Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland is supposed to have this year’s largest open air ice rink. Only open for a short five weeks I was keen to check it out. It also featured a german christmas market, a giant observation wheel (which turned out to be a mini-London Eye), a carousel, amusement rides and a bungee tent. I managed to get Mirela and Caroline along for the ride whilst Enrique, Antonio, Elvira and Andrew spectated.

The German Christmas Market

The German Christmas Market was pretty small but functional. Amongst the 25 or so wooden chalets you had your mulled wine, your hot sausages stand, your roast (pork etc.) stand and then the usual smattering of arts/craft where you could pick up some Christmas goodies.

The Rest of the Attractions

As I stated above the observation wheel (stretching 50 metres into the sky) was like a mini-London Eye. I wasn’t expecting such a technologically advanced wheel. Each pod could apparently fit up to six people and the journey takes nearly 15 minutes. Upon seeing it I could understand the £7.00 price tag. £4.50 if you buy it at the same time you buy your skating tickets. The bungy dome was enthralling but I wasn’t quite game enough (or warm enough!) to get in it to show my stuff.

The Skating

The ice skating rink definitely feels a lot bigger than the couple I’ve been on so far as laps felt a lot bigger. Though despite the size the rink was amazingly crowded at the beginning of our session. It had noticeably thinned by the end. Disappointingly our boots weren’t the greatest I’ve worn – I think they were ice hockey style boots and therefore were quite uncomfortable – and bright orange! Considering this was the first time that Mirela had gone ice skating she was doing really well and Caroline was a wizz. I managed to take someone down, ooops!, but also redeemed myself by stopping someone going down.