England

As our England trip approaches it’s end, we’re staying in luxury at the Shangri-La hotel in The Shard in London; our 44th floor room gives amazing views of the city by day and night!

 

But today we left the hotel and toured London; first visiting Pudding Lane and climbing The Great Fire Of London monument for some different high views of the city!

Next stop, The Tower Of London! A popular tourist destination:

And then another different viewpoint, taking a “cruise” on the Thames river up to Westminster; seeing The Tower from the Thames – and seeing lots of the rest of London from the river, too:

Returning to our start point, we get a great view of Tower Bridge!

I recently supported a Kickstarter to recreate Thunderbirds episodes, and today had the chance to visit the crew at work (and even to get involved a little!) – we headed to the Slough Trading Estate to see them; given fabulous access, we watched them filming scenes for the first of three new episodes that will be created:

 

Later in the day, I was given the privilege of triggering a pyrotechnic effect set up by Malcolm Smith of Supreme Fireworks:

 

I also had the chance to operate a puppet – it’s even possible that my “performance” might be in the first new episode!

 

A wonderful day!

 

We chose yesterday to go for a walk beside Hadrian’s Wall and headed to Cawfields which offered a nice loop walk – with an impressive quarry site at the parking:

Hadrian’s Wall is just as impressive here as it is at the more famous locations (like Housesteads) and there’s clear ruins of a milecastle, too. Unfortunately, but not unexpected, the weather changed to windy and rain headed towards us – we got wet and cold, but we did also enjoy a nice rainbow!