My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
December 2022
My flight from Houston to London (after Los Angeles to Houston) was delayed every 15 minutes for about 2 hours which I think added so much more anticipation to arrive than I already had. Finally Georgie said, don’t worry about it, just tell me which terminal! I told her, and her response was ‘Stunning’. I said ‘I mean, I won’t be stunning – I will be looking like I slept on a plane’ And I did!
Reunited! We were so excited. We’d been talking about this for months and it was finally happening!
It had only been a couple of weeks since we’d been together on the ship, but now it was time to play! Nobody had to go to work, we didn’t have to be back on the ship by a certain time, and I was going to see Georgie’s life- her friends in London and her family in Devon.
We took the tube to Georgies flat to drop my bags. She has a beautful view of the water.
We were starving. Georgie asked what I wanted, but I couldn’t narrow it down, so she took me to a place unlike anywhere I’d been before, Alchemist.
They had a selection of interactive cocktails that were really fun- I’ll post a video on Facebook, and the food was delicious.
Georgie asked if I wanted to go to Winter Wonderland. I said yes without asking what it was. As we stood in line in the rain to get in, I gathered that it was some kind of fair. I asked if Georgie planned on us riding the rides that I saw popping above the Welcome tent. Absolutely not, she said, those are dangerous! Ok good.
It was cold. Once we were in we headed straight for the mulled wine. I couldn’t remember the last time I had mulled wine, but all of a sudden it was all that I wanted.
Georgie had been complaining about how cold it had been in England. I had been in California and Mexico, so I couldn’t relate. I had had a difficult time packing because it’s been years since I’ve been in real winter. So now that we were at an event outside in England, and we were slightly warmed by the mulled wine, we decided to go to the Ice House, to see some ice sculptures. I’d hosted the ice carving demonstration on the ship a few times, so my expectations were low. Boy were they surpassed! These sculptures were amazing!
As we wove around, following the path, the ice sculptures loosely told a story that I didn’t quite follow.
After sliding down the ice slide, we came outside to find that it wasn’t so cold anymore! Everything is a matter of perspective. We decided to try it again. Our next stop was the Ice Bar.
For the Ice Bar, they loaned us big coats and gloves.
The tunnel inside changed color.
One would think they’d serve hot drinks, but instead of making us cold to make us warm, they went all in – They only served shots and slushies. The cups were made of ice! They didn’t even refill them! I jokingly asked the bartender what they did to ‘wash’ the glasses. She said they throw them in the garbage.
All of this production (including the sculptures) made me wonder how they maintained it. Are they able to keep the tents cold enough to keep the sculptures (and the walls) for the whole season? Do they have to replace melty ones once in a while? I never actually got an answer.
It was a very touristy thing to do, but we had so much fun. I’d been intrigued by Ice Bars I’d heard about in Iceland or Canada- who knew the first one I’d visit would be at a fair in London!