Thursday, April 11, 2013

Up & Away

Our first stop on our day out in London was The London Eye.



This is the 5th time I've taken a flight. I still tend to think of it in those terms since it was originally sponsored by British Airways. Ieuan had been looking forward to this but decided once we were about 25% round that maybe heights weren't his thing. This from a boy who until recently lived on a mountain. He did however manage to get a grip once it had gone over the top and then quite enjoyed it and managed to look rather cheerful when the official photo was taken.

The interest for me this time wasn't looking at the various tourist attractions but this is the first visit since the Shard was complete so it was good to look at it from a decent height.

Before we went on the eye we availed ourselves of their 4D Experience. I'm not entirely sure what the 4th dimension was as it is just 3d, but as you also get sprinkled with water occasionally depending on the scene you are looking at, I'm assuming it is that. Worth going in if you are there though.

For those who know their London geography there is a bit of a weird experience. One always expect the Thames to have a north and south bank, particularly as you are on "The Southbank", but in fact you are actually on a 90 degree bend and thus "north" is actually west and it takes some time to find distant locations as nothing seems to be in the right direction.

As one would expect there is a gift shop attached when you get off and it is there you can pick up your "official souvenir photograph". Unusually for London, the prices seem to be quite reasonable, and it is worth picking up souvenirs here if you have gifts to take home to family.

RATINGS

For Me - 7/10
For Ieuan - 8/10

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a problem with heights, but I truly want to go on the Eye. Without a photo though!

Masher said...

Me and Mrs Masher did the Eye thing, many years ago (yes, when it was still BA). It was also a lot cheaper than it is now.
Mrs M doesn't like heights and sat on the bench in the middle of the pod with her eyes closed until we reached the top. Similarly to Ieuan though, she was fine coming down.
I feel that I should really only have paid half price for her.