In Honour of the City of London - the Final Chapter

July 25th - How quickly the final day of vacation arrives. Time for one more adventure.  Several locals (taxi driver, tour guide, waiter) recommended that we visit Greenwich, a district in southeast London on the south shore of the Thames, with nice scenery and an open market.  It is well-known for its maritime history and as the birthplace of several Tudors, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.  But is probably most well-known around the world as the location of the Greenwich meridian at zero degrees longitude, and the establishment of the official time marker, Greenwich Mean Time.

There are several ways to get to Greenwich, and we opted for the leisurely and entertaining route - a City Cruise on the Thames.  The pier at Westminster was teeming with tourists, so while a couple of us waited in line to purchase tickets, others had time to grab some grub from the overpriced vendors nearby.  The boat was quite full by the time we went aboard, but we managed to find a couple of seats on the lower deck in the back.

The tour guide was entertaining, not always PC, and clearly longing for the good old days before the excessive construction and renovations changed the personality of the river.  He did well pointing out several landmarks as we passed, including London Bridge, the Eye, the Tower of London, and even the homes of Dame Helen Mirren and Sir Ian McKellen.

London Bridge

County Hall, home of the new
"Shrek Experience," as well as the
London Aquarium

"The Eye" just in front of County Hall

Neptune overlooks the area renamed "the King's Reach"
 in honor of King George V in 1935

The Tate Modern

The dome of St. Paul's Cathedral

The replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theater completed
in 1997, just one street away from site of the original

The Shard

Anchor Pub - the site of a pub for the last 800 years

Here are some more sights from along the river

The HMS Belfast, a museum ship

City Hall, view from the river

Tower of London, riverside

beneath Tower Bridge

looking back

Former mills and warehouses in the Docklands
 are now pricey condominiums 

The Mayflower Pub sits on the site

of the original mooring of the Mayflower

The Cutty Sark, a British Clipper Ship  

built in 1869, now moored at

Greenwich

As we neared our destination, the tip-savvy cruise guide walked through the cabin with his tip jar.  I bet he gets ten times the tips of those who politely position the tip jar near the exit.  He was quite entertaining with his heavy cockney dialect.

The Greenwich promoters said it was a nice quiet place to get away from the city and enjoy the view from the top of the hill.  It was away from the city, but I wouldn't say it was quiet.  Loads of people exiting the boats added to the many tourists already on site.  From Greenwich pier is was a short walk to the grounds of Greenwich Royal Park.  Our first stop here was the National Maritime Museum.  I can't say any of us were big into naval history and exploration, but we appreciated some of the interesting artifacts housed here.

Sir Walter Raleigh

Next we wandered east toward the river to the Old Royal Naval College.  The area is rife with beautiful, stately architecture.  Several signs instructed visitors not to miss the Painted Hall, but when we arrived, the great oak doors were locked, with a sign stating the hall was closed for a private event.  That private event turned out to be a reception for Grammy-winner George Benson, who was to perform at the Greenwich Music Time festival that afternoon.  A large stage was erected on the riverfront, and sound checks echoed between the buildings.

We were able to get in to see the Royal Naval College chapel - beautiful architecture, statuary, paintings, a stately organ, and a satisfyingly-creaky wood floor along the walls.  Looking south from the chapel, one could see the stately, 400-year-old Queens House, and beyond, the Planetarium and Observatory on the scenic hill above.

We traversed the entire campus in search of the demarcation of the meridian line.  A map I had loaded to my phone showed the location was not too far, and some of us were intent on finding it, while others warily followed.  It was a pretty, but longer than expected, walk along the river to the point on the map, where we found no demarcation whatsoever.  We trekked back, then turned south toward the Observatory on the hill.  Another long walk took us inside the gates of a huge park, where we continued to search for some kind of official acknowledgement of the Greenwich meridian.  We saw a line on the ground at about the right spot, so we wishfully decided that this must be it and took some pictures.  A bit further on, we found a very similar line not at all aligned with the other one, and our shaky convictions of the first line's significance faded.

Is it, or isn't it??

The boys headed up the steep part of the hill, while Tim and I lingered below and enjoyed watching tourist after tourist, like lemmings, struggle down an alleged trail from the top, only to be faced with a wrought-iron fence that was just tall enough to make them think they could step over it until they actually tried it.  Several men kindly lifted their ladies over after risking their manhood to climb over it themselves.  A street performer stood nearby who looked like the invisible man.  A little boy of maybe four or five, came up to him and said, "Excuse me, but where is your head?"

(thanks to Tim and Mike for these pics)

The guys got some great shots from atop the hill, then made their way back down to us.  We hiked back into town, where I was hoping to get some last-minute souvenirs at the open market.  Alas, by the time we got there, they were already closing up shop.  Tim2 and Mike went ahead to scout out a place to eat, as we had all worked up an appetite.  We ended up at the Galley Cafe, attached to the Greenwich Picture House.  I had an interesting banana-peanut butter smoothie. 

Having missed the market, we stopped into some of the little shops along the road, where we picked up our final purchases of the trip.  Then we strolled over to the Cutty Sark for some cool pictures before finding the bus that would take us to the Greenwich tube station, where we could find the train to take us back to the flat.  The Greenwich station is on the sight of the millennium dome, a hideous-looking structure that was erected at the turn of the millennium, and houses the O2, a huge concert arena where Santana was playing that night.  This was the first and only tube station where the train was too full, and we had to wait for the next one.  We spent our last melancholy night at the flat, knowing we would all part ways in the morning.

Mike, Tim and I headed to the airport around 8:30 or 9 a.m.  Tim stayed to have breakfast with Ted, as his flight was a bit later than ours.  And Ted had two more glorious days in London all to himself.  
At the airport we were able to cash in our Oyster cards (used for getting around the city), and change our British pounds back to Thai bahts.  We had a quick bite to eat with Michael before seeing him off, spent our last seventy pence on a chocolate bar, and made our way way back to our own terminal.  We enjoyed our Lufthansa flight back to Thailand, with just enough time in Frankfurt to have a German beer.

Adored the vibrant, colorful city of London - it's history, it's style, it's endless hustle and bustle, it's English language - but the highlight of the trip, by far, was having our family together.  Wouldn't trade it for all the pounds or bahts in the world.

In Honour of the City of London - Day 7*

July 24th - July in England has been a treat for my Midwestern predisposition to temperate weather.  And although most days have been overcast, we have had very little rain.  But a whisper of raindrops greeted the four of us who ventured out this morning to see the ceremonial changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.  By the time we exited the tube station at Green Park the rain was in full evidence, and brollies dotted the sidewalks.  Undaunted, we made our way to St. James Palace -  the St. James Palace detachment of the old guards form up here in Friary Court before marching over to Buckingham Palace to join up with the Buckingham Palace detachment.

A few hearty tour groups huddled under cover waiting for the guards to emerge.  We waited along with them, and enjoyed watching a young guard struggle to stand at attention.  The classic image of these guards, like the one on the other side of the courtyard, is that they stand perfectly still, never wavering in their duty.  But this particular guard hadn't quite mastered that yet.  He would lean on one hip, then the other, and at one point I saw him heave a tremendous sigh.  It would seem his two-hour shift just couldn't end fast enough.

After waiting several minutes past the scheduled time, crowds began to disperse, and we walked toward the mall that leads to Buckingham Palace.  Happily we reached the appropriate spot in time to see the guards leaving the palace, marching back up the mall in their rain capes.  We enjoyed the "clomp-clomp" of their boots on the cobblestone street as they strode past.  Not long after, the mounted guards, referred to as the Queens Life Guards, clip-clopped down the mall toward the palace.  It is a beautifully majestic sight to see.  We scurried over to get a few shots of the palace, then ducked into Green Park for some tree cover and hot coffee.  We dragged our soggy selves back to the flat, where Tim2 was enjoying a quiet, dry morning.

soggy Teddy

People caught up on sleep, played Chinese Checkers (don't leave home without it!), and gave some face time to their electronic devices.  Although it was still raining, we decided to venture out to Camden Town in search of some more music.  The Forge is a vibrant, eclectic, nonprofit concert venue, restaurant and bar - an intimate, two-story building on a little side road off Camden High Street.  It was another tube plus bus adventure getting there, but hey, we were getting good at it.

The Forge Cantina has a Latin-American focus, with arepas and Cubanos deliciosos!  As is the case with most bars here, one must go to the bar to order rather than having a waiter come to take your order.  Wunderkind Tim2 was ready for a challenge, and so memorized and placed orders for all five of us.  He definitely inherited his grandfather's amazing memory.  The only table we could see when we first walked in was back in a corner, with the stage blocked from view.  After our food was ordered, Ted scouted out a better table upstairs and we hauled our stuff up there to eat.

It was quite a long wait for the music to start, but we did get in before they started collecting cover charges.  After  eating, we headed back down stairs and found a couple of tiny tables on either side of the music area.  Tim and I sat on one side, the guys on the other.  The place quickly filled up, and we were soon sharing our tables with strangers.  It was finally time for the music to start; first up was the Bangladesh All-Stars - a traditional, world music group with instruments like a dohl (a double-sided barrel drum), bamboo flute, khomok and lute, and some vocals with an eastern mystic edge.  Next came the Soothsayers, a London-based afrobeat and reggae band that got the place jumping.  The two groups then joined together for a truly unique fusion of sound.  Quite a memorable evening.

Back out in the rain, we reversed our bus and tube trip to head back to Maida Vale.  Hi-jinx ensued.

*(Some of you may have noticed that I changed the title of my London posts.  I felt this was necessary after I noticed an uptick in traffic on my sight, and realized it might be because the other title was attracting the wrong kind of traffic!)