Welsand's in London

London Bridges

It took us almost four weeks to settle in the flat before we were able to venture out of the community into the city. For our first outing we decided to go to the Borough Market near the London Bridge. This is considered London's premier fine food market. There is organic meat and produce (Jer bought some pepperoni sticks that he loved!), handmade cheeses (we sampled several--excellent! the blocks are as big as a table, very cool!), breads, sweets (aka desserts), chocolates (we purchased some of this as well), and coffees/teas. We also enjoyed lunch here. It is very interesting. I have not seen anything like it before and I love that they offer samples of most things, try before you buy, a great idea!

After the Market we went over the London Bridge, which was actually anti-climatic and just a normal bridge. It is the Tower Bridge that is so unique and memorable, which we also walked over. This bridge is gorgeous and has great views of the river. This bridge can be raised--when raised it is 135 feet high and 200 feet wide. I am not sure how this compares to the lift bridge in Duluth or in Stillwater. . . This bridge was completed in 1894 and its Victorian engineering helped it become a symbol of London quickly. This is something to see!

During this day trip we also toured/climbed the Monument. This column was designed by Christopher Wren to commenorate the Great Fire of London which devastated the original walled city in Sept. 1666. It is the tallest isolated stone column in the world. It is 205 ft. high and has 311 steps to the top. You actually get a certificate of completion for making it up and down. The views are spectacular! Sophie saw a bus from the top and pointed to it and said "car" which did look like a car from that high up! She is definately not scared of heights! This is a great workout and well worth it if you can handle the heights to see the views of the London Bridge, Tower Bridge and the river and city!

All in all this first day of sight seeing in the city was amazing and making us feel like all our hard work to get here and to get settled is now allowing us to play a little....

posted by Chris @ 9:00 PM