Millennium Bridge London, Anglophile Friday - and Family

Millennium Bridge

Looking Toward St. Paul's

It was a gray day, and from what I understand, a normal day for London. Although I don't think I've ever posted a photo in B&W before, this photo turned out pretty gray anyway, so I decided to give in and go with grayscale.

Night View of St. Paul's

From Millennium Bridge 

 Viewing Millennium Bridge From Atop St. Paul's

One more

The photo above was taken while Mr. C. and I were on Millennium Bridge, waiting for our daughter and hubby to show up.  And here they are:

Wondering why Mom has to take another photo

Dinner Guests
or
What to do with the sugar-coated, roasted peanuts
they sell on Millennium Bridge

 The menu looks pretty good.

Waiting for the restaurant to open

Awwww.....

That particular night we ate at The India, a restaurant just a stone's throw from St. Paul's Cathedral. It felt like we were in a bomb shelter, and I'm thinking that we probably were. Anyway, the food was good and plentiful, the service good, and the company was unbeatable.

The View From Our Apartment

Renting a two-bedroom apartment through Airbnb.com was definitely the way to go. It was located conveniently at Elephant and Castle, was in a tall building called The Strata Tower on the twentieth floor, and with the two of us couples splitting the cost, it lowered our per-night cost to about £75.  Not bad for central London. And the apartment was beautiful with huge windows that looked out over the city. 

Train stations were a familiar sight. We took the Tube and the train everywhere.

Would you believe that's Mr. C. and me?

Nah, I didn't think so.

Train Travel:
London to Canterbury

London to Milton Keynes, Cab to Cranfield 

(to visit St. Peter & St. Paul's Church 

where the ancestors are buried)

London to Salisbury, Bus to Stonehenge

London to Windsor and back 

London to Oxford and back

London to Cambridge

Cambridge to Ely and back to London

London to York

York to Durham and back to York

York to London

We have a lot of pictures to share on Anglophile Friday. A warning up-front: If you don't like churches and cathedrals, you might not enjoy Anglophile Friday for a very long time.

The Four of Us

Minus the Annoying Woman Who Kept Taking Pictures!
Does everyone look tired?

We arrived in London a day before our daughter and hubby did and stayed in the country an additional 3 days after they left. It was great fun to share an apartment with them and travel together to places we both wanted to see.  We laughed that we had to travel to London to see one another! (They live in Texas, a twenty-hour drive from our home in Wisconsin.)

The Tube

Taking us everywhere else in between.
I cloned out the face to protect the cranky.

Handy Tube Map

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Bridges of London (a few)

Somewhere I read that these are the pilings from the old London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway bridge near Blackfriars.  Please correct me if that's wrong, for I have no idea. But I thought they were pretty. :-)

 Blackfriar's Bridge, London

Blackfriars is where the GHOST from London Walks took my daughters and me (by car - I think he felt sorry for us lost-looking Americans) so we could catch the Tube after the most fun walk ever! Check it out at London Walks.  Even if you never take a London Walk, David Tucker's narrative is a blast! Oh, and by the way, David Tucker is originally from Wisconsin! He went to Oxford for his Ph.D. and ended up buying London Walks.

 Westminster Bridge, taken from the EYE

obviously

 There are three bridges that I can see in this photo.

The nearest is Westminster Bridge

The second nearest is Lambeth Bridge

The farthest is Vauxhall Bridge

I think

The Westminster by Gaslight walk (also from walks.com) took us from the Westminster Tube Station, east across Westminster Bridge, then south along the River Thames, west across Lambeth Bridge, and north along the west side of the Palace of Westminster (Parliament) til we were back where we started.

Right. This isn't a bridge. 

But it is the view we had as we were walking south along the east bank of the Thames and looking across the river. It's a beautiful sight.

 Crossing Tower Bridge

 I had thought this was in east London, but then realized that it's either a sunrise or a sunset. I don't think we would have been on the river at sunrise, so it must be sunset, which means we're looking west. So I guess it's the 'mystery bridge.' Is it possible that it's the Cannon Street Railway Bridge? for I think I see St. Paul's off to the right, upriver.

If anyone knows, Please let me know.

 Tower Bridge again

Millennium Bridge

the other side of which can be found a vendor selling ♪Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire♪ But I'm warning you now: don't bother to sing the song. It was totally lost on him. ;-)

I know. My daughter says, 'Mom, you're such a tourist!!)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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