A common man marvels at uncommon things. A wise man marvels at the commonplace. CONFUCIUS

Thursday 19 December 2013

London: (6) Thames Riverscape

Old and new: St Paul's Cathedral, Blackfriars Bridge, modern skyscrapers.

Brigitte from Berlin.

St Paul's and the Millennium Bridge.

View west from the Millennium Bridge. Tate Modern (formerly Bankside Power Station) is on the left of the picture.

View east from the Millennium Bridge. The tapering, rather elegant skyscraper is the Shard, the tallest building in London, the UK and the whole of the EU. It's also the second highest building in Europe, after Moscow's Mercury City Tower. On the right of the picture you can see part of the reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

4 comments:

dritanje said...

I've just caught up with your London posts and thoroughly enjoyed all the images all the more so as I've never really felt intimate with London, unlike other cities I've spent time walking in, Paris being one.... but I do feel a soft spot for the Shard. So it's the tallest building in the EU? Once upon a time Strasbourg Cathedral,"At 142 metres (466 feet),.. was the world's tallest building from 1647 to 1874" (Wikipedia).
Thankful for Wordsworth, especially

This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning...

The Solitary Walker said...

Amazing to think Strasbourg Cathedral was once the world's tallest building, Dritanje!

I enjoyed London for a few days, but it's not really my favourite city — purely because I lived there for a year or two in the 1970s, and got used to it. Sure, it's a novelty to visit nowadays, and there's so much to do and see, and I love the mix of park and square, mews and court, museum and office block, all that Wren and Inigo Jones architecture, all those former 'villages' which still maintain their individual identity if you scratch beneath the surface. But I'm always glad to escape the noise, the traffic fumes, the crowds and the high-intensity living, and return to the country.

Favourite cities I've visited over the past few years have been Paris, Naples and Rome — all great 'walking' cities.

Goat said...

Love the "No Busking" busker.

The Solitary Walker said...

Me too, Goat!