Diana Was Off To Work Early In The Morning,

for myself it was a lazy day,

I should have mentioned that the dry cleaning had arrived yesterday evening, after posting the blog I watched some television until Diana returned home, then time for her advent coffee before we made a move for Lightopia, we had booked tickets a few weeks ago,

making our way to the 227 bus stop we passed the skating ring on the green,

and the tree,

and by an amazing coincidence Steve and Kai got on the same bus as us on the way! we were soon walking through the entrance,

this archway to the right,

and this one to the left,

just what the girls wanted,

dodgems!

Diana getting a little help,

but she was soon on her way,

with the rest of them,

ta-da!

we started our walk through the park,

maybe the planets, or Christmas baubles,

this one defiantly a Christmas tree decoration,

and a star for the top of the tree,

and naturally,

lots of presents!

a quick pose from Diana,

this display changed colours,

Phoenix from the ashes I guess, I have made a short video which I will post at the end of our trip, this feature being one of several in it,

food!

a selection German of German sausages,

Bratwurst it was then,

for Steve and myself,

the girls went for turkey wrapped in a Yorkshire pudding with stuffing and gravy,

we started our walk around the displays,

a quick pose from Diana,

the photographs do not really do them justice,

at night they looked so much better,

this butterfly themed display had so much going for it,

not only changing colours,

but many of the smaller butterflies wings actually moved,

there is a defiantly a Asian theme to the displays, a couple of fish,

and this pagoda set upon stones,

a selection of happy animals,

with a smiling dragon at the top,

looking back to them,

another food stall, or I should say drink stall,

selling hot chocolate,

order completed and 'Cheers!' it is then,

we moved on to this display, it was a recreation of the Crystal Palace,

the panels lit up with moving images of the history of the building and a Christmas display,

which we all enjoyed,

it was at this point we joined the trail on our last trip here in the daytime when we went to the winter craft food market,

Pegasus the winged horse,

a lion,

a deer,

a I am not sure what,

and a fox,

time for a pose from Diana,

we were soon at one of the pools, this one with a bubble feature which is in the video,

the fish looks so cute,

as does the seahorse,

we remembered these swans amongst others,

 from our daytime trip,

the first of the parks concrete animal/dinosaur displays,

we certainly remember the lily pads, 

and this cheeky chappie,

here he is in his daylight guise,

I took a few photographs of his friends,

sharing the lily pads,

this was a new dinosaur display,

some static in colour,

some like this one roaring and moving when you got close to him, one little boy in front of us was terrified when it sprang into life and roared, nightmares are made of this! as it happens many were fitted with movement detectors, as you neared them they sprang into life,

as we went round the display,

the coloured lights changed,

this one a bit difficult to see,

looking back to the stegosaurus,

this one looked particularly fearsome,

glad to get past that one,

the last one in the display, and what a great display of animatronics it was too, 

back on to the bridge, lily pads to the right,

ducks to the left,

we were walking towards dinosaur island,

across the water all manner of creatures,

illuminated by changing lights,

over looking the light displays, the pandas.

back to the dinosaurs,

the lights went through a number of sequences,

ever changing,

even as a kid, I have always thought this ones neck was just too long,

we continued our walk,

we came across this dinosaur,

that looked in much better proportions regarding its neck,

we were nearing the end of the light trail, as we passed these flowers,

as they look in daylight,

looking back to the flowers, we all agreed that although at first we thought it a tad expensive at £19.00 each, the work that had gone into the display was well worth it, the animatronic dinosaurs putting the ones in the Natural History Museum to shame, if you have the chance to go as far as we are concerned it is well worth the visit, but wrap up warm and leave plenty of time to watch the entire sequence at the mock Crystal Palace,

and as promised the video, we said goodbye to Steve and Kai on the bus,

and made our way in to the park, past the Christmas tree in Foxgrove Lodge, by now it had started to rain, but thankfully the rain held off whilst we were in the park, I am just making this one post as it has taken some time, and with that we arrived home for one from New Tricks, before we were off to bed.