Gone are the days when London on a Sunday was quiet and a day for going to museums and art galleries and the like.  It is just another shopping day now, which begins a little later than a Saturday.  DH and I decided to have a lazy morning and did not have breakfast but got packed up and checked out of our room.  We decided to go to Fortnum & Mason store to look at their Christmas things and it definitely was not as busy as the day before.

We had a light lunch in the Ice Cream Bar at Fortnums.  DH had ice cream but I had a warm lunch as it was too cold for ice cream for me!!!! 

DH’s Ice Cream, my sausage roll and my tea.

The windows at Fortnum & Mason are always a treat to see.  Here is a Christmas Turkey!  No not DH in the window the Turkey in the background!!!!!

Above is the Fortnum Clock which strikes the hour and the half hour with music.

Another of their windows with flying mince pies which DH said looked like the Golden Snitches from Harry Potter!!!!

Another window with a massive Christmas pudding and this time I got DH in the window, smiling!

The Children’s window.

The side of the Fortnum building and an iconic London road sign!

Above, the famous Fortnum & Mason Hampers.

The Fortnum Tea window which is how the store began as a very expensive, exclusive Tea Shoppe!

The entrance to Fortnums.

The trees and the wreathes at the entrance.

If you shop at Fortnum & Mason then you are in good company as it is the Queen’s Grocer.

Another of their wonderful Christmas trees and below the centre display down the middle of the store.

Love this picture looking from the first floor down to the basement.

We managed to find some other little bits for the children for Christmas which I was so pleased with.

Right next door to Fortnum & Mason is Hatchards, one of the oldest book shops in London since 1797.  It is now owned by a national book shop chain but they have retained the charm of the old store.  This is where the pictures of our Boys were taken when they were on chairs choosing their books from a few posts ago.  Of course I cannot pass a Book shop without going in.  DH bought me some books which I had wanted for Christmas and will be reviewed on my Monthly Book Club page!!!!. 

Who does not love bookshelves full of books!

This is on the ground floor.

In the lovely bow fronted window was a Christmas display of Beatrix Potter books and some of her illustrations.  The Boys loved these books when they were little.

You can see the theme of the Christmas lights on Piccadily this year are Angels but as you can also see it was quite a sunny day with a blue sky, although it was quite cold, so although the lights were on you can’t see them at all!

After this we went back to our Hotel for Afternoon Tea.

As it was cold we had a seat by the fire for our Afternoon Tea and next to the fire-place were two of the Big Sheep at the Hotel.

The Tea, which was very nice but filling.  We brought the little cakes from the top plate home for the Boys.

Our Tea table.

The roaring fire above and the chandeliers in the lounge.

After Tea we retrieved our bags and headed for the train station for our journey home, the train was there waiting and on time and Eldest and Girlfriend collected us from the station when we got back. 

As well as a wonderful weekend, DH arranged a surprise for me when we got to London on the Friday with a visit to a lovely little jewellery store specialising in Pearls, Coleman Douglas, as this is what your 30th Wedding Anniversary is.  He bought me a lovely pair of pearl earrings (above me trying them on for size!).

Of course I could not let DH get away with the only one for a surprise.  He has always loved the Fortnum & Mason hampers but not their standard ones as he does not like the things in it.  However they now let you put your own choice of items from their ranges in and this is what I did and had it delivered to the Hotel as a surprise.  He loved it and the basket?  Treacle is now using it as a new toy box!!!!!!!

It was a wonderful weekend and although we were supposed to go away for a two-week holiday, that was not going to happen because of business commitments it was so nice to get away for a few days. 

Of course we were back to earth with a bump on Monday with work and DH was away yesterday and today in Scotland on business and I have lots of things to try to get done this week, some Christmas things, some Birthday things as well as all the normal stuff.  I went yesterday Christmas shopping with my good friend, Jayne, in Nottingham and we had a lovely day and I will show you some pictures of that tomorrow.  I do love this time of year! 

Have a wonderful Wednesday, everyone.

Hugs, Susie xx

PS  It is definitely getting near Christmas, I have put the Christmas CDs’ in the Jeep!!!!!