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.