New Year's Eve in London!

10:35 PM

Still catching up!


I get really spontaneous moments where I think about chopping of my hair and then just go out and do it. Couldn't think of a better time to change my look than New Year's Eve!


So I walked down to the MACS and cut off about 7 inches to a long bob. Happy me, not so thrilled husband. Oops!


That's me. BACK TO LONDON!
My dear husband works near Blackfriars Bridge. Since he had to work a few hours on New Year's Eve, I just went into Central London with him and wandered for a while. This year, 2015, was the first time tickets were required to view the firework show at midnight. There was a designated area for ticket holders only, along the river on the north and south bank between Westminster Palace and Blackfriars bridge. There were a limited number of tickets that sold out months in advance.
We still wanted to get as close as we could to watch the fireworks. Part of my wandering was to find out how close we could get to the midnight show without a ticket. Some articles online recommended that we 'camp out' before the boundaries went up around 8pm..... I think that was way too early. More about that later.

Along the Thames Walk, there's this mosaic of the history of London.





The Shard and the Thames! There are construction cranes everywhere.

I love the lampposts around town. You can kind of see the intertwined fish near the base.

The view of the Tower Bridge from the London Bridge

Leaden hall Market

Christmas lights that are still up. Hallelujah! 

Standing somewhere near Bank station. The Royal Exchange. That flat-ish building is nicknamed the cheese grater :)

These volunteers were lining up early to get to their stations! Protect the ticketed area!

Shakespeare's Globe theater (replica) displayed a countdown for hours to the New Year

We got kicked off our original spot on the Millennium Bridge because of safety. I guess there were so many people on the bridge that it was starting to sway...not a good thing for a bridge. It was FREEZING just sitting there anyway.
We made it to west of the Blackfriars Bridge.

It warmed our bones to walk a little but there was still more than two hours until midnight! The London Eye kept changing colour every few minutes.

When it came to 11:55, the Shard started to count down the minutes. Then the last minute was counting down the seconds. Everyone up and down the bank of the Thames was shouting the countdown from 10! The fireworks shot off the London Eye with every strike of the clock on the Elizabeth Tower. Big Ben was heard all around the world!

We were freezing and tired and hoped it would be worth it. It was kinda... Glad to say we saw it in real life but definitely won't be doing that again. Happy New Year! 2015-the year of London.

New Year's Day Ice Skating

8:30 PM

We slept in after a crazy cold night. We will NOT be doing that again (see New Year's Eve post)
New Year's Day is almost all the way back to normal London operation. Stores and restaurants are open and museums busy. 

When we have time, we like to walk around neighborhoods near us in the pursuit of our next flat. We check out which grocery stores are near by, which bus lines go through it, and where the closest tube Station might be. Also the ratio of buildings/stores, where the high street is and what shopping is available and how many cars we see. (The more cars, the less walkable the neighborhood might be.)



Since we were around Marylebone area, we walked to Baker Street and past the Sherlock Holmes museum on the way to the tube station.

We took the tube to get to Somerset House!!! Taylor and I went ice skating our first New Year's Eve 2013, our first as a couple. It was the sweetest thing and a milestone in our relationship (first time we said, "I love you"). We missed ice skating in 2014 but it is now set as our New Year tradition!

Bucket list item checked off! Outdoor ice skating in this gorgeous venue.

(FYI: SKATE sign comes down when the rink is taken down. Not up all year round. Rink was open from second week of November to second week of January)

London does Christmas Tree decorating EXTREMELY well!

Feel free scroll down quickly. I won't be offended. It was so pretty I overloaded. Like I usually do.






If you are ever in London in the winter, there are SO many things to do starting from November all through to the first couple of weeks in January. There's no Thanksgiving in the UK to hold people back from celebrating Christmas in November! (see my Winter Wonderland, New Year's and Christmas Day posts)

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