Summer River Cruise down the Thames - Summer 2001

Been going through a few *very* old pictures just lately (just tidying up and sorting), and came across some pictures from the very dawn of the (popular) digital camera age, having borrowed my Dad's cutting edge Fujifilm MX-1500 for the occasion (I was still using a point and shoot 35mm at the time), which started with a coach trip (although quite how Flyingpops' folks managed to drag her onto it, I will *never* know)... ;)

So, please set your wayback machines to the truely magnificent summer of 2001 and come with me to the glittering metropolis that is the City of London, still hung over from the Millennium celebrations, for a cruise down the river Thames...starting at the (recently useful) Thames Barrier which isn't quite so shiny now -


- around the (doomed) Millennium dome (now the thriving O2) listening to the guide telling us how it hadn't quite been possible to remove all the toxic waste from the surrounding areas during redevelopment -

- past the place (how spooky to see it here) I had absolutely no idea I would end up working -One Canada Square (now, of course, utterly lost in a forest of equally impressive companions, and soon to be joined by several taller ones!) -

- and along the river -

- under Tower Bridge (ooh!) -


- past HMS Belfast (which has managed to hang onto it's name and resist sponsorship, thank goodness) -

- the Tate Modern (complete with failed wobbling Millennium Bridge, you can clearly see the scaffolding in the second shot towards St. Paul's..hehe...!) -


- under Blackfriars Station/bridge (which would be, again unknowingly, my route to work in Kings Cross for all those years, really don't miss the Thameslink line ;) -

- followed by a trip on the "Millennium Wheel" (as it was known at the time, now known as the "London Eye", of course) in probably the best possible conditions...


...most suprising to me is that a number of these pictures I am actually still really very happy with (even today being 50,000+ shots practice further down the line towards being an "enthusiast")...

Anyway, I'll post a couple of shots from the "Millennium Wheel" itself when I get to them, and perhaps a few more (if I find any interesting ones) as I continue forward through time...