London Tower Bridge and Thames River Cruise

While visiting London last September,

My daughter Suzanne and I visited the Tower Bridge 
and took the Thames River Cruise.

We walked across the bottom and top levels
of the bridge.
 and visited the engine room below the end towers.

The top layer of the bridge,  is a pedestrian bridge.
An elevator or stairs in the end towers,
gets you to the top.

A large area for pedestrians to walk.

climbing to the top.

~1894~
Queen Victoria

A glass bottom in the floor on the top level of the bridge.
Looking down through the glass floor. 

Very high up.

from the bottom level looking up.

Nice view of the Thames and London.

The Engine Room.
Steam technology, to lift the bridge.
It's a bascule bridge
 (The floor opens and lifts, to let large ships pass)

Great engineering to run this operation.,
There is large exhibition of the whole operation.
I am sharing just a few photos.
There's much more to it than this.

A log record,  marking bridge openings.

Basic necessities ~ Coal, Steam and Water

A firetruck crossing the bridge

After the bridge.....
We stopped for lunch at an outside café.
The food is cooked in outside ovens.
You can see the ovens,
  left of the hut above.

I got a hamburger.






















The best hamburger ever...

I like the fact that they don't load you up with fries.

Suzanne and her pizza.

S

A nice place to relax and enjoy the view.

 

Next, we took The Thames River Cruise.

Aerial view of the Thames River.

(Photo from  Wikipedia)
The cruise passes under all the bridges.

 "The Cheesegrater"

Leadenhall building.

since 2014.

St. Paul's Cathedral 

"The Shard"

(A shard of Glass).

95 stories. (2012)

The tallest skyscraper in U.K.

passing under a bridge.

The new high-rise at the left

is a residential building, 

the Blackfriars Building.

Also nicknamed  "The Tummy"

52 Stories, 2018

The London Eye.

A large observation wheel

City Hall Building

The Westminster Bridge coming up.

Me and Suzanne

Taken from The Tower Of London.
My next blog post.

I hope you enjoyed our river cruise

and London skyscrapers of the 21st. century.

Thanks for your visit xo

My previous blog in on London and Travel Tips,

to view click here.

Tea At The Ritz

My daughter Suzanne, 
surprised me with a lovely 
Christmas gift.
 Tea at the Ritz Carlton,

in downtown Montreal,
So sweet of her.
I spent Christmas with her
and family.
We all went together for the tea.

Sorry for the poor quality
photos, from my phone.

View into the dining room.

We (5 of us) were seated on the left

and the very back.

We had our own private section

with 2 sofas and a table in the middle.

Finger sandwiches,

scones and pastries.

A large selection of our

choice of teas.

We couldn't eat it all.

Sweet Sabrina

Mirrored doors leading to a ballroom

Suzanne

My son-in-law, Martin,

Sabrina, Mathieu, my grandchildren

and Suzanne

I squeezed into this pic.

Part of me.

I'm intrigued by

 markings under chinaware.

The silverware.
 Cromargan.
(I don't know what the initials mean)

Some decorations

The Christmas tree was still up.

This photo does not do it justice.

The tree was beautiful. 

In the entrance by the stairway,
A family photo.

The Lobby

Out on the street and heading home.

Thanks you Suzanne for this lovely occasion.

I wish you Health and Happiness for 2019.

Thanks for visiting my blog xo.