So, when I heard another friend of mine from Flickr that he was visiting London and had a spare day in which he would like to see some sights, I offered to head up to London to show him round. So, on the list was: Westminster, Tate Modern, St Pauls, Lloyds Building, Tower Bridge and the list goes on.
So, up again, just like on a work day, up before dawn down to Dover Priory and onto the High Speed train through Kent and under most of Essex and East London to Stratford. Instead of walking through the gilded palace of shopping that is Westfield. So, we go to the new DLR station and head down to Canning Town before changing onto the Jubilee Line to head to Westminster near where we were due to meet Mark.
I had given him my mobile number in case he could not find us; it seemed I had covered everything. except leaving my fully charged mobile at home. I just had to hope he could find the meeting place, a branch of Starbucks behind the old County Hall building.
We walked round Parliament Square, we had not been there since we first met back in 2006. There were the tents of various protesters the other side of the road, and a few policemen stood at the various entrances. Traffic was light, and so it was a very quiet weekend at the seat of government. I took a few shots and then we walked over Westminster Bridge towards Country Hall and Starbucks.
Mark arrived right on time, and after a chat we headed out along the Thames to Hungerford Bridge at Charing Cross, regaling him with what we thought might be interesting information.
We walked along the Embankment, and then up through the Inns of the Court to see the Temple, up to Fleet Street to St Paul's and then past that up into the City to the Lloyds Building which had been high on his list of places to visit. A short walk away was The Gherkin, and then back down towards the Bank of England.
We called in at a pub for beer, and ended up staying for lunch and more beer. Mark and Jools had steak and ale pie, I had a burger. It was unremarkable fare, but the beer good and cheap (for London), and we were feeling much better as we hit the hard streets of London.
Jools headed for Ally Pally for a craft fair, and so Mark and myself headed back down to the River, walked along the Thameside path to the Millennium Bridge and crossing there and head towards Tate Modern.
The Tate is housed in a former power station, and is an imposing building. It has the best that the modern art world has to offer, although I can't claim to be impressed by much that hung on it's walls. However, we did look round most of it, and I did see some stuff that thrilled but most baffled.
We ended up on the top floor where we had planned to eat lunch. It was good we ate earlier, as it was heaving with people, and the great views advertised over the London skyline was mostly hidden behind the heads of those already eating or drinking.
We walked back down, and outside into the gathering gloom as the clouds thickened and the air held the promise of rain soon. we walked to Southwark, and looked at Borough Market. That's not really true, as the crowds were so dense we stopped after a couple of minutes and went inside the cathedral next door.
And so we walked to City Hall, to a small cafe for coffee, and then it was time to say goodbye as I had to meet Jools at St Pancras and he prepare for an early start on Sunday morning as his tour round Britain was due to start at six in the morning.
I headed back up the Northern Line from London Bridge to st Pancras, and Jools was waiting at the Betjeman Arms. We had a drink and then it was time to head towards the Southeastern platforms and our train back to Dover.
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