through the eyes of the a70

Our 3rd and final day in London, May 1st, was just as packed as the previous two. It was literally famous locations after famous locations – just like what you see on TV. Lots of walking along the beautiful River Thames on another gorgeous day.

Arriving at the busy Waterloo tube station for none other than the famous London Eye attraction!

In Vancouver, I debated whether to take the ride up the Eye or not, after all, it costs £17 each person just for a 30 minute ride (equivalent to $30 CAD)! Normally, I don’t spend so much on something like a ferris wheel ride, but in the end I thought “what the heck, I’m already here!” and caved in…

Meeting street performers along the way as we make our trek north and westwards.

Lunch break! Today we stopped somewhere between Waterloo Bridge and the Millennium Bridge to grab a bite to eat. The place was called “EAT”, appropriately enough, and is much like Pret A Manger. They offer simple but fresh sandwiches and some hot food like soups!

After lunch, we headed on to Tate Modern, a free modern and contemporary art museum right beside the Millennium Bridge.

But first, a walk on the modern pedestrian-only bridge, Millennium Bridge!

After spending some time in the gallery, we headed onwards to Shakespeare’s Globe!

We finally arrive at London’s big landmark – the Tower Bridge. People often get confused and call this the “London Bridge” (we made that mistake!) when in fact there’s another bridge by that name, less fancy. Kids taught the song “London Bridge is falling down” was shown the wrong picture!

A short elevator ride (thank god no stairs!) up one of the towers and we are inside a room which displays the history of the Bridge – along with initial bid designs.

I was surprised to find that the bridge is actually a suspension bridge – very much active today and ships pass under it often.

Brian and Alex found wireless internet beside the City Hall as they were waiting for us to get down from the Tower Bridge. As internet at the hostel costs a ridiculous amount, we rested here while making our first calls home with VOIP :-P

Taking a detour to King’s Cross/St. Pancras to check for next day’s early Eurostar train out to Paris.

London’s a beautiful city with and endless amount of attractions to see but with mediocre food – maybe we weren’t looking in the right places. It’s also an expensive city at that. Oh, and people dressed up nicely everywhere, made us feel almost out of place. One of the safest and also modern cities to visit – oh, and they speak English ;-)

Next time I think I’ll need to spend more than a couple of days here, but as our day draws to an end in England, we’re anxious and excited to see what Paris has in store for us next…

To be continued…