Christmas Markets - London

The gals trip to London in late November coincided with the opening of all the annual Christmas markets and all the associated festivities. Our first stop was to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. We have been to a handful of Christmas Markets, and we were expecting lots of stalls where you can buy gifts, food (both as gifts and to eat while you shop), beer and mulled wine / cider. 

Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland

Apparently, Winter Wonderland is not really a Christmas market. It was basically a state fair/carnival decorated for the holidays. There were Ferris wheels, roller coasters, and virtually every spinning, twisting, and upside-downing ride designed to make you sick as quickly as possible. 

Oh, hell no! 

The ride above had everyone locked into swings that hoisted you far above the streetlights (at the bottom of the picture) as it "spin(s) you right 'round, baby, right 'round like a record player, right 'round, 'round, 'round" 

They're not even at the top of the pole yet!! Yikes!!!

I think the weirdest rides, though, were the two different Christmas haunted houses. I tried to get a picture of these glorious masterpieces, but they just came out all blurry. Maybe because of the Christmas ghosts??? 

Giant beer tent

There were, however, a few stalwarts of the traditional Christmas market. Such as the mulled wine, festival-type fried food, and a German beer tent. This beer tent came complete with an animatronic, singing German dude and his pet bird. He was truly frightening.  

Giant, signing German dude

The second night we went across the Thames to the South Bank and checked out much smaller, yet more traditional Christmas markets. The best view at these markets, though, were back across the river at the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Sorry the photos are blurry, I took them with my iPhone and it doesn't do so well in low-light conditions. 

Blurry Big Ben

The streets of London are done up so prettily for Christmas. They had a different motif for each main stretch of road, and this is just one of many. I liked this photo as you can see a couple of iconic red phone booths in the bottom right of the shot. So pretty! 

Oxford Street Christmas lights

And no gals trip to London would be complete without a quick browse in Harrod's. I especially liked their festive-themed window displays. There were so many displays, but I only stopped to take a picture of a few. These two were my favorites. 

Harrod's window display

Harrod's Window display

Christmas in London is definitely worth seeing. But unless you have children, I would skip the Winter Wonderland! 

London - Dressed by Angels

A few weeks ago I went to London with several girlfriends. One of my friends had seen a notice in the paper about a costume exhibit that was taking place the weekend would be there, and co-ordinated tickets for the four of us to go. 

The exhibit was called Dressed by Angels, and showcased a costume company founded by the Angel family some 150+ years ago. They began outfitting stage productions and moved on to movies and television as those mediums came into exhistance. The company is still going strong today! 

A costume from a silent film

I had never heard of the company, and now that I've seen their work, I don't know why they're not more well known! I mean, they've designed to costumes for SO MANY famous shows. 

Downton Abbey

From high-brow to camp television shows...

Batman and Robin

to new-fangled outfits….

Jon Snow's Night Watch

Strange, mystifying Doctor scarfs...

Tom Baker's Doctor Who

and mad hatter party outfits...

Alice in Wonderland

Outfits for kings and cardinals...

Wolf Hall

and ill-fated lovers...

Titanic

Virgin Queens…

Elizabeth I

And not so virgin Queens...

Young Victoria

Queenly armor...

Shakespeare in Love

and gladiatorial armor…

Gladiator

"These are not the droids you're looking for" armor...

Obe Wan Kenobi

And, last but not least, "Snakes. Why do they always have to be snakes?" armor.

Indiana Jones

We all really enjoyed the exhibit, and it was a great start to our few days away in London. 

A side note: That night my friend who bought these tickets lost her London tube pass card (oyster card) as well as her return train ticket home (they were both in a small oyster card carrier and must have fallen out of her back pocket). A last-minute return ticket home would have cost an arm and a leg, but the next morning we called the restaurant where we had dinner, and someone had turned it in!! See, there are still a lot of good people in this world :-) 

Beer Tasting

Some of the guys got together a while ago and had a beer tasting consisting of some of the top 100 beers of the world. They created histories and tasting notes for each beer, divided them into tasting 'flights' and the whole nine yards. 

I went for the pizza and a regular old beer, but headed home soon after the serious tasting began. 

The toddler did not tip back any beer.

The guys had a great time! Or so Bill told me after he walked home at 2:00AM and crawled into bed. He was smart enough to drink lots of water throughout the night, but he was still hurting a little the next day. 

He said the mild hangover was totally worth it! 

First round!

Betty's Cakes and Bakes!

I recently convinced several of my friends to come along with me on a cookery course at Betty's Cookery School. Woohoo!!! My friends picked the "Teatime treats" course, and the five of us made up almost half of the class!

Pre-baking morning coffee and croissants (already in our tummy)

One of the items we made were scones. There's a big to-do about how one says that word here in England. I've come to pronounce them sk-ons as they tend to do in the North. Other places pronounce them sk-owns (as we do in the US), but that pronunciation is for some reason frowned upon in North Yorkshire. 

We made a savory scone, so one would only put butter on it. However, another area of contention regarding sweet scones is whether you spread the clotted cream or the jam on the scone first, followed by the other. I have seriously heard women argue about the proper way to do up the scone. I have not yet chosen sides. 

Chive and cheddar scones

At Betty's Cookery School we all share workstations and clean-up responsibilities. My friend Cindy was a trooper throughout the course, but clean-up is much more her forte than cooking/baking. 

Cindy would much rather clean than cook

We all got grouped together in a double-wide workstation and had a blast! Several of the gals are now hooked and want to sign up for more classes. And I imagine they'll twist my arm into going back… Darn! 

All the baking ladies… all the baking ladies… Oh, oh, oh… Oh, oh, oh...
(you know, the Beyonce song… anyone? anyone?) 

The finished products of the teatime treats class were as follows (going clockwise from 12:00): apple muffins, vodka orange cake, strawberry custard tart, cheddar and chive scones (far left), and pistachio and walnut loaf (right, with a few pats of butter on the white plate).

Finished products!