Hyde Park Winter Wonderland and the Old Rose Theater

I got up and after a good breki I headed off my first place to visit was the  Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, I hopped the tube and managed to get there it was already starting to be busy but I got in okay.   The sun was out although it was very cold, as I made my way through the market maybe it was the skies, the joy of London or the magic of Christmas I was totally in awe of it all. I was close to the Serpentine so I walked there enjoying the birds and people feeding them but my gosh it was freaking freezing.

entrance to Christmas Market Hyde Park

cricket loved Hyde Park

silly

at the Serpentine

Cricket and the odd elf

Now that's some tree

Beatle connection any one

yummy brat bratwurst I ordered with sauerkraut they gave me peppers instead so they did not charge extra ok I lie I had this another day

The next place in mind was making it to the Tower Bridge so I hopped the tube and got there in pretty quick time. I made the rounds of the Tower was hoping to find something warm to drink I gave up on that and found a small shop and got some a coffee and a candy bar, I decided to walk across the Tower Bridge hadn't done that in years. It's a bit of a hike and then I was off towards Southwark Cathedral and stopped in to use the toilet.

The Tower

my bridge

I was getting close to Borough Market and decided I was getting a bit hungry at this point so I looked to see what they had in the end decided to try some Ethiopian food they had quite a bit of choices. I looked for a place to eat and found a little area out side and sat near the Cathedral.

along Riverside

Borough Market

good meal

Then I was off yet again towards The Southbank Centre's Winter Festival along the way I walked past several booths selling Christmas stuff and ran across 2 of the Paddington Bears and quickly snapped some photos. I finally got to Southbank and I was really disappointed in their Christmas Display although they did have a Christmas Tree maze I did not go as I was running out of time to get back to the Shakespear Globe Theater to meet Laurie.

Southbank Centre

Shakesbear 

St Paul across the Thames 

I finally met Laurie and we went for a drink at a pub to celebrate my retiring her treat it was a nice drink. Afterwards we went to the Old Rose Theater, Laurie had discovered they were doing a Concert  Celebrate Christmas at The Rose Playhouse at our annual evening of music and song.  We had no idea just what this was and we were giving mince pie and some mulled wine and pieces of Cadbury roses all included in the 6 pound admission price. We really were not sure what we were in for. The concert was in the theater that is being restored and even though we had a roof we were partly outdoors and good thing it was not too cold. We grabbed seats right up front there were 4 singers who did quite a good job with the songs one of the stand outs was  the 12 Days of Christmas which was a bit of romp as there was "competition" between 2 of the singers to out do the each other. During intermission we were offered more mulled wine.  We then headed out and walked back to the underground so we could head back to our respective places. 

celebrating my retirement