Going Up the Chimney

Yesterday Dave and I went down to the Battersea Power Station to go up in the scenic elevator, called Lift 109. The elevator is a fairly spacious glass capsule that rises through the northwest chimney of the power station and protrudes from the top, giving riders amazing views all around. There's also an interactive display that allows visitors to learn about the power station and its past.

Above you'll see what the chimney looks like from the inside as the car begins to rise to the top. It was intermittently sprinkling rain yesterday, which is why there are water droplets on the glass roof.

And here's the view! Not too shabby, huh? This is looking east toward the city...

...and this is looking west toward Chelsea and Hammersmith, with the rail bridge to Victoria Station and the cabled Chelsea Bridge in the foreground.

Here's the view to the south. You can see the green roof of the power station in the foreground, with the huge skylight, as well as all the construction that's occurred right around it. It's madness down there in terms of apartments. Dave and I fantasized about moving to such a place and living a more urban existence -- and maybe we will someday -- but for now the dog and I are enjoying the garden too much.

Here's a shot showing the interior of the lift itself.

We weren't up there for long. Maybe ten minutes? Fate threw me a curveball because right after I took the top photo with my big Canon camera, the camera stopped working. I tried to take shots of the scenery and kept getting error messages. The contact points between the lens and the camera body weren't communicating for some reason. Thank goodness I had my phone as a backup!

Anyway, it was a fun visit and well worth it, I thought. We also wandered around the shops in the power station, had lunch and a coffee, and (of course) I bought a t-shirt. Then we took the river taxi downstream to Westminster to board the tube, and that was a scenic and peaceful ride along the same stretch of river I walked just a few days ago.

Otherwise, yesterday was pretty uneventful -- we walked the dog, I read, Dave focused on choosing music for his band students, and in the evening we watched our new favorite Netflix show, "Beef." Have you seen this show? We just finished the series last night. It was full of surprises and does not disappoint!