Sunday, June 13th - Robin's here!

(Sorry that this is so delayed.  My "public" has been clamoring for the next blog!!   :)   I took the computer with us to Paris to add pictures to this entry and then blog our Parisian adventures while there.  Discovered there that the pictures I needed for this day had not been loaded on by my photographer, so I can blame him for the delay.  Our Paris trip will be next and since we walked about 8 hours a day, I didn't have the energy by the time we got back each night to get it done so they are going to be late, too!  Too much fun.  Hope this doesn't confuse the chronology too much - that's why I'm dating the titles!)
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Sunday, June 13th -

Robin's here!  John has 4 younger brothers and Robin is brother #2.  We are so glad he is here.  We plan to leave tomorrow (Monday) for four nights in Paris but today we are taking Robin to places he hasn't been yet.  He comes to London frequently on business but never as a tourist so we are going to do touristy things!  We started out with a cruise on the Thames.  John was really intent on taking Robin to see the Thames Barrier.  This is the second largest flood barrier in the world  (the first is in the Netherlands) and would prevent London from being flooded by exceptionally high tides.  The barrier parts will remind you of the opera house in Sydney.  You'll know why in a few paragraphs why we don't have a picture of it!

So we got on the cruise boat, sitting of course on the top so we can see everything.  We had a great guide on the boat who cracked some pretty good jokes about places along the river - none of which I can remember, of course!!  Going under the Tower Bridge is a highlight of the ride.

We had decided to first take the boat that only as far as Greenwich - the barrier is beyond that - have lunch at The Trafalgar, a very popular pub, get on another boat after lunch that would go on to the barrier and turn around and go back to Westminster where we boarded.  We had a great lunch of fried fish bait!  Whitefish, little tiny herring fried in batter - Trafalgar's signature dish for a couple of hundred years or so- brown bread and butter and of course, the pint!

Sitting next to us was the cutest little 14 month old boy who didn't know how to do anything else than smile!  Big tike!  And his name was Tycho!!!  An old Finnish name.

When it was time to catch our boat, we got on and the darn thing did a U-turn and started back to Westminster instead of the Barrier!  John was very put out!  We found out that we got on the wrong boat.  Robin couldn't stop laughing.  At least John got another picture of a favorite pub -

So back to the starting point we went and on to the London Eye!!!  This is the carousel wheel that dwarfs a lot of London - it's a lot higher than Big Ben!  Robin nor I are big on heights but I had been on the Eye before and knew it was very manageable.

Getting in to the pods is a little tricky because they are constantly moving, but they are moving so slowly that you step in as they move along.  The personnel keep us moving so it all seems so easy, you get into the pod and find your place - right in front of the window or sitting on the bench in the middle so you don't have to get near the edge!  This picture is at the loading dock where people are getting off and on the moving pod.

The views from the pod are extensive and on a sunny day, even better.  John took this one of Parliament through the struts of the Eye's frame.

Sometimes the view of the next pod is one of the most intriguing - if you don't mind heights.

Robin spent the first half of the trip sitting on the bench in the middle of the pod - the same place I was on my first trip.  We're holding each other up in this picture!

As we were going down, he made it to the edge and the rest was easy. 

On our walk back through London, we hopped a bus to Hammersmith and Robin realized we were in the neighborhood where he often stays on business and wanted us to experience a great little pub back in the mews area.  The mews are areas all over London where the horses and carriages were housed along with the footmen and their families.  If you could see the houses here, which are now worth millions, you would see the doors to the stables which are now garages and the doors to the residential part of the buildings which are upstairs and several stories high.  They surround this little pub and hide it from the rest of London. 

Home to pack for Paris.   We leave tomorrow!!