Two Americans in London

After a short, but busy, week in Oxford, Mollie, Fi, & I took the bus down to London on Thursday evening.  I'd arranged to take Friday off work, so Mollie & I could spend the day wandering around the city together.  Friday morning, as often happens in England, the weather wasn't entirely supportive of our plans, raining down bucketfuls in East Sheen.  But we struck out nonetheless, armed with our umbrellas, a laminated map, & no shortage of dauntless American spirit.

 From the outset, our day's highest priority was riding the London Eye, a gigantic ferris wheel situated just off the Thames in the center of town.  Unfortunately, the unforgiving weather hadn't abated during our commute from Mortlake to Waterloo, & the prospect of riding up in a ferris wheel amid a rainstorm wasn't terribly inviting, so we improvised with a promenade down the Queen's Walk on the South Bank. 

By the time we'd reached the Tower Bridge, roughly 2+ miles from Waterloo Station via the river, the rain eased up enough for us to stow away the umbrellas & start taking some pictures.  As many of you know, Mollie's quite the amateur photographer.  I often found her pausing to meditate on a scene, searching up & down for a unique way to frame what many others would casually pass by.

In fact, these findings developed into something of a theme for our day. 

I expect after this post, you will feel the need to hound her about sharing some of her own snapshots here. 

After awhile, Mollie & I crossed the Tower Bridge to the North Bank of the Thames, thinking we should take advantage of the sun coming out & make our way back to the Eye.  This being England, however, not five minutes later the sky began to darken again, & by the time we'd reached St. Paul's Cathedral, the umbrellas had to come out again.

Rainfall didn't stop the shutterbug, though.  After dipping into St. Paul's for a brief respite from the wet, we pressed on to Trafalgar Square for more pictures.

Then to Charing Cross, where an artistic vision seized Mollie, & she dedicated the next 10 minutes to capturing the perfect photo of these telephone booths.

That masterpiece, I'm sure, you will find posted on her blog within the next few days.  Upon finishing up at the phone booths, our photographer was grabbed by an inspiration of another kind, one that could only be realized by that calorific pocket of goodness exclusively available at the most reputable of London's food vendors, the Cornish Pasty.

Full, so full, from that lunch, Mollie & I slowly meandered back toward the Hungerford Bridge, which led us across the Thames toward the London Eye.  Of course, the Hungerford makes for a delightful spot to linger on the landscape.

With the weather finally according with our plans, we bought our tickets & boarded the Eye, which, as you might imagine, afforded another one or two views worthy of a snap.

Very nice, eh?  As you can see, the sun shone for our trip round the ferris wheel, & we came away with a huge batch of pix to share with y'all.  Despite the occasional showers, our tour around town was quite the success.  By day's end, we'd covered some 10 miles according to Mollie's estimation (Google Maps differed, approximating 6.1, but what do computers know anyway?). 

Hooray for family visits!