On our third night in London, the middle toe of my left foot found the leg of the chair in the middle of the night. I was looking for the key to open the window and dragged the reluctant toe out of bed with me. It found the chair before I found the key.
We would have dilly-dallied and lollygagged around all morning even if my toe wasn’t complaining about the chair, but relaxing at the apartment helped it calm down a bit.
Imagine yourself as just a speck in London’s Eye
After lunch we slid down the Tube to the Eye of London, Europe’s largest Ferris wheel. It’s much higher in feet than meters (443 feet to only 135 meters), so if you’re afraid of heights, I suggest you use the metric system. One rotation takes about 30 minutes and the wheel doesn’t stop to let you board; you must jump on one of the 32 clear capsules as it slowly rolls by. We enjoyed the view and took lots of pictures. My brother, daughter, and I all pointed to the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster and exclaimed to the grandchild, “Look! There’s Big Ben.” Later we learned that it wasn’t. Technically, Big Ben is not the clock or the clock tower but the bell of the clock. It’s true that Big Ben-ness is now associated with the clock and tower, but I bet if you’re British it gets your knickers in a knot to hear the tourists exclaim to small children, “Look! There’s Big Ben.”
Look! There’s not Big Ben! It’s Big Ben’s clock tower!
After getting out of London’s Eye, we went to the 4-D London Eye movie, which is included in the price of the Eye ticket. Decked out in our 3-D glasses, we not only spent almost four minutes soaring over London town, seeing fireworks explode within arms reach, and watching seagulls fly by our faces, but we also felt the wind and mist of London all around us. When the precipitation first started, my brother thought someone had brought a water pistol into the theater.
From there, we walked over to Westminster Abbey. The grandchild took one of the children’s treasure hunt papers, and my daughter and I took turns finding the important historical information in the Abbey. We didn’t finish the treasure hunt, but the grandchild still received a large piece of chocolate wrapped up like a gold coin.
Watching the child eat chocolate reminded us that we needed some sweet morsel as well. We found a French bakery with scones and macarons. Perfect with tea.
The advertisement for the French bakery, BB Bakery County Hall.
Although the sky got drippy, we walked along the Thames after that, avoiding pointing out too many things to the grandchild, since we so often were mistaken. We took the last river tour down the Thames, and that’s when I didn’t take a picture of the real London Bridge.
My toe didn’t complain much during the day, but that night it looked like it was still carrying a grudge because it was all puffy and red like maybe it had been crying. It avoided the chair after that.
year-struck 
Get better, toe!
Toe thanks you and says, “Beware of chairs.”
Your poor toe. And on such a special trip. My feet used to be decent looking, before I began my career of middle-of-the-night stubbings, as well as dropping the occasional large and old-fashioned telephone on my poor digits. The accounts of your trip and the wonderful pictures have been delightful, but your poor toe. Hope it doesn’t “cramp” your style.
This made me smile. You never appreciate your toes until you hurt one.
So glad you’ve enjoyed the accounts of the trip. I promise there’s an end.
So good to return to old London town. Your photos are better than mine.
Myra, you have to tell me about your adventures in London.
Drat. No purple cow around when I rode the London Eye. Best wishes to the toe and hoping it feels better.
No purple cow? Well, there’s still lots to see besides that. When were you there?
2006. Came over for a friend’s wedding in Kent.
I had to look up where Kent is located. How nice that you could also spend time in London.
What! A post with no pigeons?
Actually, pigeons were everywhere, but if I keep talking about them, I’m afraid I’ll get pigeon-holed as just another blog about pigeons.
Glad you did it for me! I have a fear of heights and couldn’t go when given the chance. Did do the river cruise though!
It’s so large and so slow that you don’t really feel any motion. I’m glad you were able to do the river cruise – so much to see.
Sorry to hear about your toe, I’ve had some toe problems lately too that I’ll write about at some point. Here, we call it The London Eye, not London’s Eye 🙂 and even being British, I thought Big Ben was the clock tower. I think that this is now such a common misconception that the whole thing has received its name, thus making it OK ;D. Ah, chocolate coins are the best~
I read about your foot injury and saw the picture on your blog. Ouch! So glad you are doing better now.
It makes me feel much better to know that you thought Big Ben was the clock tower, too.
Cool! Thanks for sharing the photos of the icons in London!
Thanks for reading, Alex. I like your photo with the Eiffel Tower.
You are welcome! And I’m glad that you like my photo! Cheers!
Ouch! Banging a toe against an inanimate object is exceedingly painful. This post reminds me that I have never been on The London Eye – it’s now on my longish list of things to do next time I am in London.
I would have liked to go again at night to see the lights. You’ll have to write about your ride once you go.
mmm. Scones. But it’s odd that you went to a French bakery to get them, ne’s pas?
We were delighted at the selection: a great variety. It was a great place to stop for a treat.
I like scones too. And the scenes are very impressive, but I get the impression you all were working too hard at being tourists. It’s a wonder you didn’t get completely worn out. I hope your toe is enjoying life these days.
Actually this was a leisurely vacation. The last two with my brother we went night and day. On this one, we rarely did anything in the mornings and were often back for a late evening meal.
Joining your toe’s many well-wishers in hoping that the country air and familiar furniture placement of Wisconsin have helped it to recover itself.
My toe is fine. It knows the furniture here well and avoids any and all confrontations.
Ohhhh, yearstricken, thank you so much for allowing me to visit London with you! Your photos help me feel like I’m there, they are so personal. And your stories are, as always, so lively. I am embarrassed to say that poor Toe’s story made me laugh, although I’m sure it wasn’t the least bit funny to Toe (or Toe’s attached Person.)
I think I shall go make some scones now.
Now that my toe has gotten over the incident with the chair, we laugh about it. Of course, the other toes are jealous because they weren’t mentioned in the blog. I hope they don’t do something foolish to try to be in the blog, too. I had a problem with my furniture once when I wrote about my dresser. I never knew the chest of drawers could be so jealous.
And my thighs told me to stop talking about scones.
Love the bakery ad picture!
It’s a great picture, and they use it on their business cards as well.