Christmas in London

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23 December 1983 Friday. In keeping with our policy not to spend Christmases at home, we decided to take a cheap flight from Stuttgart to London. We arrived midday, took the tube to our hotel on the north side of Hyde Park, and then went to Leicester Square to see a movie and have dinner to celebrate of 11th anniversary.

24 December 1983 Saturday. We returned to Leicester Square to the cheap tickets booth to purchase tickets for a show that evening. We finally saw Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap. We spent the rest of the day touring the British Museum and shopping on Oxford Street and Harrods, returning to the theater district for dinner before our play. London was certainly all dressed up for Christmas, with all the streets and shops lit up for the occasion.

25 December 1983 Sunday. We had intended to go to church for the Christmas service, but we discovered much to our dismay that everything is closed on Christmas Day. There were not taxis and I don’t even remember there being public transportation, but that can’t be true! Anyway, we didn’t make it to the service, and we had to walk a long way to find a restaurant to eat lunch and dinner. The restaurant was staffed with Asians who didn’t celebrate Christmas, so it wasn’t a big deal for them to have to work that day. Anyway, with all that walking in the cold weather we both picked up severe colds that lasted until we left for Kenya.

26 December 1983 Monday. Boxing Day, which would have been a great day to go shopping in London, but we had a morning flight to catch back to Stuttgart. So we had an interesting weekend, but there are definitely better times to see London.

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