I’ve been to London numerous times now, and I’ll admit it. I’m a sucker for “the Eye“, or more precisely “The London Eye”….
The amusing part is it’s been owned/sponsored by a different entity virtually every time I have visited, which is admittedly every 2 years (except for that blasted Covid thing). Currently, lastminute.com is the name to grace the wonderful attraction. Can’t help but wonder who will be the next one.
Anyway, after leaving the home of the world’s most famous detective, I made my way across London for my 1700 booking on the The Eye.
When Melanie and I were scheduled to come over in 2020, I had bought a ticket for each of us and luckily I found out they were still useable, unlike one other event. I’m looking at you TicketMaster and the “immersive” Vincent Van Gogh exhibit.
In the past, the Eye operated until well after dark, but in these post-COVID times the last booking was 1700 hours. Unfortunate as the view of London from the Eye after dark is nothing short of spectacular. If you were lucky enough to time your visit with sundown, it was even more spectacular.. I’ll post some photo’s of previous adventures in a later blogging.
Getting there a bit early, I noticed the battery in my phone was virtually exhausted. So, I sat on one of the concrete “posts” in front of the exhibit and turned my phone off so I would have enough power to get back to the Melia after I was done. The thing is I had an external battery, and was just too stupid to bring it with me. doh…
Finally the time arrived, so powering up my phone, I got in line and into the complex waiting my turn to embark on one of the capsules.
Being the erstwhile engineer, I’ve always been fascinated by the construction of the Eye, and this time was no different.
Ordinarily I would parse these images down to a couple of key shots, but in this case, I’m chuffed with them all, so here is the whole bunch:
Notice the orange drive wheels on either side. These are electric motors with tires mounted that ride on the outer most rim of the wheel to drive the rotation. If you look close, you can see a locking cylinder to restrain movement of the wheel when necessary.
Methinks these are the “iconic shots” from the Eye. Great stuff. Enough yammering, we will just work our way around!
Looking downriver,
I love this shot with the dark and gloomy background.
More “heavy metal” with the locking cylinders in full glory.
The sun is setting, so the lighting on the Eye starts to make itself known.
Getting near the top!
At the top. Maximum height. It’s all downhill from here!
Scenic sunset over the city.
Looking upriver as the car is on the downward side.
Big Ben and the city skyline.
Setting sun.
Beautiful vista!
As you can tell, I like my imagery to be a bit “dark and gloomy”.
Getting near the end.
From Westminister Bridge after disembarking. From there I made my way to what may be my favorite restaurant, Dishoom.
Jourdan found Dishoom when we where here in 2018, and I’ve now been a total of 4 times, 3 times in London and once in Edinburg. I simply cannot recommend it more highly. It’s funny because oftentimes you build restaurants up in your mind and the 2nd visit doesn’t meet with expectations. H’mmm, not with Dishoom. Simply sublime. Well worth the wait (about 45 minutes) and cost.
Next time we’ll have a fantastic visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Until then,
