Winter Wonderland - Hyde Park

It’s funny how you perceive how things should be when in a city that is bigger than the one you’ve come from. I was a little disappointed in Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland. Billed in the media a something spectacular and worth going too, we headed in and met Beale and his mate Adam for what we hoped would be a fun bit of ice skating and the rest.
You’d think that I should have been a little more wary of anything in the English media, as they’re not the most reputable bunch of reporters/journos. Ice Skating in Hyde Park, conjured up images of skating on the lake in Hyde Park, however the reality was something far less. In fact I’m pretty sure that the backyard at my first home was larger than the ice rink. Being sold out aside, it was also absolutely packed, but then I doubt I’d have been up for anything more than just a leisurely cruise on the ice - preferably without any stacks!
The rest of the ‘Wonderland’ seemed just a little small really, or just didn’t have as many things of interest than I thought there’d be. Maybe I was overestimating what would have been there for such a city as London. While the ferris wheel was quite spectacular, the rest of the rides and amusements were rather sparse. The circle of stalls around the rotunda was quite interesting displaying and selling all sorts of crafts and foods. The standouts being the Pimms tent with it’s warm shots of Pimms Winter with a small piece of apple in it, and this we confirmed by trying it several times just to make sure. The German sausage stand was quite popular and eating them in the small hotdog bun was an exercise! Also very popular was the waffle & pancake stand, as well as the hot mulled wine booth. While we refrained from venturing up to Santa in the rotunda for a photo, we did notice that the reindeer hide product stall may have been a little disturbing for the kiddies. And if we thought that was bad, then the shackled Santa’s dangling from the Haunted Mansion ride should have rounded out the nightmares for the little tackers nicely! Most kids seemed happy enough on the other rides or brandishing their £5 lightsabres, which were both tempting and cool at the same time. They all seemed to be enjoying the whole Winter Wonderland, and maybe it was more for them than us, however, I think it would have been quite a different story had there been snow everywhere like the pictures in the papers had shown it. Perhaps a bit of a skate may have improved things as well.
While Matt n Adam ‘braved’ one of the faster rides, a bag of hot donuts rounded out the afternoon’s adventure (yes, afternoon as we were there from about 4.30 til 6pm if you’re a little disbelieving of the pictures), before we retired back to Matt’s for an evening of pizza n movies. I Am Legend is quite an intriguing movie.

We'll save the skating for one of the other outdoor locations and another day.