The Thames Barrier

The Thames Barrier took 8 years to build and is considered the 8th wonder of the world. Completed in 1984 and valued at over 1,000 million pounds, this is London's most expensive project. The Barrier was built to prevent London from being flooded by high tides and storm surges. It protects 125 sq. kilometers of London and 1.25 million people. This is the Worlds 2nd largest movable flood barrier. In 1928 the Thames flooded taking 14 lives, and also in 1953 the North Sea flooded killing 307. The first photo taken from our flat is looking to the East of us, which is downstream. I keep my eye on this every day as I want to make sure we take the lift down to dry land.

The Railway Children

This play was staged at the former Eurostar terminal in London's Waterloo station Theater. With seating on both sides of the track, the production featured the amazing Stirling 60 ton Steam Locomotive. The story comes from a children's book published in 1906, and tells of 3 children growing up near the tracks while their father was held in prison. Good Stuff.

Honfleur, France

With our friends Jerry and Paula, (second photo)we took a 1 hour drive from Deauville to the small coastal village of Honfleur. This lovely village of about 10,000 is also a part of the Normandy area of France and what a fun place to waste a day. There are still signs of the German occupation here during WWII with this photo of a gun battery, or pill box, on the beach highway where we drove. I've got comments that most of the pictures of us, that I post on this blog, seem to include alcohol. So with this in mind, we took this opportunity on our anniversary, to have a wonderful seafood lunch on the pier in the French sunshine without a bottle of fine wine, or a cold frosty pint of lager YEAH RIGHT !

Deauville, France

Last week Julie attended the Global Women's Forum in Deauville, for professional women. I joined her on the weekend where we celebrated our 28 th anniversary. Deauville is located in the lower Normandy area, and is considered the most prestigious seaside resort in France. We stayed at the beautiful Royal Barrier Hotel in Deauville, shown here, and were totally satisfied with the property. We flew a short Air France flight from London City airport to Orly airport in Paris. From there it was a 3 hour ride in a rental car to and from Deauville. Good weather followed us all the way.

I'll be Back

I stopped in once again at London's Madame Tussuad's wax Museum with my US guests. Even though I've been here before there's always somebody new on display, I didn't know it would be me. We are having record heat here in England for the month of October. The AC gets turned on every night with these +80 degree days. Just the way we like it!