After a fairly awful night at the Hilton Meltropole Hotel where we finished our tour, I was awake very early because the room was so hot, and the airconditioning was on the blink. Also the curtains couldn’t be closed because they were also broken (the control mechanism) and the beds were awful ! So a lousy end to a great holiday.
Deb and I had decided to take off fairly early and go over to Waterloo to do our ride on the London Eye and the Thames Cruise that Claudine had given us as Christmas gifts. The weather was going to be sunny and warm, and we didn’t want to miss the chance of good photos.
So we had breakfast at 7.30am and then took our bags to be held in storage for the day, checked out at 9.00am. First stop was the post office to send off another package of souveniers – now that we have figured out the self-service system it was quite quick and easy to do.
Then we walked down to Paddington underground and caught the train to Oxford Circus and then changed to another line to take us to Waterloo station. We were there by 9.45am, and the Eye didn’t start until 10.00am so we went and got our tickets – these were fast track ones, and we were sent straight onto the Eye, ahead of all the people who had bought tickets on the day. We couldn’t believe our luck as there were only 7 of us in our pod, which made it easy to see and take photos.
As predicted the weather was fantastic – sunny, and bright – we had a wonderful view of everything, and the 30 minutes went very fast. We had been booked onto the 10.45am Thames cruise, and we went straight on board the boat, and were off for a great view of the buildings from water level. The commentary was great, and I used the camera to take short video clips, so not many photos to upload this time.
After the cruise, we went back to see what our photo was like that was taken by the company – we didn’t look too bad, so bought a couple of copies as souveniers.
We headed inside for a cup of tea and a break, at 11.45, then decided to walk along the Thames Path to the Globe Theatre, which we had seen on the cruise. The walk was supposed to take 20 minutes, but took us closer to 45 minutes as we stopped to take photos along the way.
We went into the theatre, and there was a tour starting at 1.00pm, so we went into the exhibition first, then joined the tour when the bell was rung.
We had been advised that rehearsals were taking place in the theatre, so there could be no photos, or talking while inside, but lucky for us, the performers decided to take a lunch break, so we were able to talk photos, as well as have our guide explain the history of the building.
We finished around 2.00pm, and as we had to get back to the hotel to collect the bags, and transfer to the YHA we walked over the Millenium Bridge to get to the underground station behind St Paul’s Cathedral. This gave us the opportunity to see this building, and take our photos – we didn’t go inside as we were really tired, so just caught the train to Edgeware station, collected our bags, and took a taxi to the Youth Hostel at Thameside. The taxi driver was really good, so I have booked him to take us to Paddington station next Tuesday morning when we have to take the train to Cornwall.
We settled into our room which isn’t the same one we were in before but is exactly the same size, and I was able to get a couple of loads of washing done before dinner.
After that it was sort out the photos, and write the blog before going to bed.
Tomorrow we are having a rest day as Deb is coming down with a cold, and she is feeling the effects of 17 days of being on the bus tour.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
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