Christmas Eve was a day out in London for the Millers. Mum had booked us a tour of the Thames Tunnel by tube which made for an unusual start to Christmas Eve!
The Curator of the Brunel Museum took our tour...a small man with a voice loud enough to speak over a tube train, but with a irritatingly small amount of stock phrases, uttered with huge enthusiasm but nevertheless starting to grate after the 20th or 30th time: "Welcome To The The 8th Wonder of the World!" "This is the Oldest Tunnel of the Oldest Stretch of Line in the Oldest Underground Railway System in the World!" "It's the First Tunnel Under a River Anywhere in the World!" etc etc.
The story of the Thames Tunnel is actually an amazing story, full of engineering triumphs and disasters, 19th Century politics and public-relations genius, such as the banquet in the half-finished tunnel. It is Isambard Kingdom Brunel's first public engineering project and paved the way for the London Underground. The tunnel has had a colourful history - including some time as "The First Underground Shopping Arcade!" but it's now part of the East London Line - thus the 'tour by tube'.From our underground adventures we continued South, getting as far as Decathlon - the sports superstore at Surrey Quays. It wouldn't be Christmas Eve without some last minute shopping! As we left, the Sun was setting dramatically above the high rises...
Early evening found us on the South Bank and admiring the London Eye, as ever! The Golden Jubilee Bridges at the Hungerford are also a favourite.
We crossed the River and made our way up to Trafalgar Square for the Christmas Carol Service at St Martin-in-the-Fields. It had a slightly surreal quality to it, being recorded by BBC Radio for their Christmas morning service on Radio 4, but nevertheless some great carols and an excellent excuse for being out and about in a dark and festive London!
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