So yeah, we are in Lon­don. This is Europe: Lon­don is only 2:15 from Paris by train and we wanted to go to Paris any­way, so may as well take a side trip to the U.K. Trav­el­ers’ logic.

The last time I was in Lon­don, not includ­ing mul­ti­ples trans­fers at Heathrow air­port, was in 1998. I had never seen the Lon­don Eye, the giant Fer­ris wheel set up in the cap­i­tal to cel­e­brate the mil­len­nium. It was high on my “must visit list”, for both the some­what unusual char­ac­ter of the land­mark and the view from the wheel.

I wasn’t dis­ap­pointed. When get­ting off the tube at West­min­ster, the view is unbeat­able. Up close, the 135 meters high wheel is quite impres­sive as well.

Each cap­sule holds about 25 peo­ple but we were lucky as it wasn’t that busy when we vis­ited. One rev­o­lu­tion takes about 30 min­utes — the flight is slow enough that you truly get to enjoy the sights: the many bridges across the Thames, Big Ben, the Palace of West­min­ster… Lon­don is a beau­ti­ful city, no doubt about that.

You can fol­low our trip to the U.K here on Flickr: United King­dom.

Lon­don Eye Esplanade

Going Up…

Along the Thames

Train Sta­tion

The Pod and Big Ben	The Wheel
The Bridges and the Thames	Pod on Top
The Lon­don Eye	Lon­don Eye in Feng’s Eye
Inside the Pod	Big Ben

The Thames

Down­town London

Big Ben and the Bridge

Related arti­cles:

1. Lon­don By Night
2. Along the River Thames
3. Art and Cul­ture in the U.K
4. Europe in our Eyes
5. The Tower of London