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London Eye

By: Ryan Leigh
On: 14/07/2010
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Living in the South West, we often head to London on a weekend to check out a band, art exhibition or theatre show that us West County folk sometime miss out on...but we had never really been interested in withstanding the mighty queues to go on the world famous London Eye.

However, one weekend visit last July, we were fortunate enough to get the most beautiful summer weather! This time, we really could not resist the opportunity to see London, one of the most iconic cities in the world, from a huge Ferris wheel high above the River Thames that reaches a height of 135 metres.

The London Eye at the time it was built, was the tallest “Ferris wheel” in the world, until 2006 when the Star of Nanchang in China surpassed it (160m), followed by the Singapore Flyer (165m) in 2008. The total weight of steel in the Eye is 1,700 tonnes! Which begs the question: How on earth did they construct this monstrous structure? Apparently, the sections that make up the wheel where floated up the Thames on barges and assembled lying flat on piled platforms in the river. Once the wheel was complete it was raised into an upright position at 2 degrees an hour until it reached 65 degrees. It was left in that position for a week while engineers prepared for the second phase of the lift.

The journey takes around 30 minutes so you have plenty of time to enjoy the views and work out where everything is! The most famous landmarks that can be seen include Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, and Westminster Abbey.

The standard ticket costs £17.88 (adult) which is quite expensive, but if you book online you get a 20% discount.

I would only recommend going if it is a beautiful day and visibility is at its best!

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