Trip Day 4 – London Eye

Well today sees another nice start to the day although rain is forecast for this afternoon, and the underground is about to be closed down with a drivers strike for 24 hours. So it is out early to take a spin on the London Eye and then on to the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery.

After paying my 17.50 for a ticket it was into a 4d theatre experience before lining up for my ride. The views are really amazing, i was lucky to get a pretty clear day so had a good view of the whole of London. The ride is slow enough so as you don’t have a feeling of falling and standing and walking around the gondola is very comfortable.

After finishing my ride i walked back over the waterloo bridge and up Whitehall road to Trafalgar square to see the National Gallery. Before getting there though it was lunch time so i called into one of the many pubs for a plate of fish and chips and a pint of ale, hard work all this sight seeing. The pubs are very easy to find as it seems most of them all have flower boxes that are all in full bloom with petunias which make a very colourful display.

The National Gallery is a huge collection of paintings, there are about 66 rooms of paintings to explore ranging from the 12th to 19th centuries it was amazing to me just how vivid some of the colours were on paintings that are hundreds of years old. I think my favourite of the day was Renoirs the umbrellas. The national portrait gallery, which is just around the corner, has 10,000 portraits to look at , starting at the Tudors and progressing up, there are also a large collection of marble and bronze busts of famous people.

click the picture to see more photos from the day.