Adventures on the South Bank

My apologies to everyone, I have been remiss.  I'm not updating this blog as often as I promised, but I'm going to make up for that.  Here goes:

On Saturday June 8 I decided to visit the South Bank area that is downtown.  It's a pretty trendy area along the south bank of the Thames. It's where the London Eye can be found, that gigantic Ferris wheel that has become almost as synonomous with London as Big Ben.  So here are some views across the Thames:

Across the Thames from the South Bank - no idea who the nice tourists are.

And here's St Paul's Cathedral off in the distance-

Did you notice the crane on the left-hand side of the shot.  It seems the entire city of London (including the City of London-there's a difference) is under construction.  I've been told all new projects stopped for several years when the economy went south, but they have started up again...with a vengence.

There are all sorts of interesting things to see as you walk east along the South Bank.  There are various street performers

And the coolest lampposts

As I was walking down the South Bank walk, all of a sudden I began to hear very loud music.  I wondered to myself, "What could that possibly be?"  As I continued walking I saw a very large crowd gathered along the right-hand side of the walk. Then I realized, there's a really big skate park built into the South Bank walk.  Here are some photos of it empty, so you can get an idea of what it looks like.

There were 10-15 kids, both boys and girls between the ages of 10 and 18, skating around on skateboards, bouncig off of the walls and pillars, up and down the stairs, doing all kinds of tricks in there.  It was pretty cool, though I have to admit that I kept imagining the awful injuries that could happen in there.

So I kept walking down away from the Eye and toward the Tower of London.  I passed all kinds of shops and restaurants both fastfood types and more expensive up-scale restaurants.  I walked under some scaffolding erected to do some kind of construction and then rounded a corner and, much to my surprise, I came face to face with this

The Golden Hind, the ship captained by Sir Francis Drake.  I have to admit, I had always imagined these ships as much bigger than this.   This is the ship, however, that Sir Francis Drake captained when he took the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción (Colloquially known by her crew as the Cagafuego or "Fire-shitter," Ha!).  So, it's just there, floating in a little specially-made pond, next to a lovely little pub.  In the bottom photo you can see folks sitting near the rail.  Lots of people had bought food from various and sundry places around and were sitting there having a nosh.

Up from Drake's Golden Hind there was a little alley to pass through

where this little museum, (which you can see in the above photo but not clearly)

the site of the actual prison called The Clink, from which comes the colloquialism of calling all prisons or jails "the clink."  I didn't go in.  It looked to be a bit cheesy (I could hear Halloween-like sound effects coming out of the doors), plus I'm not terribly interested in seeing how sixteenth and seventeenth century prisoners were tortured.  However, just as you pass the Clink and turn to the left you come upon this 

Southwark Cathedral (pronounced SUTH-uk, btw).  As you go around Southwark you get to see the remains of Winchester Palace

Remains of a Roman road beneath the Cathedral

plaque describing Winchester Palace

And a view through the glass roof above the ruins of the Palace, you can see the tower of the Cathedral

The Cathedral has a nice little shop and a cafe they call "the Refectory."  

That is pretty much all of the sights of the South Bank I managed to see.  I never did make it to the Tower, it seemed to keep getting farther and farther away.  Plus, once I made it to Southwark Cathedral I seemed to get caught in a loop, constantly going round and round the Cathedral, never finding my way forward to the Tower.  So, I decided, my inablility to move forward must be a sign that it was time to call it quits.  There was one more thing that entranced me though

these seagulls were floating, almost motionless over the Thames, gliding on the wind and occasionally diving down to pluck something (fish maybe?) out of the water.  They just seemed so calm and peaceful gliding through the the air above the river.  I only wish the picture had been able to capture that feeling.

Well, that's all for South Bank.  Next time, Salisbury Cathedral.  TTFN!!