Eye spy

Here we are, still moored at a pier near Tower Bridge.

This is the HMS Belfast which is moored in the middle of the river & is a museum. It was closed to the public for reno during our stay. 

The bridge showing off. I mean seriously? How pretty is that? 

This lady took out her little Paddington Bear & was photographing him against all the sights. Amelia & I giggled until Roo made us admit that we were just jealous that we hadn't thought of it. Then I did the next best thing & snapped this photo. 

We're finally off. Beside the Tower Bridge is the Tower of London - aka Her Majesty's Royal Palace & Fortress. It's a castle dating back to 1066 & the Norman conquest of England.

I love this little Tudor window. 

We're sailing away now & can see the Entrance to Traitor's Gate.

See? There it is. We'd go back to visit the Tower another day.

Meanwhile we sailed under London Bridge.

Past Shakespeare's Globe Theater.

Under the Millenium Bridge which is a pedestrian bridge. Our tour guide said it's good luck to get people to wave at  you from the bridge so the boat captain honked the horn & we waved like mad & people did wave back. This bridge had to close soon after it opened because apparently it had a strong wobble & it took a couple years to repair it. The dome in background is St Paul's.

Blackfriars Bridge.

neat buildings

Colonial Swag: Cleopatra's Needle. It's an ancient Egyptian obelisk but apparently had nothing to do with Cleopatra. 

Golden Jubilee Bridge

Our guide told us this is known in London as the Eyesore

And here we are, coming up to Westminster Square again. 

This is our guide. He was very fun and delivered a sarcastic black humor commentary. He accepted tips saying that after they finish the tour, he & and the other tour guides spend hours - many hours sometimes - visiting shoreline pubs and gathering information for future tours and gratefully accepted any donations to offset their sometimes considerable costs. 

the windswept passengers

London is serious about rabies. This is a sign on Westminster Pier.

This is how I looked most of the trip. Now you know why I have so many photos. Also why I prefer a small camera  - the arms would get tired otherwise!

If you peer closely at Big Ben you'll see it's coming up to 6 pm.
We got off the boat, headed over the bridge & checked out the line ups for the London Eye. It turned out that at that time of day the line ups were very reasonable: maybe 15 minutes at the ticket office & another 5 at the Eye. We had our 2for1 passes from British Rail & that made the somewhat steep price more tolerable.

And here we go! 

Because it wasn't very busy, they didn't load up the cars fully. I think we had less than 10 people in ours. 

One neat thing that I didn't realize is that the Eye doesn't stop for people to get on & off. It's kind of like a ski lift - you have to get on while it's moving. 
It moves very slowly though & there are attendants to make sure you get on safely (it is over the water after all) and if you have mobility issues there are apparently special provisions (so maybe they do stop it then? I don't know but there were signs saying you just needed to let them know you needed the extra assistance.) 

After a while neighbouring capsules draw up alongside & you can wave to the other people.
 The entire ride is about 30 minutes & it goes by quickly - there is a lot to look at!
It is very smooth & not scary at all though it goes up to 135 meters. There is no lurching though we did feel a bit of a sway as it was a very windy evening.
Ok, no more commentary because now it's just views from the Eye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After you get off the London Eye, there's a 4D experience you can visit. It's just a couple minutes in a movie theater and is essentially an advertisement for the attraction you just visited. I guess it's to make you feel even better about spending the money on it. You can also buy a souvenir photo - on the way down, there's a spot where if you stand an automatic camera takes your photo with Big Ben in the background. And that's the end of the London Eye experience.
We were pretty tired by then and headed back.  

By the time we got back to our neighbourhood it was night time. This is a street near our hotel. 

And that's (finally) the end of our Thursday in London :)