Wibbly Wobbly bridge and Sky Garden

We made our way over to Monument station this morning and walked along the Thames Path towards the Millenium bridge.  There was a lone Egyptian goose hanging out on the side of the river.

The Millenium Bridge, more affectionately known as the Wibbly Wobbly bridge is a pedestrian bridge across the Thames that was opened in 2000 and closed just days later due to its alarming wobble.  Apparently the sideways steps of large crowds matched the natural frequency of the bridge causing a feedback loop.  The bridge was closed for 2 years while dampeners were fitted to control the movements. 

Becky and I walked across the bridge to the South side of the river where the Tate Modern and the reproduction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre stand.  Got some nice photos from the centre of the bridge of the views down river.

Then we took the Thames Path again on the south bank before walking back across Southwark bridge. 

By this time we were withtn 30 minutes of our lunch reservation, so we made our way over to the Walkie Talkie building.  

The Walkie Talkie, officially known as the Fenchurch building, hosts London's highest public garden: the Sky Garden.  It's free to get in, but you have to get tickets online and queue first. However, if you happen to have a reservation at one of the 2 restaurants up in the garden, you get priority and don't need a ticket or to queue. We've tried several times to get a lunch reservation,  but the restaurants are usually booked up well in advance. This time I booked back in November and finally managed to get in.  

We went up early and had some great views from the top of the building before a very nice lunch at the Darwin Brasserie. Its a good thing we went up early as it started snowing during our meal and you couldn't see anything after that.

After our late lunch and some more perusing of the gardens we headed over to Picadilly for some shopping before spending the evening in the hotel bar again.

The Canterbury Tales

We arrived at St Pancras yesterday and made our way across London to our hotel at Paddington.  Today, we decided to take the train from Victoria to Canterbury.  I'd never been to Canterbury before and its a very pretty town with lots of old buildings.

We went around the cathedral where Thomas Beckett was murdered and saw the tombs of King Henry IV and the Black Prince.  The original funerary clothes of Edward the Black Prince were on display in the crypt. Apparently they had been hung above his tomb for over 600 years, so they must have been very well made to still be in one piece.

We had a late lunch in the Thomas Beckett pub, where we were greeted by 2 very friendly resident pub dogs: Rocco and Maira.  I couldn't finish my rather large lunch, so I did give them some of my chips at the end.

After some shopping we returned to London later in the afternoon and have just had some drinks in the hotel bar this evening.

On the Buses

It's our last full day in Paris and the weather is frosty!

Rather than try and walk around in the slippery conditions we spent most of the day riding around on the hop on hop off bus before finally hopping off at St Germain in the Latin Quarter (so called because it's the intellectual heart of the city where students of the Sorbonne used to speak Latin).  We had lunch at a lovely bistro with a great view of Notre Dame.

We had a short stop at the Christmas market near Hotel de Ville before heading back to our hotel.

As its our last night in Paris we went down to the bistro next to our hotel and ordered Grand Marnier pancakes that our waiter set alight for us.

Tomorrow morning we will be heading off to London on the Eurostar, and traveling most of the day. So there wont be a blog entry.

Musee D'Orsay and the Champs Elysee

Don't ever book trips through Viator. I used them for booking tickets to Musee D'Orsay.  They claim they will deliver the tickets the day before, but they didn't and their automated system just takes you round in circles. Beckay had the same problem with them when she booked tickets for the Arc de Triomphe . In the end we had to contact the tour provider directly to get the tickets.  

The Musee D'Orsay is a newer museum in a building that used to be a railway station.  It houses artworks mainly by French artists although the did have quite a few paintings by Van Gogh.   

We were there early, but after a couple of hours it was packed and you couldn't get near the paintings anymore,  so we left shortly after lunch and headed over to the Champs Elysee to do some shopping and had a late lunch there at a restaurant called La Folie. Had a lovely duck parmentier and a champagne cocktail with creme de mure.

In the evening we went back to the Brasserie near the hotel for hot chocolate  with cointreau.

New Year's Day

Headed out to Momartre first thing.  Took a ride on the Momartrain around the village and the Pigalle where they have all the "toy" shops. You know what kind of toys I mean.

After being dropped back outside the Sacre Coeur,  we walked around looking at the artists for a bit, before a very nice late lunch at a place called La Boheme.

In the evening we went back to the Brasserie near the hotel and enjoyed Grand Marnier crepes which the waiter set on fire for us. I wasn't  expecting this and didn't  manage to get my tablet out of my bag to takr a photo until the flames had gone out.  We had a few cocktails as well before crashing for the night.

New Year's Eve

Crepes for breakfast this morning, then off to  the Arc de Triomphe again in the daylight this time.  After much queueing (even with our prepurcased tickets) we finally got to the entrance to the stairs where the attendant took one look at us and asked if we needed the lift. No no, we said - we can walk.  What were we thinking!  89 metres up a spiral staircase later we emerged inside the top of the monument where the gift shop was, puffing and blowing. 

There were a couple more floors of stairs to get out onto the top of the monument,  but the views were worth it. 

We had a late lunch in (would you believe it) a Caffe Concerto, that we found underground in the Louvre ticket hall.  We headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours rest, before heading out to the boats for our midnight cruise.   Got some lovely photos of the views from the Seine at night and watched the Eifel Tower light display and some fireworks before taking the metro back to the hotel.