They say that when engineer Eiffel came up with the idea of building an iron tower to anchor the Paris Exhibition he was subjected to a fury of criticism. As it turned out the temporary “monstrosity” was not only never dismantled, but it became the most recognized symbol of Paris. When British Airways proposed to commemorate the 2000 year by building a giant Ferris wheel in the center of London they were criticized as well.
(Click on the picture to see it full size, use a back button to return to this spot.)

The structure is still standing and is proving more and more popular and it would not be surprising if The London Eye eventually surpassed the Big Ben as the symbol of London.

While visibility is not necessarily the best in winter, winter takes care of the unmanageable lineups typical of the summer months. Since Monica is here now and may not be here this summer (neither may we) we decided to take a trip on the wheel. The promotion blurb describes it as the largest observation wheel in the world. I believe it is. Do you know of any other “observation wheels” anywhere else in the world? I don’t! That said, the contraption does offer a very good view of London and the 30 minute super-smooth and quiet ride in the egg-like capsules is interesting in its own right. Is it worth it the 10 quid? Probably - that appears to be the smallest charge for any type of entertainment in this town – going to see a movie, for instance.

I had four days of vacation left. Under the current regulations we loose them unless we take them before the end of the year or at most in a continuous series overlapping from the old into the new year. With three days to start 2005, we were looking for ideas how to use them best – kind of difficult this time of the year. And then we noticed that the weather forecast was promising a sunny day with temperatures around 12 degrees C. Trustingly, we embarked on a trip to Salisbury and the nearby Stonehenge. The forecast turned out to be close to the mark, it was around 10 degrees and even though it was not sunny, at least it did not rain. Stonehenge is a few kilometers west of Salisbury (beyond walking distance even for me) but luckily there is an hourly bus service from the train station. Everybody has an impression of size from the pictures they have seen and to most people Stonehenge looks smaller than they imagined. However, it is sitting in the middle of wide open, gently rolling space, with nothing to give scale. Also, one cannot walk directly under the stones, which would probably put them in the right dimensional context. The construction is impressive. What, however surprised me more was the large number of burial mounds – round and long barrows, in a wide area surrounding the stone circle. This was clearly a major center.

We had time to spare before going back to London and so we took a look at another architectural monument – the Salisbury Cathedral. Next to the cathedral is a museum housing one of the four surviving original copies of Magna Charta – one is impressed with the brevity of the document – just one sheet of velum.

Other than that I am keeping myself busy by taking an Economics class, offered by the Birbeck College but given at the London School of Economics, which has the added advantage of being literally next door to our office. To compensate for the heavy lifting there I am also taking a wine tasting class. I found a few venues to practice Spanish and I started to drop in on a little group that speaks French, but I am going slow because I tend to mix Spanish and French and do not want to end up speaking neither.