London Day 6 July 4

The Temple Church

 Well doesn’t time fly, this is finally the post from a few days ago, and on going through the photos I know why I haven’t been posting as much as I had hoped.  We have been very busy.  On our last day in London we first ventured to Temple to visit the Temple Church, one of only a few round churches in world.  It is very old dating back to the 10th century and held great significance with the knights templar's, (as in the Da Vinci code) something Rog is very interested in.  They have a lot of history here in relation to the templar's and even have effigies of some of the knights who died in the 10th and 11th centuries laid right in the front of the church, as well as a bronze statue of knights on a horse that stands high in the air on a pillar in the courtyard.

Effigies of fallen knights



Looking through the front doors into the church

Knight statue at the front of the church

Temple Church, one of only a few round churches worldwide

     

One set of stained glass windows in the church

After finishing at the church we made our way around to Cleopatras Needle, an obelisk that was presented to London from Egypt.  It was very impressive as were the bronze statues which lay either side of the obelisk. 

Bronze statues flanking the obelisk

Boys sitting at the base of the Obelisk.  The marks near their feet, and on the statues are from a bomb exploding nearby during the war.

Cleopatras Needle

Another few with the plaque

Bronzed sphinx statues

 Next on our days list was the London Eye.  After a wait we managed to take our spots on the Eye, and I’d have to say the Pods (as they call them) are actually quite large, each one taking around 15 people on board around the view at a time.

Looking up at the Pods

The view over Big Ben and Houses of Parliament

View from directly under the Eye before boarding

Other pods

Rog and the boys in the Pod

And I was there too

Just like his mother

Views over the other side of the Pod

Up close

They views were quite amazing from high in the air and you could literally see for miles. We had great views of Big Ben and Parliament Buildings, and could even see Buckingham Palace in the distance.  When we finished at the London Eye we walked over the London Bridge and headed  back to our unit.  We have an early start in the morning when we go  meet our tour and head off around the United Kingdom and Ireland.