Up and out early today to catch the 9:30 commute
into London to take a spin around The Eye.
It threatened rain all day but we were lucky and happened to be inside
for all the showers. In case you didn’t
know, the Eye is a giant Ferris wheel – 135 meters tall on the south bank of
the River Thames. It is right across the
river from the department of Defense, Big Ben and the Parliament buildings and
has a great view of London. The whole
ride takes about half an hour and it moves so slow you don’t even realize you
are moving. The view is 360 degrees and
the pods are not overcrowded so you can see and photograph in every direction. The Eye was built in 1999 for the Millennium
celebrations and was meant to be temporary but has become such a financial
success that it is still running. The
only downside is the queuing up for about 45 minutes to get on, but the view is
worth it. We even got to watch the
changing of the guard from our pod.
After the Eye it was back across the Thames on the Golden Jubilee Foot bridge (worth the walk itself) then on to lunch at a great pub called the Sherlock Holmes (after the detective of course) right underneath Charring Cross station. The pub is filled with photos of various iterations of the Sherlock Holmes character and our table was right beside a very well done mock-up of his study where several of his more infamous cases were obviously ongoing.
We
spent the afternoon wandering – Trafalgar square to visit the Nelson and climb
the giant Brass lions, past Canada House,
up Haymarket street for some shopping, on to Piccadilly Circus and the Eros
statue, then window shopping along the toney Bond street. We also had to shop in the most awesome British tourist trap on Picadilly Circus, dragged in by the two charming Londoners you see below.! Footsore and with bruised wallets we headed home to Glen Iris where the wine flowed and the food was as always wonderful. Tomorrow home to Toronto and a sleep in our own beds!
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