London Trip: Part 14, New Year's Eve 2014

After wandering around Chinatown (and having a wonderful dinner), visiting Platform 9 3/4 (and an awesome souvenir shop), and falling into temptation by browsing a used bookstore (and spending way too much time in it), we finally continue on our journey to London bridge so we can prepare for the evening's biggest event yet...seeing how Londoners ring in the New Year!!!

Don't be fooled...and don't speak to strangers in the metro (especially on New Year's Eve!!)

Hey, I warned you...

Let's get out of this underground metro station!

Sheesh...it's a lot of walking.  It's a good thing we pigged-out at that Chinese restaurant!

and at long last, here we are standing before...a monument?

read all about it...a taste of history

and here we are...on the London bridge...

See? what did I tell you :o)

Look out for large pyramind-shaped buildings that shoot lights into the sky!

We still have a bit of time to wait until midnight.  It's nice to look around at things.  We decide to go on a long walk to get a better view of "things".

This bridge in the distance looks fancy!  We decide to walk to it.

There's a castle along the way.  Hello Mr. Castle!

Oh wow, look at that Christmas spirit glowing in the distance...I hope we can see it closer up.

Well, well...we finally made it to the other bridge and boy does it say "London!" all over it.  This is actually how I imagined the "real" London bridge to look like.  However, it probably did look like this in the middle ages.

We must keep walking...

Now we are standing on the "cool-looking" bridge looking back over at the really plain, but useful London bridge.  You don't see it?  Well, it is the long skinny orange-ish shiny line you see in the distance there.

We continue plodding along this great bridge...the moon is out.  I wonder what that means?  Will there be werewolves out tonight?

just keep walking, just keep walking...

walking, walking, walking...

gotta stop once in awhile for pics...

more pics...

finally crossed that bridge and walking back on the opposite side...

nice view! (except maybe the blue barge in the foreground...what is it with the color blue?)

We've come this far...I hope we make it back to the bridge in time.

Oh Yeah! we get to see the beautiful Christmas tree up close!

Can you believe we are still this far from London bridge?

Here's the "belly" of the bridge...can you see the people perching on top of it?

We made it just in time to perch on the bridge.

The crowd grows and is very excited!

Emily is comfy in her daddy's arms while the time slowly ticks towards the New Year.

...and Ivan?...just plain EXCITED!!!!

The countdown has begun...farewell to 2014....