>>It's getting darker and darker here (01:55 PM) like a cloudy sky ! Last eclipse of millenium has just started.
>>Cetin
>
>We had 97% total eclipse here in London (at 11.20am Local time). Unfortunately it was about 50% cloud also so it wasn't the best view.

We had an 99%, with added cloud layer (about 90%, remainder of last nights symphony lightnings which covered half the horizon). Some people went about 30 miles north to be in the 103% zone.

I was in the city, patching an app, and since nobody worked anywhere (couldn't find a place to buy bread - everything was closed since 10:30 and the thing didn't start before 11:30). The city was completely empty - I drove my bicycle through absolutely empty streets, passing through a few red lights, driving middle of the road - and the cops didn't notice me. Saw a total of four people and one car moving. Came home just in time for the darkest ten minutes, and it was sort of twilight, something like at sunset, but the shift in colors was somewhat different.

>In reality it did get darker, but no more so than a heavily cloudy day, or early evening. As for the birds - well it's difficult to tell from amongst a crowd of people and the noise of the traffic in central London.

I've seen the crows finally getting down to the grass in midday - there's a part of town where there are always about 1000-2000 crows around, but they either fly around or hang on trees, and you never see more than two or three on the ground. There were dozens of them picking something from the lawns. Didn't notice any disturbance. The dogs were silent (quite contrary to a full moon night, when they start barking like crazy).

I don't know which experience was weirder - the mild shift of colors, or the empty town.