Sky Garden, Borough Market and the Fourth of July
5:19 PM
Saturday adventures are my favourite. A whole day to hang out with my husband??? Yes, yes, yes.
Most weeks I see him a total of ONE waking hour. The weekend is where we get to catch up. Texts and phone calls keep us on the same page but real quality time is not abundant. Since before we were married, our family motto has been: WE CAN DO HARD THINGS. And together, we can.
The weekend of the Fourth of July brought us beautiful weather and an adventure in the city. Walking around this part of London is very different on the weekend. No business men around in suits and most stores around there close because there is no point to be open Saturday-Sunday.
20 Fenchurch Street (aka The Walkie Talkie) has a FREE view point from the Sky Garden on the 35th floor
To get to the top, you must have a ticket. It is FREE of charge but they 'sell out' pretty quickly so I had to get our tickets about 3 weeks in advance. That's mostly because of the weekend thing. During the week, most time slots were wide open.
A sunny view of the Tower Bridge, that round-ish building on the south bank is City Hall, the castle-looking place to the right of the bridge is the Tower of London.
There is not a 360 view but to the north, you've got the Leadenhall Building (aka the Cheese Grater), and 30 St Mary Axe (aka the Gherkin)
With all these pictures taken on my iphone, I couldn't get a very wide shot here so you can only see a teensy bit of the HMS Belfast there to the left and the end of the London Bridge on the right.
The Shard is the tallest skyscraper in Western Europe at 87-stories (306 meters, 310 tip to tip), 4th tallest in all of Europe/Eurasia. (the tallest three are in Moscow, which is kind of, technically part of Europe, on European time though Russia is in Asia. It's all quite an academically contentious issue...for another day)
St Paul's! And, because of the bright day, a very faint London Eye. The Millenium Bridge and Tate Modern. Blackfriars bridge and all that stuff out in West London. The tower to the right sticking out there is the BT Tower
Looking straight up from ground level and a good b&w selfie to prove we were there and I didn't just get the photos of the internet. :)
Just around the corner from 20 Fenchurch street is Leadenhall Market. I have never actually been while the shops are open so I'll have to come back. Again. Like this is torture or something...
You can see the Cheese Grater (Leadenhall Building) over the top there.
Whenever we are in this part of the city, we get a little hungry! Even if it's just for a snack to tide us over. We split a pork and applesauce sandwich and got doughnuts from Bread Ahead for later. Bread Ahead had a sign touting themselves to be the best doughnut in the world! I haven't tried them all so I couldn't say for sure. I'm working on it though ;)
We were invited to a 4th of July BBQ! So many expats among our fellow church members that we were bound to have one. Brats and burgers and all sorts of American treats. So much food and such good people. It was a top night!
A darling area for us to hang in.
Smoky goodness. Just as Independence Day should be celebrated. A British friend lovingly calls it the 'we never liked you anyway' holiday. His wife is American :)
We have been blessed to know some great people. Life-long friends!
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