When London Goes Quiet for Christmas- BrillBrits

In this post, guest writer Sandra from the @brillbrits talks about her Christmas experience in the City of London several years ago. Don’t forget to give her Instagram page a follow, where she posts about her passion for the British culture.

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Christmas time in London, specifically Christmas Day in London is a special day for all sorts of reasons. For the mere fact that it is London, ‘The London’ and that you can have it pretty much all to yourself. Rewind quite a few years back and I had planned a last-minute special couple of days for my family in the city. I knew that a lot of attractions and restaurants would be closed. But, I had underestimated that it would be nearly all of them…

Checking into Travelodge didn’t exactly go to plan…

I booked us in at the Travelodge London Liverpool Street which is conveniently located near The Gherkin and near many other popular London attractions. That all being well and good, we checked in… We then started to think about where we would go for a light Christmas Eve meal. Turns out we didn’t get very far with all the closures and wound up with a vending machine meal (tuna in a pot).

Now you might be thinking, I should have realized this and planned accordingly. I normally always plan things out well, as a former travel agent and the main event organizer of my family. But for some reason it didn’t happen on this occasion. I was lured by last minute Travelodge deals and had only been living in England for 5 months at the time. So, I may be able to claim those may have been a contributing factor.

Christmas morning by The Thames

We spent Christmas morning at the hotel opening a few presents that we had brought with us and then set out to see the city. It was sunny but freezing as we walked along The Thames admiring popular London along the river walk. My then 5-year-old enjoyed the tide being out and discovering pieces of historic ceramics. It felt like the city was just ours for that moment in time and we hardly saw a soul anywhere. Comforting and a way we had never seen London before.

Fish ‘n’ Chips for Christmas Dinner

One of the only places that was stirring was St Paul’s Cathedral. They were so utterly accommodating that day to let us in to use their facilities, during their private Christmas service. We walked what seemed miles winding back to the hotel thinking about what vending machine delights we might discover. There was a light on in the hotel kitchen and we chatted briefly with an employee about our plight.

She must have taken pity on us and kindly offered to cook up a meal for the family. We couldn’t believe our luck and had delicious fish ‘n’ chips for our Christmas meal. On Boxing Day, there was a little more stirring and we were able to have a meal out. I will never forget that time in London where the city and the simple generosity of strangers was the perfect gift…

Directions to Travelodge Liverpool Street:

Directions to St Paul’s Cathedral: