A birthday trip to London ticked off a couple more UNESCO World Heritage sites, and included the final Formula e race of the season too.

London ePrix 2015 / UNESCO

Written by Haydn Williams

A birthday trip to London a few weeks ago ticked off a couple more UNESCO World Heritage sites, starting with Westminster Abbey. I met Nick here, and Jeremy Irons gave us a lovely (audio) tour of the building. It’s pretty impressive, but not as impressive as the list of famous/important people buried there (along with the plumber who worked in the abbey in the 18th century).

After that, it was on to the Tower of London, which I was pretty excited about. As expected, it’s pretty darn impressive up close, and unlike the abbey they display their UNESCO logo with pride.

UNESCO Site no. 2
UNESCO Site no. 2
In-situ at the Tower of London.
In-situ at the Tower of London.

From there it was to Greenwich for drinks with Nick no. 2. Although the first pub we stopped at had the UNESCO logo on the pavement outside, apparently that’s not enough to tick off the UNESCO Maritime Greenwich site according to Nick and Nick.

Sunday was the final race of the inaugral Formula e series, the Formula 1-inspired all-electric championship. The track used the perimeter road of Battersea Park, and we had a good view of the track, along with a big screen and commentator.

Big barriers didn't interfere with general viewing, but meant this was the only half-decent shot I could get. © Haydn Williams 2015
Big barriers didn’t interfere with general viewing, but meant this was the only half-decent shot I could get. © Haydn Williams 2015

The racing was really great, and a win for Brit Sam Bird was a real crowd-pleaser.

Sexy. © Haydn Williams 2015
Sexy. © Haydn Williams 2015

After that it was homeward-bound, but what a top way to spend my birthday weekend.