This morning we lounged around, ate Thanksgiving leftovers and watched Love Actually. It was relaxing and fun to just chill for a bit. Then, in the spirit of black Friday, Kimmie and I went to the Southbank Christmas Market. Located about two miles from our flat, on the southbank (shocking, I know) of the Thames, the Southbank Christmas Market is home to about 80 stalls with food, crafts and gifts. Unfortunately, I forgot to put the memory card into my camera so no pictures exist, but I assure you it was adorable. Because it is such a touristy area (this is by the London Eye, the National Theatre, the Aquarium, and the London Dungeon), there are also lots of street performers ranging from guards to bears, breakdancers to statues, and plenty in between.
From there, we decided to walk past Big Ben and then up to Trafalgar Square. Since we had not seen the horse guards up close, we decided to walk by them. Then, we saw a park and decided to walk through, and then we decided to walk to Buckingham Palace. Our goal was to go to Oxford Street, Reagent Street, or Piccadilly to see the Christmas lights but since it was only 3:30 we had some time to kill. Then, after watching the guards switch (not the official Changing of the Guard), we continued walking. We walked past Hyde Park and saw all of the lights from the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland so we decided to head over and check it out.
I had read about in online and knew it was big but it was ginourmous! It had all of the traditional things, crafts and ornaments, clothes, hats, mulled wine, crepes, sausages, etc., but it also had 3 roller coasters and tons of rides. It was really fun to walk around and hear Christmas music, Thriller (at a haunted house), yodeling music (at a maze thing), and lots of happy chatter and laughter as people milled about. There was also a skating rink, ferris wheel, kidway, midway, and a ice castle. Kimmie and I enjoyed walking around and want to come back again so hopefully we can squeeze in time for another visit.
Afterwards, we took the tube home (we were over 3 miles from home) and then crashed. I enjoyed more leftovers for dinner and have been watching movies and tv since. Tomorrow, I am planning on going to South Kensington to go to the Science Museum and the V&A and then maybe walk around and look at Christmas lights at night.