Back to the Eye

Yesterday I got out for a little adventure in London, thanks to a friend at work and a family with kids at our school. The family wound up with four spare tickets for a river cruise and a visit to the London Eye, and they gave the tickets to my friend and co-worker. He invited me and two more guys along.

I've been to the London Eye several times, but it's been ages. I've just spent about 20 minutes going through old blog posts and trying to figure out when I was last there. I think it was July 2012, when I went twice -- once with Dave's parents and once with our friend Kellee.

So I was due for another visit. But first, the river cruise:

We sat on the top deck of the boat and got a look at sights along the river from the Houses of Parliament to just beyond Tower Bridge. Our helpful guide Jordan pointed everything out and told bad jokes along the way. I wondered if he ever gets sick to death of doing the same spiel over and over, and trying to get a laugh out of foreign tourists who may not even understand everything he's saying. (The older Asian couple sitting next to me clearly had no idea, though the man made a video of the entire journey on his phone.)

I texted another friend and told him what we were doing. "You tourists!" he texted back, with a laughing-face emoji.

The guide insisted that we wave at everyone on the bridges as we passed beneath them, and of course the people on the bridges waved back. This was funny because I'd just been walking over one of those bridges shortly beforehand, and a boat passed beneath me and I pointedly did not wave. What a crank I am. I did wave, a bit half-heartedly, from the boat. When in Rome.

From the boat we walked the short distance -- just a few steps, really -- to the Eye and jumped the queue with our VIP tickets. Soon we were in one of the glass pods making the roughly half-hour circuit around the wheel. I wonder what would happen if someone did lean against those doors? Surely they wouldn't just pop open. I didn't test them.

I made a video to give you the London Eye experience:

There are three clips spliced together. We begin with the Houses of Parliament and pan along the north shore of the river; we then look east toward the City of London and gradually southward to Elephant & Castle and west to show an adjacent pod on the wheel; and finally we pick up at Elephant & Castle again and look west along the river toward Vauxhall before ending back at Parliament and Westminster Bridge.

I paired the footage with a song from my iTunes, "How Do You Feel" by Wave System, which was just the right length. Its copyright holder apparently permits its use on YouTube. I had to put some music with the video to eliminate the conversational chatter within the pod, which was fairly loud because there were several little kids. (Don't lean on the doors, kids!)

Anyway, after this adventure I bade adieu to my friends and walked northward through Trafalgar Square (which was closed off for filming of some kind) and Soho all the way to Baker Street. I passed All Souls' Church (top photo) which was decorated with a special cross for Easter week.

And now, Olga wants a walk of her own!