Like most cities that are cold enough to have outdoor ice skating rinks (unlike Brisbane), every year London sets up ten or so different ice rinks in various locations with the most popular including the Tower of London, Somerset House and the one situated in front of the Natural History Museum. Each session is limited to an hour, and even though they operate from early in the morning until 10 at night, with the sheer amount of people in London it can be quite hard getting tickets the week you want to go. Yesterday I ended up going ice skating at the rink situated in Greenwich, a perfect location smack bang in the middle of the Royal Navy Academy.

Everyone’s ice skating boots are blue, shiny and look extremely new and even have a little bit more of an edge than other places I’ve been to, but like most hard shelled boots can still cause a little discomfort. The ice skating rinks are not the biggest in the world, so really the most dangerous things you have to be aware of are the other ice skaters.

Our session was not as packed out as it could have been, but you certainly had the regular types of skaters in attendance including The Moving Wall (a series of people linked by the hands ready to take anyone out in their way), The Centipede (a line of people behind one another with one person who can actually skate dragging everyone else along), The Indestructible Child ( that kid that keeps falling over but just gets back up over and over again, this time even equipped with a helmet), and The Ice Walkers (those people that don’t go anywhere fast but there’s plenty of leg movement).

Outdoor ice skating rinks are fantastic when its cold and Christmas music pipes through the air. It is a completely different experience and even if you can’t skate, it’s quite something to stand amongst everyone and just take in your surroundings (while having a good laugh at yourself). I think I wouldn’t mind trying one of the other ice skating rinks if I can manage to get a ticket.