"Afternoon July 20, 2002 - London Eye" London Travelogue by grandmaR

Capsule

(Above) The line starts at the wheel near the lower right, goes across the path to the long white area (the white part is the roof so that part of the line is covered), and then through that around the near side of the round thing with red walls and then stretches back to the upper left. The line for the next half hour is parallel to that between the two rows of trees. You can see the reflections from the side of the capsule too.

Thames through the wheel

The London Eye was one thing that certainly was not in London when we were there in 1950. I thought it would be a good thing to do (a goal).

We took the bus over to Waterloo Station, which was as close as I thought I could come to the British Airways London Eye (a big ferris wheel type arrangement) on public transportation. We walked a good ways trying to get to the actual site. I'm sure there's a better way to do this, but I don't know what it is.

Charing Cross and HMS Belfast

We got there about 1400 and stood in line to get tickets (17.00 pounds for two seniors plus 2 pounds for the little pull-out photo crib sheet which worked out to $30.22). But our 'flight' wasn't until 1630, so we sat around and people watched, and then at 1600 stood in line. The people behind us in line were English from the south of England, and we had a nice conversation with them. They had been there earlier and had been told there were no flights until 1830, but when they came back they were able to get the 1630 flight.

St. Pauls and Oxo tower

Bob thought the queues of people were inefficiently managed, as there were numerous opportunities for folks to jump the queue. You could start to line up a hour ahead, and then half an hour ahead, they moved you straight across the area that people leaving the London Eye were coming out. But whatever.

There are 16 additional pictures under Greater London.

Tower on County Hall

The long wait meant that we couldn't go to evensong at St. Paul's, or go back and shop and have tea at Harrods. So I probably would have been better off to skip this, as I really regretted not being able to do those things. We also couldn't go to the matinee of Reduced Shakespeare. (3 goals down the tube)

Jail? inside County building

It looked like it might rain, but when it did any raining (just a drizzle) it was when we were under cover. We had a relatively peaceful go-round although the shiny walls of the pod made it hard to take pictures and avoid the reflections. And the fact that it clouded over and was dreary made the pictures not as good as it would have been if it was sunny.

Trampolines and cafe tables

Near the end of the trip, they ask you to stand and look at the camera and they took an automatic picture of the riders on that capsule.

I totally didn't see where to stand when they said they would take our pictures, so I didn't even look at the picture booth when we got off. We got a bus back to the hotel (stopping for window shopping and tea on the way in Oxford street. ).

The next day we took the Docklands Light Rail to Greenwich