At the heart of London is Covent Garden, a place buzzing with culture, sophistication, and innovation. Eat at one of the many restaurants here, soak up the atmosphere at one of the trendy bars, or enjoy the thrill of the opera at the Royal Opera House. It’s hard not to be swept up in the historic and artistic feel of Covent Garden and, regardless of how many times you have previously visited, there will always be new things and places to discover here. If you are planning a trip to the city, this should be firmly on your list of places to visit, and with the Travelodge by Covent Garden you can afford to stay in the very epicentre of the action for an even better experience. Here’s what’s on in Covent Garden this March:

Ballet
From the end of February through until April, the Royal Opera House is home to the Royal Ballet, as they tell the classic tale of The Sleeping Beauty. Adapted for ballet by Petipa, this is a story that adults and children alike will know inside out. Breathtakingly brought to life on the stage by these incredible ballerinas, the tale has a whole new elegant appeal. The Sleeping Beauty ballet has history here too, as it was the first ballet performed when the Company reopened following WWII – now showing again with some modern adaptations.

Art
Just a five-minute walk from Covent Garden market is the National Gallery, home to some of the most iconic works of art in the world. Since January the gallery has offered the rare opportunity to see two of the five Van Gogh Sunflower paintings in one place, as the Van Gogh Museum has kindly lent their incarnation to the National Gallery. Running until the end of April this year, this may well be the only chance art lovers get to compare and contrast these two works in the flesh.

Comedy
A new show to the comedy circuit this March is the much-anticipated Blithe Spirit written by the marvelous Noel Coward, and directed by Michael Blakemore. The story follows Charles Condomine who skeptically invites a medium to his house. Unfortunately for him, although fortunately for the audience, the ghost of his dead wife Elvira is summoned, and she takes an immediate dislike to Charles’ new wife, who of course can’t see Elvira. The result is a play that is funny, well acted and intriguing. All in all it’s a must for any comedy theatre fan.

Covent Garden is famous for many things, and there is something going on all hours of the day and night in this fabulous area of London. Accessible by all forms of transport, you can wander the market, check out the high-end boutiques and enjoy a coffee in the square by day, and by night you can have dinner and drinks before indulging in some of the most wonderful nightlife the city has to offer. If you love culture and traditional forms of entertainment such as ballet, art and the theatre then there is no better choice than Covent Garden.

Post by Catherine Lavinia in coordination with Travelodge Covent Garden. Thank you so much for contributing to Of Revolt, Catherine! // Photography Credits: 1 and 2. 

The post What’s On Around Covent Garden: March 2014 appeared first on Of Revolt.

O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree! How lovely are your branches! La la la laa, la la la laa! (Also known as, I don’t know the rest of the words from there on out.)

This year is the first time since 2010 that Dan and I have had our own tree for decorating, and in our excitement, we kind of went all out: it’s an 8-foot balsam evergreen that he schlepped on his shoulder for ten blocks, up a flight of stairs (because why take the elevator?), and into our living room, where it sat only momentarily before yanking the netting off which led to Dan accidentally stabbing himself in the hand with a pair of scissors (it was bloody), thereby earning him the distinction of being the first Christmas Victim, an honor which allows said Victim to wear the fancy Santa hat and choose which Christmas movie we watch while festooning the tree. Dan chose The Original Television Christmas Classics, a very good choice indeed.

In addition to wearing fancy Santa hats and multiple Band-Aids whilst trimming your tree, I recommend donning cozy sweaters, like the ones from Peter Hahn. (Side note: one of the things on my Christmas list this year is a white cable-knit sweater, which Dan has taken to calling “cable thread?” which, hopefully, can be interpreted by some thoughtful and intuitive sales associate. I’ll be sure to report back on the success of this experiment.)

Anyway, this tree is particularly special because during our year in Europe, we made it a point to purchase a Christmas ornament from every city we could. Even though it’s the kind of souvenir we only get to see for a few weeks every year, we loved the hunt in every city (hunts which were, sadly, fruitless during the summer months and thus we have no ornaments from Germany, where we spent so much of our time) and seeing the results on the tree is so much fun.

Cheesy as it sounds, every ornament really does bring me back to the moment we bought it: I can remember the crisp air and the twinkling lights atop Montmarte, where we found our sparkly Eiffel Tower ornament, and the heat of the mulled wine warming my throat as we walked the Christmas market in Budapest, where we found the handmade wreath that spells out Boldog Karacsonyt (“Merry Christmas”). We’ve tried to continue the tradition where we can, so we also have a hand-painted ball from our honeymoon in Mexico, and a pretty glass ornament from our road trip through West Virginia this summer.

Here are a few more of the Coyle family Christmas tree (hereby christened “Martha”) international ornaments:

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