Day trippers

A beautiful morning made us get up, get ready and get out of the house pronto today and off to town. We had promised Joseph a trip on the London Eye so we headed straight there.

Unfortunately, the entire population of London AND its tourists had all decided to do the same thing and so we spent a great deal of time in queues.

That said, we had a terrific day. We started with a river cruise from just below the Eye, up to Westminster Bridge - admittedly not all that far, then back down to Tower Bridge before ‘disembarking’ back where we started.

Very interesting it was too. I now know why there are two and a half bridges at Blackfriars. I know the most expensively built building in the whole of London and who it is for. I now know what the oldest building on the Thames is and that it is over 900 years old, dating back to William the Conqueror.

Our ‘guide’ was abnormally jolly; possibly hoping to be talent spotted by some lunatic who requires someone who can speak through a smile for 45 minutes, pausing only to wait for a laugh or two from her very corny jokes.

Anyway, off the boat and into another queue for the Eye itself. And it was worth it.

Onto our “pod” we went and within about, ooh, 2 minutes, Joseph moved to the centre of the pod where the seat is because, “it’s a bit high”.

Hmmm ….

You can imagine what he was like 15 minutes later when we reached the highest point on the ride. Poor thing, he was actually crawling through people’s legs so he couldn’t see out of the glass.

Annabel on the other hand, was standing on the actual ledge, almost on the glass itself, looking out across London and the seagulls flying near to us. Tough little cookie that girl.

All that queuing and excitement was enough for Missy to conk out on the way home in her buggy and Poops was pretty wiped out himself. When we asked him what his favourite part of the day was, he replied without hesitation, “the train ride”.

Our next family day out will consist of a train journey to Carlisle and back.