London Show with Derek, Colin, Mags & Wendy

Once we had checked in to our hotel near the ExCel exhibition centre, we took a train to Oxford Circus where we saw the Christmas illuminations. We visited the world-famous Hamleys toy shop where we watched demonstrations and wondered what Father Christmas may bring us this year. We walked to Piccadilly Circus where we had a pub dinner. We sang and danced and had a great night in the pub. It was time to get back on a train to our hotel as it was nearly midnight.

The next day we took the train to Embankment where we went to Trafalgar Square. We saw the clocks counting down to the Olympics. From there we went to Horse Guards Parade and then onto Piccadilly Circus before lunch. It was a matinee performance of “The Wizard of Oz”, which was at the famous Palladium theatre! It was a fantastic performance and we all thoroughly enjoyed singing along. Afterwards we walked through Leicester Square to Covent Garden. The illuminations along the way were lovely. We watched the street shows before having dinner at an Italian restaurant. After dinner we walked to St Pauls before heading back to our hotel.

Monday, after breakfast, we set off for Tower Hill. We took an open tour bus to Piccadilly where we walked through St James’ Park and onto Birdcage Walk, where we watched a military band playing. At Buckingham Palace we watched the changing of the guard. It was fantastic. We have a great tradition for pomp and ceremony! We hopped back on the tour bus and travelled to Tower Bridge. Here, we had lunch before taking a boat trip on the Thames to Westminster. Once back on dry land, we walked to Marble Arch, where we had dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe. It’s a brilliant, lively restaurant with loud music playing throughout dinner. From there we went into Hyde Park to enter “Winter Wonderland”, which was brilliant. As it was getting late, we took the train back to the hotel.

Our last day was another full programme. We drove to Greenwich and walked through the park to the jetty, where we boarded a river boat and took a return trip to The Tower of London. On returning, we had lunch in a cafe in the park before setting off on our journey’s home.

Thanks to Michelle, Sarah, Patricia, Paul, Martin, John, Dawn, Dennis, Adlin, Patrick and Emma for making the holiday so much fun!