We need to go back to London. I have only been there a few times, always passing through. The last time we were there, we had an overnight layover, so we had to pick one thing to do. Besides eat dinner.
Sadly leaving the Netherlands and the kids behind, we started home. It was midday, so we knew we would have a little time to do something while we were in London.
Approaching London, you could see the outskirts of the city, and knew the airport was far from any of the sights of London proper. We were staying near the airport, but we were confident we could use the tube, an underground train, to go wherever we decided -- plus, that was going to be the quickest mode of transportation.
Sure enough, the midday check-in turns into early evening, and we rushed to the tube in order to get to the center of the city. Traveling with Chief is always an experience, because he basically throws a dart and ends up exactly where he wants to be. I'm studying maps, grids, instructions -- and he yells, "c'mon, jump on!" Then bam, "you said, London Eye, right?" There we are.
I had heard of the London Eye, and friends had said, you should do it at night and in the daytime if you can. With the help of the Nederlands kids, we had pre-purchased our tickets online and reserved a time. If you ever go, don't do anything but that. Oh my. The line was over a mile long for tickets, while we were escorted to the 2 minute line for pre-purchasers. I felt kind of guilty, but yes, we paid a full $1.50 more to buy tickets before arriving. Crazy.
The long line is over in the dark of the right side of this picture. I have no idea how long those people had to wait. We really felt like we were cutting in line. But nope. This is how it works.
It is enormous. Way larger than it looks in this picture. It is 443 feet high and provides sweeping views from the South Bank of the River Thames.
The pod you ride in is really larger than you realize. It holds 20-25 people, and there is plenty of seating, or you can walk around during the whole rotation. The full revolution takes 30 minutes, but it seemed like five.
It had these cool interactive screens all over the inside of the pod, so you could click on certain landmarks to learn more, or zoom them in closer. Pretty high tech for a giant enclosed ferris wheel.
Okay, so we did it at night. We will have to return to get it done during the light of day. Of course, it was still early, so we found a neat pub for the obligatory fish and chips. Didn't get a picture of those, but as always, I did get a picture of our beverages.
Let me take this opportunity to say that we eat and drink differently when on vacation. The bathroom scales reflected that statement upon our arrival home. YOLO.
