Christmas begins in London

I passed Regent St the other day and took a photo of the lights that are up. They are so nice to see. London is starting to blossom into a Winter Wonderland and I love it! All we need now is some snow to top it all off!

I'm getting in the Christmas spirit too and even bought some lovely Christmas lights in Habitat.

Here is a nice Christmassy flat 8 in Jessel Mansions!

In Bruges

For our 4 year anniversary, James brought me to Brussels and then onto Bruges for a surprise weekend away! How lucky am I?!

We went over on the Eurostar, just about! I met James in St Pancras station in good time for our 1830 train - but when he was checking in he found out that it had been cancelled due to a strike in Belgium! Apparently this was "all over the news" so it was our own fault for not knowing about it... James was unimpressed with the service...

Anyway, with the strike due to finish at 10pm, we had the option of taking the 1930 service - with a 50-50 chance we would only make it as far as Lille! Cue furious iPhone googling of alternative accommodation in Lille, but thankfully all turned out well in the end and we made it into Brussels at 2230 on the button!

We stayed in Brussels on the Thursday night in Le Meridien, complete with champers (thanks Shehla!) and then moved onto Bruges on Friday, after a delicious breakfast on the Grand Place, and a stroll around the city centre.

In Bruges (see what I did there?) we stayed in the Kempinski Hotel which was WOW! Fantasic hotel, service was excellent and a lovely pool for multiple swims! It was brilliant!

Here are a few photos from the weekend:

Windermere

Shehla, a girl who I work with, and I went on a spontaneous trip to Windermere in the Lake District for Halloween weekend. And why not!

We took the train up on the friday and arrived to a wet and windy Windermere at 9 o'clock. We had one or two keeping in mind our early start the next morning to hike and explore Windermere!

We rose early on the Saturday morning and had a great breakfast to set us on our way for the day. We hiked, well walked, up to Orrest Head which is a viewing point over Lake Windermere. It was a wet morning and the view was not the best but we made the most of it anyway, including horses, a donkey and a rambling chat with a stranger at the top!

After that we walked down to Bowness for a cup of tea and boarded a boat to Ambleside which is a little town north of the lake. We strolled around taking loads of photos and admiring the beautiful autumnal colours! :)

Few photos of our adventure below! (113 to be exact!)