Madness and Meridians

February 21, 2010

Our day trip to Greenwich on Saturday began with chaos and stress, but actually turned out to be a wonderful day. Much like everything that we have done here lately. It never actually works out exactly as we planned, but the spontaneous stuff is usually the best part. London just has so many options, so much to do, you are never bored!

Hal, Viv and I woke early to catch the tube down to Westminster Pier to meet our group. We walked the few blocks to Kensington High Street station and when we got there, we realized the line we needed to take, the District Line, was closed from that stop for the weekend… crap. So after a bit of freaking out, Hal managed to find us a round-about loop to get to Westminster just in time. I was so scared we were going to miss our tour and our trip to Greenwich, but after all that mess, we arrived in plenty of time.

And I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this day for the world. Everything was perfect. Once again, the weatherman predicted cold and rain. It was sunny and warm and perfect. From now on, I’m going to assume the weather will be the exact opposite of what the BBC weatherman says… Moving on, we met our huge group by the pier and all hopped on one of the Thames River tour boats. Grandma and Mom, we are doing this when you guys are here. It is a perfect way to see the river and the city! We passed Parliament, St. Paul’s, the Tate Modern, the Tower Bridge, and so many other wonderful things. I think I took about 200 pictures just on the boat trip to Greenwich!

We passed Canary Wharf, which is the newer section of London built about 10 years ago on old docklands to the southeast of central London. It has a few big skyscrapers and a bunch of cool apartment buildings lining the river. This was the first time I’d seen Canary Wharf, so that was fun. I definitely want to go back sometime.

Then our boat docked at Greenwich, and we had a bit of a tour from Brit. She is amazing. She knows so much and is always so excited about all of the places we visit. If I were a tour guide, I think I would forget everything or get really sick of visiting the same places over and over again. But in the UK, you have to get a special degree from university to be a tour guide, so Brit knows her stuff. I don’t know how she doesn’t forget it all.

After a bit of a chat with Brit, we headed right into the middle of Greenwich. It is was very similar to Brighton in that is felt very much like a small town, but it is located right in the middle of the huge city of London! This place is so diverse, I’ll never get over it. Greenwich market was thriving because it was a Saturday and markets are huge here on the weekends. Brit also showed us the old Royal Naval Hospital and Church, which is now Greenwich University. A bunch of classic, column-lined buildings surrounding this giant grassy lawn, overlooking the river. Beautiful. The dining hall has this really famous painted ceiling and a guy dressed up as Samuel Pepys (a guy who kept a diary during quite a few famous events in London’s history) reading a few of his entries to an audience. It was great to hear and great to look at. There also is this white square building called the Queen’s House located to the north, but there was a wedding going on so we couldn’t tour it today. Brit said that no queens have ever actually lived there for very long. Henry VIII loved Greenwich, but this house was built after his reign.

The end of our tour brought us to the Greenwich Royal Observatory atop this huge hill. The walk up was killer, but the view at the top was worth every step. You could see the whole of London and beyond. After a good look and some pictures, we got in line to straddle the prime meridian. Being able to stand in both the western and eastern hemispheres at the same time… what a dream. And then my camera died. Perfect. I was pissed. Luckily, Hal saved the day and took pictures for me. We hung out around the observatory for a while, before heading back down to the market for lunch. On our walk, we passed a huge park they are using for the equestrian grounds for the 2012 Olympics. Cool, right? It just looked like a big grassy lawn now, but I’m sure it will be great in two years.

After eating a delicious meal at an Indian restaurant, we hit up the market. It was small, but it was also one of the best I’ve been to. I bought some souvenirs and gifts for you guys! I keep seeing things I want to buy for everyone back home, and I tell myself I’ll come back to buy them at the end, but I need to start getting on that before I forget everything or run out of time. Postcards will be in the mail soon. I found some hilarious ones at a post office close to our flat. You’ll enjoy them.

Back to Greenwich. Next, was the National Maritime Museum. We saw a bunch of old battle ships, old maps and compasses, some art, statues, and a lot of buried treasure. It was so cool. And it was free admission! We caught the boat back to Westminster after and headed home happy and tired from our long day.

The pictures are up on Facebook as of last night, so check those out! I have one most post, too. That will be coming soon.

Love,
Kelly