Trip to London
This week being Half Term we decided to take Joshua, my grandson, on his first trip to London.We were hoping to leave on the Sunday morning and return on the Wednesday which would give us two full days for sight seeing. It all hinged on the weather, as February is pretty unpredictable. Since Sunday dawned sunny we set off on our trip to London, leaving Yoda, our cat, in the care of my son but I knew he wouldn't be pleased as he is getting old and hates any form of change in his life. Since Eric didn't want to drive in London we stayed in The Holiday Inn at Brent Cross, which is located just off the M1 Motorway.
We managed to get all the way down the motorway without any incident until we got to London. Brent Cross seems to be a maze of roundabouts and One Way systems, and finding the entrance to the hotel became a challenge. We could see the hotel, but as we drove around it there were so many different roundabouts and roads shooting in all directions, and we always managed to take the wrong turning. The first wrong turn took us back onto the motorway and the second took us to Cricklewood. We finally found the entrance by accident.
The hotel itself was very nice and the staff were very friendly and helpful, it also offered a shuttle service to Brent Cross station which is on the Northern Line, so that proved extremely useful, as that took us straight to Leicester Square and the West End of London.
After we settled we decided to visit my nephew Chris and his family who live between Cricklewood and Kilburn (about a 15 minute bus ride from the hotel). We hadn't seen them since their wedding, and it was really nice to see them and their new arrival Little Ted a truly gorgeous and happy little boy. After we left them we headed for the bright lights? of the City. I was very disappointed because the bright city lights seemed to be a lot more muted, and although the crowds were as vibrant as always it still seemed to lack the atmosphere of the old days. On the plus side though it's a far Greener option.
On the Monday morning we picked up our tickets from the London Pass office on Charing Cross Road. Before purchasing it we did ask "Is the London Pass worth it?" I am glad to say this pass turned out to be an excellent investment for sightseeing in London, as it allows free entry into some of the top visitor attractions in London and has the added bonus of bypassing queues at some of the busiest attractions. We had also added travel to our pass which meant a whole days free traveling on the London Underground without having to pay. Since we were going to do the free London museums on the second day we only purchased a one day ticket, but there are several options that can save more money. After a trip to McDonalds we made our way to Westminster Bridge for one of the river Thames boat trips.
A Thames River Cruise
The boat.went down the river from Westminster Bridge to Greenwich, but we only went as far as The Tower of London (a similar journey to this one recorded on You Tube).
Boat trip down the Thames (You Tube)
The boat had two decks an open one at the top and an enclosed one at the bottom. Although it was sunny it was rather chilly and Eric and I would have liked to have traveled on the enclosed deck, Joshua however opted for the open top deck and Joshua won.
The Tower Of London
When we arrived there was a female yeoman warder at the tower of London conducting a party around and we joined the party, but we were so far back we couldn't hear much. Since I had visited the Tower many times before we decided to wander around on our own. I had also forgotten about all the spiral staircases that you needed to climb, all my visits to the Tower had taken place in my pre- arthritic days, and climbing all those stairs went largely unnoticed or was viewed as fun, but now it proved hard work and a challenge. It also gave me a new perspective on what life in the Tower must have been like. I tried to imagine what it must have been like to be fleeing for your life down those narrow spiral staircases ( and I'm sure there were many who had to do just that) dressed in a full suit of armour; or perhaps a lady in Elizabethan times trying to negotiate them in a farthingale. Joshua isn't very interested in History or Architecture, but he thoroughly enjoyed a visit to the Armoury, some of the items that we saw can be viewed at-
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| A Yeoman Warder at the Tower Of London |
Tower Bridge
From the Tower we took the walkway running along the river to Tower Bridge. We entered on to the bridge through a subway that ran under the room where bodies recovered from the Thames used to be kept. The bodies found in the river are now taken to Wapping Police Station. Once on the bridge we were taken to the walkways up at the very top of the bridge. These walkways were originally used by pedestrians wishing to cross over to the South Bank, when the bridge was raised. I had walked across the bridge on a daily basis for many years and didn't even know they existed, as they weren't open to the public in those days.Though the bridge is still raised ocassionally the walkways are now a tourist attraction housing an exhibition.
When we reached the top there were various rooms with presentaions showing how the bridge was built. We were then directed on to the West walkway, due to maintainance the East Walkway was closed. the West Walkway housed an exhibition of pictures of various bridges around the world. From here you have a wonderful view up the river, though I think Prince Charles has a point about 'ugly carbuncles' and I would say the London skyline is more ugly than impressive
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| View from the Walkway at Tower Bridge |
From the walkway we went down to the Engine room where we saw some of the machinery and equipment that has been used in raising the bridge. Since it wasn't something Joshua was interested in we just passed through it.
The Shard
The exit from the exhibition was on the South Bank, so we had a ten minute walk to London Bridge and the London Bridge and tombs Experience. I had read that this attraction had received several awards in the 'scariest' field I thought Joshua might like it. It seemed to have got mixed reviews from visitors, but I still thought we would give it a try. Walking along Tooley Street we seemed to get our best view of the Shard , the tallest building in Western Europe with 95 floors.Though I don't expect it will be the tallest for long.
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| The Shard (the Tallest Building in Europe |
The London Bridge Experience
'The Experience' is in two parts the first consists of visitors being taken to various rooms where actors enacted various gory historical events, though I couldn't see the connection between some of these events and London Bridge. The second and more enjoyable part was 'The Tombs Experience' For this the visitors lined up and put their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of you and then followed through dark rooms of ghosts, ghouls and hatchet men and other shocks. People were warned that it was not for anyone with a weak heart, or for children under the age of 11. Joshua couldn't reach the shoulders of the lady in front of him, so she very kindly held his hand, and I saw her turn quite frequently and check that he was O.K. At the end of the experience I could honestly say that we thoroughly enjoyed it, and Joshua has voted it his favourite event of his London trip. I do not understand why people were disappointed with this attraction, but I guess its a case of one man's meat being another man's poison.
We caught a train to Catford from London Bridge Station and went to visit Eric's niece whom we hadn't seen for many years. On our return journey we were able to see the shard towering up and somewhat dimly lit. Looking up at it in the dark with just a few lights on I thought it looked eerie and intimidating, but once it is fully occupied and better lit it might look and feel totally different.
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| The Shard at night |
