Face it we all have days when we wished we had stayed in bed, well Sunday was one of those days for my wife & I. We had wanted to go to the Tower of London to see the Poppy's before they went. The last one is due to be planted on Remembrance day 11th November.The day started by catching a train from our local station and I wondered if the train was on time then realised we were on the wrong platform as they had changed lines. Nice start but we caught the train and we were off on our Journey. More problems happened when we got to Paddington and found the Circle line was closed at the station we wanted to go to so we took another. We got off at Westminster which was actual near the place we wanted to visit The Jewel Tower but both of us were under the impression it was near the Tower of London and that was along the embankment. Both of us thought it would be a short walk, no it was around 45 mins but gave us the chance to see the Thames and walk along some of the Thames Path.
Yep we got off the tube near this place
and this is across the river. I went on it back in 2000, mind you I did not go much on the London Aquarium next door when we visited that after.
Walking along by the river we passed these two monuments, you might recognise Cleopatra's Needle
HMS President, I'd like to know how they got it this far up the Thames
This Bridge
and the remains of this one
the shard was always in sight
The wobbly bridge also known as the Millennium Bridge, least they have sorted out the wobble now
On the way past we spied St Paul's
Then the Globe
The Tower St. Mary Somerset church
spotted a couple of canons
HMS Belfast
and Tower Bridge
Finally got sight of the poppy's we had come to see
Lot of activity going on
carefully watched over by a Beefeater
Big crowd of people on tower hill, doubt it's seen that many since they were having public executions here way back when
Finally we had had enough of the crowds so went home via a different route passing this public art called Paieys On Pilers in Aldgate
We got back to Paddington and went off to spend a penny well 30 pence now that was 72 penny's in old money. Think I'd have been very shocked as a child if I had know that is how much I'd be paying in the future. Best of it all was the turnstile would not let me through so I had to call an attendant. My wife had the same problem (but I won't tell you what happened to her & the turnstile) I'd have been better off waiting and going on the train for free. Did I enjoy my day, with all the problems we had no and we were glad to get home. I 'm not good with crowds like we met so the next visit will be planned a bit better. Below is a short video I took at the Tower of London of the Poppy's
Taking Part in Our World Tuesday
11 comments:
Oh Bill. What a disaster. You should have got in touch with me and I could have given you a guided tour and shown you which decent toilets to use for free!
Thank you Bill for the shots of London you've shared today. Glorious show of poppies and an imaginative perspective of St Paul's. (I'm not a fan of crowds either, but sometimes when we go anyway, we can experience great blessings from outings we would otherwise have missed - hope you came away with some pleasant memories in the midst of the unexpected detours!)
I hope you thought the poppies were worth the trouble! I was there a few weeks ago and it was quite a moving sight for me.
I'm so sorry your day was filled with so many problems. But, I'm so glad you walked this route and took so many photos. It brought back all kinds of memories for me. On my trip to London last November, I took almost that same walk only in the opposite direction and on the south bank. Starting at Tower Bridge all the way down to Westminster. In fact I have many similar photos that I took along the way. It seems the tube and train problems are ongoing. While I was there last year, the tube was constantly disrupted for service problems and the trains were constantly changing platforms. Thank goodness I had no schedule to keep so I just went with the flow.
Thank you for sharing London with us. You showed places I missed and brought back fond memories.
Nice view of St Pauls and the other tower dwarfed by skyscrapers - you should get yourself a RADAR key (£3.50) and use the disabled loos.
I love a trip to London. :)
So sorry to read you had so many problems. I tend to go on the TFL website and plan my journey in London for the date I'm going, that way any planned works are shown and I can change the journey slightly. I am off to the Tower again this weekend to hear one of my ancestors being read out at the Roll of Honour, but I doubt very much I will see anything as it is getting hugely busy now. I tend to head to the Monument station and walk a little way to the Tower. Take care.
Wonderful shots. Those poppies are eye-catching.
The poppies made the news on this side of the Atlantic as well, so I knew they were there. Beautiful shots, regardless of the problems of the day. That Shard, though... it's a blight on the city, in my personal opinion.
Stunning photos, Bill, thanks for sharing! I especially love the ones of the poppies, and your shots taken by the river. Sorry to hear the day turned out to be such an ordeal for you, but hopefully you can tease out at least some nice memories!
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