London Eye is probably the most popular and busiest paid tourist destination in London. This is basically a cantilevered observation wheel having a diameter of 120 meter and a height of 135 meter. Till now it is Europe’s tallest wheel (and one of the tallest in the world). This wheel takes around 30 minutes to make a full rotation. The peek of the wheel facilitates one of the highest public viewing points over the London city. This attraction was completed in the year 2000. In current days it attracts approximately 3.75 millions of visitors yearly. More info about the London eye can be found in wikipedia and the official website.
Opening and closing time:
London eye remains open from 11am to 6pm during the weekdays. During weekend it opens for public from 10am to 8:30pm. Since this is a very busy tourist place, it is advised to book your visiting well before arrival to avoid delays (better to buy it online). There is a very long queue at the ticket counters. Also there is another long queue before riding in a capsule of the London Eye. Those queues can cost you 1-2 hours during weekdays, and during weekends even more. Also when you buy ticket from the counter they would give you the time 1-2 hours from that time.
Entry fee for London Eye:
A standard ticket for London Eye is £30 (if you buy online then 10% cheaper). If you want to beat the crowd (or in a hurry) then you can go for the Fast track with another extra £10 (which is £40). There are options like buying ticket with other attractions and that gives you to save few more pounds. For example from London explorer pass you can buy ticket for 3, 5, or 7 attractions for £64, £94, £114 respectively. This could be a saving option when you plan to visit more attractions.
Where is London Eye:
London Eye located at the southern part of the London, just beside the river Thames. This is itself a landmark in London. You’d probably be able to see it from the far. Embankment, Waterloo, and Westminster are the closest tube stations near London eye.
How to Go:
In my opinion London’t public transportation facility is one of the best in the whole world. There are plenty of options for a tourists to move around in London city. Embankment, Waterloo, and Westminster are the closest tube stations from the London eye. There are few bus stoppages located at the either side of the Westminster bridge, if you don’t feel comfortable with the tubes.
Viewing London Eye from Thames:
Not sure it would make any difference to observe from the middle of the river Thames. Cause you could easily observe it from the other side of the river. But still people fancy a boat cruise over Thames near the London eye. The Westminster pier is having stoppage for the Thames boat cruise. You can take your ride and have your boat passes beside the London eye. You can buy the London Eye and River Cruise option together to save money.
Where to eat:
Now you are hungry after waiting in queue and your visit of London Eye. There are quite a few restaurants around the place. I’ve seen plenty of them beside the York Road which is beside the Waterloo station. I’ve found a nice Indian restaurant named Zabardast that serves delicious wraps. Although it was named after Indian but they were speaking in Bangla (my mother language), so I believe that was a Bangladeshi restaurant.
Where to stay:
London is a mega city with tons of tourist attractions. The city itself has a tourist value for its history and antiquity. There are thousands of accommodation option in London for different classes of tourists (from budget to expensive). I booked a cheap hotel near the Paddington station through booking.com. It was around £45 for a night.
Other attractions nearby:
Shrek’s adventure, London Dungeon, SEA Life centre London Aquarium, etc are the closest attraction to the London Eye. The Thames cruise could be another attraction too to explore the London through river. On the other side of the river you could have a visit at the Westminster abbey.
How we’ve visited:
We’ve gone to London Eye after exploring the famous Madame Tussauds wax museum. We had the London explorer pass, so had to convert it to a ticket from the ticket counter. The queue was long and had to wait there for more than 30 minutes. And when they gave us the ticket it was 2 hours from that time. So in the meantime we were visiting the Sea Life Aquarium nearby (to make sure we were not wasting our time). When we came back from there we had to wait for another 30 minutes in queue to hop on to the capsule of London Eye. The wheel rotates so slowly that it allows passengers to ride very easily. We saw the wheel stopped for the people with disabilities, and also for the senior citizens
Each of the capsule is capable taking around 25 people in it. Inside it has a sitting arrangement as well. Tourists can move inside the capsule if they want. Initially everyone was standing at the edge of the capsule to enjoy the beauty of the London city from a bird’s eye view. But slowly people got tired and half of them moved to the bench for a rest. From the top the London city looked very beautiful. When you are at sky level it looks totally different than the ground level. And you could able to see far away from the top as well.
There were people from different countries and languages in our capsule. But we hardly spoke with each other. Only few eye contacts and smile exchanges between us. Or on few occasions helping each other by taking photos. But when we left the place we moved into different directions. But their photos remains with us (in backdrop when we took ours). We’ll see their pictures in those photos whenever we open the old albums. But in reality we’ll not see them again. Even we see them again we’ll not recognise their faces. And this is the reality.
Suggestions for different activities:
I didn’t get a chance to do those but it could be a good idea for you. If you go there during winter and ride on the wheel during the sunset. It might look different from up there over the skyscrapers. Also in winter it will help you to see the place during night. Hopefully with colourful lights reflecting over Thames would make it more scenic.
London Eye,
London,
Country: England,
GPS coordinate (51°30’11.8″N, 0°07’10.0″W).
This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog https://www.alonelytraveler.com/
Monday, 24 September 2018
