With only a week to go until Christmas, London is decked out in all it's Christmassy glory. Lights strung along the streets, carol singing and Christmas markets everywhere, but there's nowhere more festive than Hyde Park.
Every year in the weeks leading up to Christmas, a Christmas Fair pops up in Hyde Park. Based on a typical German Christmas market, the streets are lined with wooden stalls selling all sorts of decorations and delicious treats, and there are lots of rides and activities for anyone feeling adventurous.
We went the first year we arrived in London, in 2010, and again in 2011, but it never seemed to be as amazing as we'd imagined in our heads as we saw the rides slowly being assembled in the weeks before it opened.
So we skipped our visit in 2012, but decided to give it another go this year to see if anything had changed.
It looked pretty much the same as previous years as we approached the lights from the other side of the park. We visited on a week night, as you'd have to be completely mental to go on a weekend with a million other people. Whilst it's always busy, it's much more bearable on a week night. There's no line to get in at least!
There were lots of friendly creatures for us to visit, polar bears and penguins, nutcrackers and Santa's, all begging for a photo.
I think we got especially lucky the night we visited, there was hardly anyone there at all. We didn't go on any of the rides, we prefer just to wander around, with a hot drink and a bratwurst, just enjoying the atmosphere.
Half the time it's more fun to watch other people on the rides. The Grim Reaper on the haunted house loved jumping out at unsuspecting riders as they came around the corner.
We loved this beautiful Carousel with its twinkling lights, it didn't seem big enough to hold us though!
Winter Wonderland was definitely bigger and better this year, every time we turned a corner we'd find a whole other section to be explored. This year is the best I've seen it and I'm glad we gave it another chance!
No comments:
Post a Comment