Our day in London

Marcus says:

Well, the changed time zones ensured that I woke up earlier than usual, but Erith slept in until 6:00 am local time, so 7:00 am Paris time. We went up the street for a bit of breakfast and set off for the furthest of our destinations for the day - the Tower Bridge. We walked from London Bridge in the drizzle, which seemed to fit the general weather stereotype for London, but it stopped pretty quickly. The Tower Bridge was pretty cool, particularly the the engine rooms showing how the steam engines produced hydraulic power stored by lifting Tonkin' big weights up a long distance. The bridge itself is interesting, but the Thames isn't really big enough to require any sort of engineering masterpiece, so it isn't exactly breathtaking.

From there, we walked backed to London Bridge and caught the Tube to The Eye - the big Ferris wheel-like viewing attraction. It goes up something like 130 metres, so gives you a great view of the city as you do one circuit, taking something close to an hour, I thought. It was well organised and the lineups weren't bad at all - I'd say that from lining up for a ticket to setting foot aboard probably wasn't more than half an hour. You get a great view of Westminster Cathedral (or is it Abbey - I don't have my map with me) and a few other points of interest, but really from there, London looks a lot like most other cities.

We got some lunch and jumped in the Tube back toward High Street and got out at ... blast, I should have brought the map with me... a station about two stops before High Street. We strolled through Hyde Park, and Kensington Park to Kensington Palace, which is only a couple of blocks from where we're staying. This was the first I saw of the London that everyone waxes lyrical about - it had turned into a beautiful day, hot and sunny and people everywhere in the parks, which were green, lush and well kept. We were tired from crowds and trains and walking, so the parks really finished the day nicely. I'm glad we went with the higher intensity activities earlier in the day and coasted toward the end.

We got back to the hotel and Erith was suffering withdrawal from water as we hadn't been in a pool or to a beach since Thailand, so we had to go for a dip in the hotel pool. It's a hotel-slash-spa, so I'm not sure that our frolicking was entirely welcomed, but as we have a long flight tomorrow morning and need an early night, I had to spill a bit of Erith's excitement energy over flying to Canada tomorrow.

Assessment about London? I think I'd have to reserve judgement - one day isn't enough to form a decent opinion. It didn't have the exotic nature of Rome or Paris, but maybe part of that was because I didn't have to struggle with the language. It was nice to say "thanks mate" after buying something, but it doesn't feel all that different to Sydney.

Off to Canada tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it. Gerry says that it's hot there and I'm looking forward to some reliable sun as we haven't had any since Italy. Canada will be good for a lot of reasons, but it's going to be a bit frenetic until Saturday, when we can kick back. Well, we could, except that it will be Erith's birthday. All laundry dirty at the moment and wet bathing suits to go in in our bags - it ain't going to be pretty. We're still looking forward to it though...