The London Eye

Saturday, July 3, 2010:

Katherine and I spent a great day together in London today. During the entire three weeks that I was in London, the weather was unusually wonderful, and today was no exception. We had blue skies and, although it was a bit warm, it was quite comfortable.

We started our day at the London Eye. The London Eye must be one of the world's largest "ferris wheels" -- but that description hardly does it justice. As

part of the City's celebrations for the advent of the new century, just prior to 2000, London built this particular attraction. It was intended to be in operation for just the year 2000 but it was so popular that it has remained in place indefinitely.

The Eye is located on the southern bank of the Thames slightly east of and across from Big Ben and Parliament. From a distance, it looks like a ferris wheel. Up close, it looks much more like a giant bicycle wheel with huge pods attached. The pods are fully enclosed (much like a gondola lift at a ski resort), but they are the size of small rooms and 20 or more people can fit comfortably inside one pod.

The pods are mostly glass and have bench seating in the center. No one sits down, of course. There's too much to see.

We had reserved our tickets in advance so we had an assigned time that we were to show up at the Eye. This worked out really well and although we had a bit of a wait in the ticket line, once we got our tickets we had no wait actually getting onto the Eye.

The Eye is in constant motion -- but it moves very, very slowly. Pods are emptied and re-populated while the Eye is moving ever so slowly past the boarding platform. There is no problem getting everyone off and on with plenty of time to spare.

We were actually on the Eye for about 30 minutes. That's how long it takes for this giant wheel to make one revolution. As we rose higher and

higher over the City scene, on this beautifully clear day, we enjoyed some spectacular views -- and took way too many pictures. It was so hard not to. These vistas gave me a much better feel for London and the surrounding area than I had ever had before. It put everything into geographic perspective!

But I most enjoyed the views of Big Ben, Parliament and Westminster Abbey. They are such beautiful structures. We also had a neat view over Charing Cross Station and all the trains coming and going. There is so much to see in London and se saw it all from the "Eye" in the sky. It was great.