More London

Kay has planned our days in London this week very carefully. With clear skies at last (though windy and cool) we all set out by train to Monument Station yesterday morning - the monument built in the late 1600s to commemorate the Great Fire of London in 1666.

With tickets in high demand Kay had booked us into Skygarden weeks ago. Skygarden is on the 43rd floor of the Walkie Talkie building in Fenchurch St, London (near Monument). It's renowned as London's highest public garden and is very popular with visitors, thus it's ticketed, timed entry system. The building is popularly known as the "cigarette lighter".

Being so high, and so open, it has sweeping panoramic views of the whole city.

I liked this view across the Thames to "the Shard" from its open viewing platform.

From here we walked through the nearby Leadenhall Markets. The old, the very old, the new and the very new are all compressed together in this busy area of London. Rich heritage and stunning architecture dating back to the 14th century (although most of what we see today was built in Victorian times) are the markers of this old market area in amongst glass walled new buildings.

The view to Tower Bridge as we walked over London Bridge....

...... and entered the Borough Market near Southwark Cathedral - a favourite haunt of ours from previous visits to London. Arriving around noon, it was very crowded - much more so than in our previous visits.

English pork pies of every variety .......

We ate delicious fresh cooked fish and prawn wraps for lunch (with Argentinian empanadas for starters), on Joel's recommendation. 

and sour dough doughnuts from Bread Ahead for dessert. Mine had pistachio filling and Rob's had creme brulée filling.  They were to die for - honestly!

As we walked from Borough Market along Southbank we had this view of a few London icons: Blackfriars Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral and a big red London bus - as the skies cleared, the sun emerged and it became at least 5oC warmer.

Jazzy had a few diversions on Southbank while Kay, Ros and I ducked into Tate Modern for a quick visit.

From there we crossed back over the Thames via the pedestrian/cyclist only Waterloo Bridge, to Embankment Station, ready for the trip back to Hammersmith and school pick up time.

A great view of the London Eye from Waterloo Bridge.

We enjoyed another night of playtime and dinner with Joel & Kay and the kids last night. Jazzy was ready for bed by 8.30pm, loving her new PJs from Peter Alexander in Australia.

We'd walked well over 10klms yesterday, with all these experiences. The streets and the venues were very crowded and there'd been a big range in the weather conditions throughout the day. We all collapse into bed each night absolutely whacked. Though exciting, its hard work being a tourist in a big city!