Day in London

The Eye

Our host at Elm Cottage kindly dropped us off at the Birmingham Airport train station bright and early. It took about 2 hours to get to the outskirts of London where we transferred to the "Tube" to make our way to the Waterloo tube station and our first attraction of the day, "The Eye". They make 14,000 pounds every time that beast makes a full rotation- what a money machine! It's certainly a remarkable view from the top. Have a look at the scale of the wheel compared to the building it sits next to. Each capsule holds about 20 people for the 45 minute, single rotation ride. It never stops rotating. They just open the doors and you get in or out as it goes past the platform slowly.You're locked in from the outside for the duration of the ride. That made me pause for a moment. Just as you get off the Eye you walk past the pier for the Thames River Cruise, so we hopped on.

The Eye

Parliament from the Eye

Black-friars Bridge

 The down-river portion of the cruise we were on a two-decker large boat. Since I couldn't get a seat on the top deck, I went back downstairs and found I could hook a door open on each side of the cabin that would allow me to hear the naration and run back and forth to get pictures off both rails as needed- fun! Seeing the city from the river definitely is worth the effort, since all the building are so close together when you're on the streets. It's hard to see.

The Thames River Cruise

After an hour on the river cruise we jumped on a city tour bus to get another view of the whole area. Since we came on a Sunday nothing of the royal buildings was open- blah. We'd hoped to see the Mews at least. We realized pretty quick however that we just wouldn't have had the time to spend at any one place to see it in depth without staying over night which exceeded our budget. London is EX-PEN-SIVE! It even cost 30P to take a leak. Yeah, that's what I said- no public bathrooms. The tide had come in while the first part of the cruise passed so we had to switch to the smaller single level boat you see in the picture to finish out the trip. After a quick Subway lunch break, the final hours of our day were spent on a city bus tour on one of the many double decked buses all over England. Once again we had a great tour guide who told us all about what we were seeing. All told, we spent about 1.5 hours on the bus. Then it was time to dash for the tube to make our way back to the train station and "home" in Solihull.

Bus Tour Sight

Jan on the Eye

End of a long day on the train