story and Juliet didn’t actually die, but instead went off to Paris to live her best life accompanied by her gay bestie. Unlike Six and Hamilton this show does not feature original music, but instead uses remixed versions of songs by songwriter Max Martin. Now if you had asked me who he was prior to the show, I could not have told you – but I ended up singing along to almost every song in the show including songs like I Kissed a Boy, Oops I Did It Again, and I Want it That Way. I was worried coming into the show that it would be just a really bad play with songs typical of a cover band. But the way the songs were written into the story and remixed rather than just thrown in to add another song or dance number was pretty brilliant. Understudy Grace Mouat went on as Juliet and had a beautiful voice. Cassidy Janson was amazing as Anne Hathaway (no, not that Anne Hathaway 😉 ) and her song That’s The Way It Is earned her a standing ovation. When the “Bois” launched into a rousing rendition of Everybody, the whole audience got into it which is unusual considering British audiences are known to be stiff. All the songs were really well done with the exception of Since You’ve Been Gone which might have been in an octave too low for Mouat, but she gave it her all, nonetheless. If you’re looking for a cute feel-good show – this is it!
Our last night in London we visited Piano Works in the West End which is actually two bars. Piano Works and Singeasy. Piano Works is a bigger room and a whole lot louder with dueling pianos. Singeasy is smaller, with room for about 30 and one piano. The website wasn’t clear about the difference when we booked, and we ended up in Singeasy which was quite nice. The waiters would take turns singing, but at 8:00 p.m. there were two “hosts” who would sing, and they were great, one of them even played Glinda on Broadway! We went from Billy Joel to Wicked and from Bon Jovi to Mamma Mia. It was a nice evening, but you had to book dinner in Speakeasy which was a little on the expensive side – 32£ for two courses and Prosecco.
Unfortunately, we had to head home on Sunday, and left for the airport at 6:30 a.m. to make our 10:00 a.m. flight. We didn’t have a whole row to ourselves this time, but we did get lucky and there was no one in the middle seat. I thoroughly enjoyed our quick trip to London and all the festivities got me in the Christmas spirit.
Oh, and if you’re wondering whether or not I got my ornament? I didn’t, they were sold out …… I guess I’ll just have to go back next year 😉
Thinking of visiting London and want to see some specific tips or other blog posts for the city? Click here
