London Eye and National Gallery

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My parents arrived in London in the afternoon of 17 June. My parents-in-law had booked the rooms at Premier Inn in Stratford between 17^th and 21 June, and came to London with the National Express coach in the afternoon on 17 June.



I met up with my parents and John & Mary at Premier Inn hotel on 18 June. As we had decided to get on London Eye, I took them to Jubilee Line’s platform and travelled to Waterloo.



I remembered getting on the London Eye with John & Mary and my mother in 2002 and it has become one of the London’s landmarks. The sponsor has been changed from British Airways to EDF Energy and the price for the ride has risen.



London Eye still seems to be very popular after 13 years of its establishment. We had to join a long queue. As soon as we rode on one of the capsules, my parents started taking photos. We could see most of London’s landmarks, e.g. Parliament building with the Big Ben, St Paul Cathedral, Shard, Gherkin, British Telecom Tower, to name just a few. There were some unusual and ultra modern buildings seen within the sight. John & Mary also enjoyed the view from London Eye and were taking some photos.



We had lunch at Zen Café in the Old City Hall where we bought the tickets for London Eye.



We walked on the Hungerford footbridge between South Bank and Embankment. As well as London Eye, we could see a number of London’s landmarks including London Eye from the different angle.



It wasn’t far to walk between Embankment and Trafalgar Square. I showed my parent and John & Mary the Mall and Whitehall where we walked two years ago. As one of London’s sightseeing spots, they took the photos of monuments, National Gallery, and St Martin-in-the-Fields. I was surprised and impressed to hear that John once had preached in St Martin-in-the Fields.



I wanted to show my parents a number of highlight masterpieces in the National Gallery. I left John & Mary and let them explore at their own pace. I took my parents to East, West and North wings and showed them English masterpieces, e.g. Constable, Reynolds, Turner, and Gainsborough, French masters, e.g. Claude Monet, Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Seurat, Van Gogh, Degas, Dutch masters, e.g. Van Dyck, Rubens, and Rembrandt. It was a pity that 3 of Vermeer’s paintings were removed for the special exhibition which was due to start on 26 June. We spent two hours on looking round the exhibitions including some resting time.



We returned to Stratford and I let John & Mary and my parents had a rest until Mark arrived.



We decided to have dinner at Real Greek restaurant in the Westfield City where we had a meal with Steve, Rhiannon, and Bryn. As we didn’t know much about Greek food, we decided to order Meze courses, and it let us eat a wide variety of good. It was the first experience that my parents had tried Greek food. They enjoyed eating them.

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