London wanderings - London Eye, Tate Modern & St. Paul's Cathedral

Heading to the London Eye

On board and waiting

Slowly moving up as each pod is loaded

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.