Essex Man Does Walking

Twas the night before Christmas…….

Well ok it wasn’t, however it was close. A few days before the big day the Back Alley Boys decided to go and look at the Christmas Lights. I found a web page that put together all the best ones to see and planned a route around it.

We started off at Trafalgar Square, it had started raining, not good. The yearly tree from Norway wasn’t looking the best and the nativity scene had Jesus born a few days early but never mind.

Once we were all gathered together we headed off down Cockspur Street turning onto Pall Mall before a right turn at Waterloo place. The St James Christmas Tree looked spectacular. Continuing up the street with lghts adorning the way we turned right into St James Market to see the ‘Wishing Tree’. This was quite different.

Coming out of the market we made our way slowly down Piccadilly. I had not realised just how many people were going to be out. It was a battle to get through some places and avoiding getting an umbrella spike in your eye.

Fortnum and Mason was packed but we weren’t here to go in, so I crossed the road to take a photo. The building was done up like an advent calendar with numbers on all the windows. Close by was the entrance to Piccadilly Arcade, a quick snap and then a look at the Royal Academy. This was not on my list but looked impressive. Just next to it was Burlington Arcade, you would probably need a mortgage to shop here.

Heading out of the Arcade and onto New Bond Street we admired the lights before heading around and about on towards Berkeley Square. The outside of Annabel’s was done up nicely but we were not on the list so could not get in. Heading north and taking a left we came to The Connaught Christmas Tree. The baubles depicted AI generated faces from all the peoples of the world.

From here we head onto the busiest street, Oxford Street. Selfridges is bedecked with lights and a Disney Castle. Oxford Street looked splendid albeit whilst trying to avoid ninja like umbrella attacks as the rain poured down. At Oxford circus I take a quick picture of Regent Street, thank God we were not going down there.

Going on slightly past the Regent Street turn off we then take a right down towards the Liberty London department store. We then head on to Carnaby Street along with everyone else! A walk through the lovely Kingly Court brings us out on to Beak Street.

From here we walked down to Leicester Square, and onto Seven Dials. We then headed down to the Guinness Open Gate Brewery to have a look at their tree outside.

We head through Covent Garden looking at the lights and for a toilet. No joy there. We are pretty soaked now and there wasn’t much left to look at nor much time. We took refuge in the Coal Hole for a drink and the toilet. We decided to miss out the walk back along the other side of the Thames. So finishing up our drinks, we walked passed the Savoy and onto Somerset House where they have a lovely Ice Rink every year.

Wishing each other a merry Christmas we head our separate ways and home to get dry!