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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Travel
Milo Boyd

Tourist who went on London Eye 'ashamed' after realising they made funny mistake

A visitor to London has egg on their face after looking out across the city and believing they were seeing all the way to France.

The red faced day tripper was enjoying a ride on the towering London Eye when they looked south across the Capital.

From the giddy 135m vantage point of Europe's tallest cantilevered observation wheel, they spotted a striking metal tower sticking out across the horizon.

Naturally they assumed that it was the Eiffel Tower.

"Ten years ago I rode the London Eye and was amazed that I could see the Eiffel Tower from there," Reddit user sovereignsekte admitted.

The London Eye offers great views across the city (Phil Harris)

"Today I found out that I am horrible with geography and instead only saw the Crystal Palace radio mast. I am now both ashamed and disappointed."

The eagle-eyed tourist could be forgiven for confusing the two structures, given that they're both metal, similarly shaped and tall - the Eiffel tower is 300m high, the mast 222m.

The primary difference is that the mast is about six miles away from the London Eye, while the rusty French symbol is more than 210miles as the crow flies.

On a clear day someone at the top of the London Eye can see about 15 miles.

The Eiffel Tower isn't quite visible from Paris (Getty Images)
The Crystal Palace mast (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The befuddled tourist came in for a fair deal of flack from those below the line.

"What's the Shard? Isn't that the Burj Khalifa?" one person joked.

Another added: "I had a photo of me and a friend in front of the Spinnaker tower in Portsmouth. They put it on Facebook and one of our friends commented asking what we were doing in Dubai."

A third said: "My aunt's friend was convinced she could see France from Southend-on-Sea but it's actually Kent."

In the right, clear conditions it is possible to see France, and for those in France to see England, when looking over the Strait of Dover.

The most famous and obvious thing visible from France are the White Cliffs of Dover.

The curvature of the Earth means that the horizon obscures objects further than a certain distance away.

A six foot (182cm) person standing at sea level can, for example, see something at sea level 3.24miles (5.21km) before the curvature blocks it.

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