Time has come for us to attack London , weather forecast wasn't fantastic , but manageable . First up a 700m walk to the station , then the trip to Waterloo Station . A bonus today , Justin came with us for a day out ( or to make sure we didn't't get hopelessly lost 😂 ) .
Well the station was certainly an eye opener , biggest fully undercover station we've seen !
This peculiar looking building is Lloyd's of London , seems to be the only building with it's aircon ducting and other pipework on the exterior of the building - certainly not the prettiest building we've seen .
This one he's glass reaching to a peak , reflecting everything depending where you looked from .
Here's the Gherkin , a different style of building surrounded lower down by older buildings .
This little church is in amongst them all .
This building is called the Cheese Grater ( you'll see why in later photo ) , and has all the lifts on the side you're looking at . The lifts stretch from left to right , and all the pulleys & hydraulics are visible , as are the lifts themselves , so you can watch them and the occupants go up & down .
Another little church tucked in between the skyscrapers .
This one is also beside the church .
Our time slot was approaching , so we headed into Horizon 22 and went through the security checks before being allowed in . The elevator didn't take long , a silky smooth ride upwards - my ears popped 3 times on the way up . The views from the viewing level were pretty good , even though the weather was closing in . Top left is the Thames River
Some great views over the city , cars & buses mere dots down below .
The Shard is on the other side of the river , and the odd shaped one at bottom left had a small problem . Apparently the curved shape was concentrating the sunlight and actually burning things , so they were forced to change to a special glass to stop the problem !!
Here's Tower Bridge and middle of photo is The Tower of London .
After quite a while checking out the views , we headed back down with plans to walk to the river and cross over to Borough Markets . The subsequent rain that started to fall changed our plans - back to Bank Station and back to Waterloo so we didn't get wet .
This was on our way - Leadenhall Markets - a stunning looking arcade
Borough Markets is beside Waterloo Station , and was a hive of activity - people everywhere , didn't help that it was lunchtime , queues at one seafood stall were 100m long - they do a pretty mean paella apparently !! Renovations were happening to one section as well , making it a bit more cramped for room . Our preference for much less people was out the window , as our handhold with each other got a bit tighter !!
Borough Markets was an old market dockyard area and has been done up quite well . We found a timber seat out of the rain with about 30 other people and had our lunch .
Our next walk took us down Dirty Lane , a walkway below brick archways and beside shopfronts . The arch's were cleverly lit up from the ground , making for quite a sight .
There is the odd bit of authorised graffiti here , and of course the unauthorised stuff as well
From Dirty Lane , we emerged out to the riverfront where we walked past Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and that's about as much Shakespeare as you'll get out of us 😉
Horizon 22 is the tallest building , and beside it to the right is the Cheese Grater , can you see why it's earned it's name ????
The rain wasn't much more than light drizzle so we kept wandering up toward the London Eye . Beautiful light's & poles lined the walls beside the river . Definitely wouldn't be swimming in the Thames - certainly not the cleanest river !!
Time for a break from the rain and the walking around , so may as well have a pint while we utilise the dry and warmth - temps didn't get above 15 degrees today .
Walking up a bit further , we got to see Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament to the left .
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