Eye see you!

Tuesday we woke up to a gorgeous sunny morning- we knew we were going to conquer the London Eye.  Steph decided to come with us which was a great treat.  10am (yeah another late start) and we were off.  The tube to London Bridge- when we alighted the station we realised that we had overshot the mark and were too far from the Eye- hmmm,  back down to the tube station and back to Westminster- which is where we should have stopped.  Okay now we will conquer the Eye.  With a quick photo stop at Big Ben and we crossed the bridge to the London Eye.  The line up for tix wasn't too bad- and then we were on the Eye in about 10 minutes.  A beautiful, sunny, clear day and we could see for miles.  i was surprised that the wheel never stopped for people to get on- it moves slowly granted, but you have to load the pod pretty quickly.  we had about 13 people in the pod with us- but it was roomy and we could see as far as our eyes would let us.  A great view from the top- just such a big city.  Before we knew it 35 minutes had passed and we were back at the bottom.  We met back up with Frank and Steph (Frank wasn't into the height of the wheel!)
Of course it was not lunch time- we found a good pub- St Stevens- and had a good pub lunch.  Then Steph had to leave to get back in time to pick up Leo from school.  We walked past Westminster Cathedral and up the Birdcage walk to Buckingham Palace.  We tried to spot the Queen- but she wasn't home for a tea.  Then we walked back down the Pall Mall to Trafalgar Square. We admired the huge statues in the square- including the new horse skeleton one- this corner statue changes up regularly.  Then we strolled over to St Martens in the field and the brass rubbing gallery.  The girls and I each chose a design and and sat down and did a rubbing- it was a lot of fun.
It was getting late and we had to be back at the house by 5 ish, but with an hour or so to spare we thought we would pop in to the National Gallery- we saw some Van Gogh's, Monet's, Rodain's and more- a brief visit was pretty fruitful in the amount we were able to see.
We jumped on the tube and were homeward bound.  The girls were babysitting Leo and Gabe as Steph and Rod had organised a tour for us of the Tower of London at night, but we hadn't realised it was the only night that Elaine and Andrew could get together.  So Steph managed to get some friends to head to the Tower with her and Rod was off to dinner with us.  We headed to Andrew's restaurant in Marble Arch (picking Rod up along the way).  We arrived before the Stafford's and were treated like royalty.  The drinks started flowing immediately.  Then Elaine and Andrew arrived and the food came in waves.  The food was so good- edamame beans, sashimi, pork buns, artichoke sticks, lamb chops- so much and so good.  We spent a good few hours catching up and before we knew it, it was almost 11:30!  Another long day and we were pooped- we quickly hailed a cab and were home by midnight and straight to bed!