Way up high in the Eye - is that the 'Shard' in the middle background?
10:26 am (time stamp on the Panasonic)
Panasonic time stamped as 10:31 and Big Ben looks to be showing 10:15
The muddy 'ol Thames
Westminster Bridge - camera at 10:39, Big Ben at 10:20
Plenty of green growth showing up
The Westminster bridge piles seem to affect the muddy lines
It was a hot day at 33°c and a little respite from the heat was taken by a quick look inside the Tate Modern. What an alternate way of perceiving things, objects. Boxes you can walk into via one door and perhaps exit via another, or film show about South East Asia, the Vietnam War perhaps, where multiple films were running at once on various screens in the large room and each film seemed to be a vignette, that in your mind you combined to make a complete narrative or story. Too many things to ponder, lets look at other aspects of the building before moving on to the Millennium Bridge and head to St. Paul's Cathedral.
A grassed area outside and a sand pit inside - 12:21pm
Jeantine's photo of Barb and I at the viewing floor - was it the Tate Building or another, perhaps the Switch House
Part of the Tate Modern tower framing the left of the photo. The high rise on the right is what is known as the Walkie Talkie building. Click through the other photos in the link to Tate Modern in Wikipedia for a photo of Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge (probably taken from St. Paul's Cathedral)
On a hot summer's day you can feel exposed on the Millennium Bridge.
But the water down below doesn't look too inviting as a way of cooling off. Just a tad murky.
Across the bridge and closing on St. Paul's Cathedral.
Again Jeantine had pre-booked and we were trying to make our way to the desk to verify our tickets and those in-line were obviously concerned we were pushing to the front of their line. Their concerns diminished when we were directed to the 'pre-booked' waiting area.
What an entertaining guide we had - in the old guy who I thought must've been ex military but another of our group was whispering that he had school teacher traits. This was when he directed us to some choir seating and he emphasised that we were NOT to occupy any of the seats further back than the third row. Then he introduced himself and through questioning, got to know a little about this group of strangers. Focusing on the kids he explained the Roman numerals and asked the kids questions to see if they listening. After further explanation he got the kids to take us where they thought the centre of the Cathedral would be - all very engaging. We heard about Sir Christopher Wren, the great fire of London and the damage it did to the Cathedral. I would've thought the marble and stone would be immune to fire damage, but, not so. He also told us how Wren had wanted plain glass for the windows so that his work inside would be better appreciated but after he died, there was a change to stained glass windows. And, similar to what we were later told when visiting the Canterbury Cathedral, World War II damage provided the opportunity to re-glaze as per the original concept.
Crypt Cafe at St. Pauls, where we had a snack and drink before heading back to the Underground for the journey to our bnb home near Clapham Junction. The Cafe receipt showed 1 Juiceburst, 2.50, 2 Cappucino/Latte Reg, 5.00, 1 Muffin, 2.85, Total 10.35. Served by Agnieska at 15:25.
1-5 Howick Place, London says the gps identifier, the place where Jeantine met Darren & Sandra Mahaffy and their kids. As Darren commented 'The tea is delicious'
2 The Sanctuary, London. The top pic has Big Ben matching the time stamp on the photo. The opportunity was taken for a quick look through the souvenirs on offer in the store but, no purchases were made. From here we walked toward St. James's Park.
Interesting that Big Ben shows 11:10am whereas the Panasonic TZ15 is time stamped as 11:29pm, which is likely NZ Time but, 11:10 and 11:29 - I guess the camera time setting is out.
A short cut through to wherever Jeantine was leading us? Can't recall.
Watching the Guardsman on horseback you have to feel for the guys or gals who become background to people's photos - or worse for the guards being used for the visitors entertainment, much like an animal in a Zoo
There was quite a crowd to see the Changing of the Guard and not much chance of pushing through. The Police were manning a crossing point on Spur Road, stopping people crossing and then reopening - I guess they were trying to predict when the Guard squad were going to come marching out. I thought I did a good job of stopping the video on the beat of the music.
There would have been a lot less people (tourist visitors) to compete with in 1963 to capture the Guard marching up Buckingham Palace Road.
Then after leaving the changing of the Guard and more walking we found ourselves outside Harrods - and my eye caught the patterns of the awnings outside.
Inquiring at the booking desk what are the chances of a table for three.
The tea is poured
Photo taken by our Polish born waiter. The service was very professional, no obvious judgements made even when the child at an adjacent table made quite a mess on the floor.
Barb must be getting ready to capture the moment on her camera phone
Starting on the scones. We ended up taking away a couple of fancy little 'doggy bags' but the sweet weren't such a treat a day or so later.
Fellow diners, in reflection
A Tribute to Diana and Dodi in the centre stairwell. Wikipedia link
Back at our airbnb near Clapham Junction after our Paris sojourn it was time for a wander to Battersea Park and according to this photo we must've walked along Lombard Road, near No2 or 4, the gps marker giving a different address for each of two photos taken at the same location.
Under the bridge you can see some of expensive apartments along the Thames. Just click on the photo to enlarge. We were taking the Thames Path toward Vicarage Walk.
Then in Battersea Park, we found Barb's favourite flower, that she has been photographed standing by previously on a walk with Nick and Ita at Crosshaven, near Cork, Ireland.
When we came across these Hydrangeas I couldn't let the opportunity go, to get another photo of Barb beside the flowers she thinks we should plant at the end of the drive.
Lots of people out enjoying the weather and the walk in Battersea Park
Reflections on still waters
More reflections with enough confusing details to suit a jigsaw challenge. Jeantine taking the opportunity to get a portrait of her mother.
When we left the Georges Pompidou, there was a quick, 1 minute in and out of a Birkenstock store (Time stamp of going into the store 2:35 and coming out 2:36) as we headed back on the Metro to get our luggage and travel to Gare Nord for our Euro Train back to London.
The details on the short video shows as being at Montparnasse as 3 Place du 18 Juin, 1940, which is opposite the station nearest our airbnb apartment. Maybe it was the start of our travel towards Gare Nord, either way this guy got on with his large ghetto blaster loudly pumping out his beats he was grooving to. Somehow I expressed my displeasure at his imposing his music on us and he remonstrated with me to relax, get a life and get with the groove. Luckily for me, in my travel weary state, he got off at the next station just as I had thought to pull out my iPhone to illustrate my loss of reverie. You can hear the music still from the platform.
There was more weariness to come when we got to Gare Nord to get processed for the Eurostar train scheduled to leave at 5:30. It took so long to work our way through the snaking line up. Barb managed to hold our place while Jeantine and I went to get coffees, and then Jeantine left the Station building to go across the road to purchase snacks for us to have on the train.
Then up one level and checked through security and lots of us hopeful passengers were left waiting and wondering.
This photo time stamped as 5:29pm and our train was scheduled to depart at 5:30. Jeantine headed off to find out about the delay to be told there had been a WWII shell found in unattended luggage (souvenir?) which caused checks to be made to verify if it was a threat or not. This caused a lot of the waiting passengers to miss the 5:30 train. Jeantine went off again to see about getting on a later train and initially misunderstood the time on the reallocated seats, thinking we had quite a wait yet. Then when a lot of the other waiting passengers started moving, Jeantine checked the times again and whoops, we better get moving and join them on the platform below.
A quick scramble and we found ourselves in a First Class carriage and sharing one seat with the friend of the woman I had caught in my photo before at 5:29. Our fellow passenger was quite chatty and informative between reading her book and conversing with her traveling companion who had been separated a couple seats along. I guess we were lucky to find our group of three seated together, considering the juggling the train staff would have had to do, to get everybody from two trains onto one.
Being First Class we were offered wine and food but having our own food we just went with the wine. 7:21pm on board the train with bottle of wine
