This year Christmas started with a trip to the Christmas Markets in Lille, France and Bruge, Belgium. We hit the road bright and early Saturday morning and took a coach bus across the eurostar tunnel across the channel.
Entering the tunnel...
Lunch time - The tour guide mentioned that it is
more common to have a beer with lunch than wine....
The middle of Lille -
Every town has a central square.
Lille's was very romantic and certainly
looking the part for Christmas!
Every town has a central square.
Lille's was very romantic and certainly
looking the part for Christmas!
We rode the ferris wheel......
It is much higher than it looks from the ground!
We could even see the christmas
markets from up top!
markets from up top!
We did some fun christmas shopping at the market and some delicious food... including an amazing nutella crepe. To top the day off, we went trailblazing to a pizza joint near the pick up location for the bus. The tour guide warned us of going into 'empty' restaurants... but this place did not disappoint, it was awesome!
The following day we hit the road for Bruges. I was blown away by this little town, it was everything I had hoped for and more.
When we first entered the city, the peaceful swans greeted us....
and the beautiful canals set their charm.
Bruge's town center... just as beautiful as Lille if not more so!
And I finally figured out what all the fuss was about Belgium waffles....
Oh my goodness, I could loads of these things! Lip smacking good :)
Couldn't be happier!
Sadly, we didn't get as much time in Bruge as Lille, so it was back to the bus. We will definitely be back in the summer time though, can't wait!
After so much fun at the Christmas markets, we decided we would go to the one here in London as well. There is one on the Southbank and there are two in the Winter Wonderland inside Hyde Park.
Southbank was very similar to the others... cute trinkets, good german sausages, smoked salmon, etc...
The Winter Wonder land was more like the state fair, with the goodies, fun houses, bumber cars, and other fun games. My favorite were the ice curling and ice bowling!
The swings!
The biergarden...
The Carousel Bar
And if that wasn't enough to get us in the Christmas spirit... Westfields was decked out with an indoor ice skating ring.
This past Saturday night we went to the a comedy musical 'Dickens Abridged'. As the title implies, the play starts with the Charles Dickens' childhood and follows his life with breaks of when he wrote the different pieces of work. There were different scenes from each of his plays, they got all the classics in Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield and they finished with the best A Christmas Carol!
Days till we come home = 5
Days till Christmas = 9
Christmas is here... and we can't wait to see everyone!
