Walking Round London Town

Happy Friday everyone! Well I finally figured out how to upload the photos from my new camera so today I can begin to share some of our amazing trip with you.

First of all I have to say that I LOVE London. Absolutely love, love, love it and would definitely be a very happy girl if I could live there. I didn't even mind the weather which is really remarkable because I'm usually a bit of a freak about my hair in such conditions. What can I say? It's just my kinda town :)

Me in London on one of the rare blue sky occasions. It was quite windy though...as you can see I'm looking pretty flushed because of the wind-burn!

We stayed at the Grosvenor House in Mayfair. It was a lovely hotel in a great location. Just a few blocks away from Oxford & Bond Street shopping, Hyde Park, and the Marble Arch tube which made it really convenient to get around town.

One of the highlights of the trip, besides the shopping (I'll get to that in another post), was the Winter Wonderland festival that was held inside Hyde Park.

The festival features a traditional German market with amusement rides (they even have a huge toboggan slide and an even huger ferris wheel!), musical entertainment and an outdoor ice skating rink.

It's hard to describe exactly why but was a really magical experience that I'll remember forever.

Here are my top three favorite things at the festival:

Mulled Blueberry Wine

The Candy Bar

German Pancakes with Nutella - Yummmm!!!!

The happy girl with her mulled wine, nutella german pancakes & yes, that's a Laduree shopping bag :)

We had been to London once before 13 years earlier for our 1st honeymoon after our commitment ceremony so we didn't need to visit many of the tourist attractions. But there were a few that we wanted to catch this time that we missed the first time around...the Cabinent War Rooms and Churchill Museum, which was a really interesting peak inside the underground complex that Churchill used as an operational command and control center during WWII, and the London Eye, which wasn't even around when I made my first trip.

Me filming J with the London Eye in the background

For the most part we just walked around and shopped, had cocktails and ate delicious meals. Oh and I have to say, the culinary experience I had was muuuch different than the one I had 13 years before. On my first trip to London the only decent meal I could find was a local fish and chip shop that we ended up eating at three times! A few years ago I read in Gourmet magazine that London had a culinary revolution but I still had my doubts and my expectations were really low. I'm happy to say I was pleasantly surprised with the cuisine.

Enjoying one of many apple cinnamon martinis in The Red Bar

Next week I'll be back with more of the trip...London shopping & Amsterdam. Hope you all have a happy weekend!