London & Paris 2008

London

Monday 11th August to Thursday 14th August

Using up the last of our holidays, we spent a week visiting two of the largest capitals of Western Europe, first London then Paris.  We stayed at the Hilton near Tower Bridge, and we soon wandered nearby into Hays Galleria.

Our first evening there and it was time to head over to Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen for our opportunistic visit to see Mark Morriss and the Mummies play live.  (Mark Morriss is the singer of The Bluetones, one of our favourite bands.)  He and his band were supported by Junior Victor, His Girl Friday and Kieran something or other.

Look!  Here he is, all bearded and stuff.  It was a very intimate venue and a great gig.

Well, I can't put it off any longer.  I have to do a shot of Tower Bridge.  Ooh look, some blue sky!

There was some sort of art set-up at The Scoop, an ampitheatre at More London.  (Bit of a strange name, More London, but there you go.)

Someone had nicked a tower from the Tower of London.  Please return, reward offered.

Lynne poses dutifully in front of... yep, you've got it.  Tower Bridge.

We did a tour of Tower Bridge, which including going to the top and taking photos of the gloomy-industrial Thames.

Inside, we saw how construction work was done before health and safety rules "went mad".

We had a good look at the inner workings of Tower Bridge.  Engineer to collection point 3, please.

Steamboat Willie and his, er, mate chugged down the Thames.

And, after waiting around for a while, I managed to capture the suspension bridge of Tower Bridge raising.  (I told you there were a lot of shots of it, but hey it's pretty striking.)

"This is St Barley's church, in Coventry."  It's not of course, it's Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster.

Some cloudy London Eye action, which I think we will come back to.  In fact, I don't.  This is the best you'll get.  We did go on it, but I don't seem to have any shots whilst on it.  Strange.

We took a boat ride to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.  On the way, we saw St Paul's cathedral on its least glamorous side.

It's Tower Bridge!  We're going under!

Not sure what this bit is, but there you go.

Lynne couldn't escape the wiles of Paul... or indeed pastries.

Here is looking back down at where we had been when we got off the boat.  I don't think that's the London Eye, though.  It's a different one.

We could see the Millennium Dome, though.  Its design makes it look unfinished.

We made it to the home of time, the Prime Meridian of the world.

This is the clock at the centre of time.

Well, that's all from cloudy London.  We weren't there for too long before hopping on the Eurostar from St Pancras to Paris.