Worked in the morning and got myself up to date before we picked up Charlotte and headed over to Oxford Parkway. We were stressing a bit about catching the 2.20pm train, but got there with about 15 minutes to spare, so grabbed a coffee and settled down on the platform.
And waited.
And waited.
There were safety checks going on and the train was delayed, so we were starting to get a bit anxious. Thankfully, around 3.00pm it eventually arrived and we got ourselves a seat. At Bicester Village, Katie and Jess got on and we continued into London, Marylebone.
We cracked open a couple of cocktail tins and a bottle of fizz on the way, which made the journey go a bit quicker!
Once we arrived at Marylebone we had a really straightforward journey across to the O2, which was great. We had loads of time, so as planned we found somewhere to eat and settled on TGI Fridays.
Nice food, the girls had cocktails and I had a couple of beers. Nobody bothered with dessert apart from Katie, who had the birthday one — and was suitably embarrassed when the staff all came over and sang Happy Birthday to her!
Once we'd finished we wandered around for a while before making our way to the O2 Experience office.
And then it dawned on us exactly what we were about to do...
We were going to walk over the top of the Millennium Dome!
This was a joint present/experience in that Katie was 30 earlier in the week and Chalotte is going to be 30 next month - so this is signing off Katie's celebrations and starting Charlotte's!!
We got our gear on and joined a group of about 25 people. We started the climb, which is pretty steep initially but soon levels out, and then made our way across the top of the dome.
It was really good fun. Not remotely scary or particularly challenging, but we were very lucky with the weather. It was clear and we could see for miles across London, so there was loads to look at.
When we reached the summit there's a flat area where you take off your harness and gear and have a drink while a DJ plays music. We'd deliberately chosen the 7.00pm slot so we'd be up there for sunset, and that worked brilliantly.
It was really, really enjoyable. Just a lovely experience, sitting on top of the O2, music playing and watching the sun go down across London. Not something you get to do every day!
Eventually it was time to head back down the other side, and before long we'd completed the whole thing.
We got the Tube back and I was tempted to stop for another drink, but probably a good thing we didn't. We caught the 9.30pm train back to Oxford Parkway, dropped Charl home and eventually got back to ours around 11.30pm.
And we've got another long day tomorrow!
End of day summary
That was really good fun. The O2 climb is one of those experiences that sounds much more exciting and terrifying than it actually is, but that's not a criticism — it's just a genuinely enjoyable thing to do.
The sunset made it particularly good and the clear weather meant we got some fantastic views across London.
The girls all seemed to really enjoy it too, which was the main thing.
Originally we'd planned to drive down, which is why I was involved and already had a ticket, but getting the train was definitely the better idea. No driving, we could have a few drinks and it made the whole evening much more relaxed.
Glad I went. Another good little London adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment