Experiencing London

This week has been an opportunity for us to get up to London a couple of times. On Friday the grandparents babysat for us so we could have some time together. We took the train up to London and saw a bunch of the sights. First stop was the London Eye, which gives quite fantastic views over the city. I'm sure Heather will post a bunch of pictures soon. Then we took the tube and the Docklands Light Railway down to docklands. (The DLR is a driverless rapid transit system. One thing London has definitely got right is its transit. With one ticket, you can travel all day on the trains, subways, buses and light railway. We never had to wait for more than a couple of minutes for a train or a bus.)

Docklands used to be a run-down industrial area, but has now been re-invented as a commercial hub. We had lunch, looked at the architecture, and then headed back into town. From the tube station at St. Pauls we crossed the river on the Millenium Bridge, which is another amazing piece of architecture. Technically it's a suspension bridge, but the cables don't drop down from tall towers on either end of the bridge; rather they travel beside the bridge, and are tethered BENEATH it! It's really very clever.

Across the bridge is the Tate Modern, an art gallery. Some of it was closed, but we got to see some of the exhibits. Some were weird, some very good. I particularly liked embankment, a vast, immersive, strangely organic work that you can walk around, in and through.

We had supper on the Strand, and then I took Heather to see Chicago, which was great fun. We haven't had a chance to go to the theatre in nearly 2 years.