Walking home
Okay so the bridge isn't wobbly any more, but it will always be remembered that way. Sometimes I like to walk from work in the City to Waterloo station. It takes about 45 minutes, but I get to wander past St. Paul's Cathedral, across the 'wobbly' bridge and along the south bank past the Tate Modern gallery, the Oxo tower, Royal Festival Hall and the National Film Theatre. Often, as on this particular occasion I also spend an hour in the Tate Modern since it is open until 9pm on a Friday.
For those of you who don't know, the 'wobbly bridge' should have been referred to as the 'millenium bridge', however as soon as large numbers of people walked on it, it developed a somewhat disconcerting sway. This meant that it was closed down almost immediately. And it didn't open until early 2002 after extensive modification work, therefore missing any millenium celebrations it should have been participating in. Along with the 'millenium dome' it counts as one of a numbre of rather expensive and pointless excercises that were meant to celebrate the millenium.
Walking down to the bridge from St. Paul's, I realised that I had my digital camera with me. It's small, so I recently thought it would be a good idea to start carrying it around wherever I go. This way, if I see something worth photographing then I will have it available. One thing you will notice in the image below is the number of cranes in hte background. This is even more noticeable from the upper floors of the Tate and any other high place in London. For some reason the city seems to be constantly getting built or rebuilt.
The sun was setting, so there was too much glare to see anything in the west, but there was a decent view along the river past Southwark Bridge and on towards Tower Bridge.
The bridge crosses conveniently from St. Paul's to the Tate Modern art gallery. It's one of my favourite galleries, not least because it is free to get in. The occasional exhibitions they hold require a price, but just wandering around the permanent (but always changing) exhibits doesn't cost a thing. This means that I'm quite happy to wander in for just twenty minutes during my lunch break or for an hour after work on a Friday.
