Londan, Day 2

Pictures: The Tower of London, House of Parliament from the River, The Wellington Barracks with the Crown Jewels, what visitors see of the Cutty Sark, N & N at the Prime Meridian

Photos: National Maritime Museum, view from the Observatory, the Tower Bridge

Friday, June 18, 2010

So much to see, so little time….. However, today we are sticking to the plan we made ….a boating we will go.

Breakfast….then we caught the number 24 bus from the stop right in front of our hotel. Our intentions were to ride to Victoria, but we missed the stop. The perils of traveling at peak times…just like city commuters in any city….stay out of my way. We rode on to the Westminster Cathedral stop, got off, found a money machine, and got back on another #24. We took the bus a bit further on, got off, walked by Westminster Abby, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben again, and reached our destination—the hop on, hop off boats of the Thames. Unfortunately, we were a half hour early.

Found out the the public toilets in Westminster Tube cost 50 p, which meant that I had to convince a nice ticket agent to give me change.

The boat tour….we were on the first trip of the day. We took the boat straight to Greenwich. One of our crew members gave an informal tour guide presentation. One of the most interesting things was that Wharf stands for “warehouse at the river front.” I had no idea that the word wharf was an acronym. We got our first sightings of Waterloo Bridge—the bridge built by women during WW II, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge. On the way to Greenwich I noticed the water marks and moss along the river walls. We also saw a boat that was sitting on dry land. I asked one of the crew members if it had to do with the tides. It did indeed—it was almost at low tide—which explained the rapid movement of the water. One of the boat’s mates told me that there is about a 7 meter difference between low and high tide. That’s a whole lot of water.

We got off the boat, and the first thing we saw was the lovely plastic building over the Cutty Sark. Yes, Doug was correct, they are indeed refurbishing it. We could see through gaps, they weren’t kidding when they said refurbishing…..the masts were down. It appeared the outer hull sheathing was gone; we could see the ribs. Don’t plan on seeing the ship until 2011 or 2012…..two dates given for completion.

There are actually a number of buildings…historic and regular buildings…that seem to be under refurbishment in the London area. One thing that I found interesting was that they wrap the whole construction sight up in plastic or mesh…..a frame work around the scaffolding.

We were then off in search of the National Maritime Museum….not too tough to find….follow the signs. The Museum Building was itself impressive….large and old looking…befitting the country. Inside, we found a totally awesome exhibits on toy boats…..the toys of the wealthy. We saw clock wind up toys, wheeled boats, and tiny sail boats. The ones I found absolutely amazing were the copper boiler boats. They would actually produce steam to move the toy boat. They wouldn’t let us take pictures inside the museum, unfortunately. We saw a lot of exhibits, but my second favorite were the scale models of old sailing ships produced for the Bureau of Naval Architects or something like that….it was the group that gave the permission for the building and commission of the ships. Those models were amazing in detail and beauty.

A note to our teacher friends who have ever taken children on a field trip: It doesn't seem to matter what country you are in....the students on a field trip seem to behave the same. We watched teachers from private English schools chase and reprimand their students for not staying with the group or for not paying attention. We watched French school groups behave the same.

Off we went to see the National Observatory and the Prime Meridian. Okay, who wasn’t thinking…Duh…observatories are on hills. However, we didn’t think about the torture of getting from point A—sea level---to point B---the observatory. We went through Greenwich Park , which was filled with happy school children on holiday, to reach the actual path up the hill. Getting to the observatory was like climbing a ladder without the rungs….a very nice path, but boy was it a tendon stretcher. My favorite were the women doing it in heels and very cute sandals….crazy. The Meridian was great—just a line. We joined the other tourists in standing in both the east and west hemispheres. The view was spectacular. We bought our first souvenir…a small desk clock—very nice. Down the hill we went because if you go up, you must come down. The most interesting thing on the way down were the people with strollers.

A side point: Using Office 7 in England keeps showing up a number of mistakes in my spelling….it wants me to spell like the English…..favorite is wrong; favourite is correct.

We got to the boat very close to time, got in, sat down, and cast off. We went up river with the tidal current to St. Kahterine’s Wharf where we disembarked for the Tower of London. Stopped for a hot dog, coke, and some candied peanuts. We then walked around to the other side of the Tower to find the entrance, It’s crazy to be in a building started by William the Conqueror in the 11^th century. We realize that much has been rebuilt over the years but it is still old, old, old. We visited the crown jewels, saw a changing of the guard, the bloody tower where we went into Sir Walter Raleigh’s apartment—before his execution. We stood on the site of Anne Boleyn’s execution at the hand of her husband. Went through the Fusiler’s Museum, and walked along the top of the wall. We generally marveled at the place for over two hours. Then out onto the Tower Bridge for a look and some pictures. Reboarded the boat and came back to Westminster.

When we got off, it was raining—the first since a few sprinkles in Portsmouth. Walked in the rain to the bus stop and headed in the general direction of Victoria Station. We stopped at a supermarket for some scones and hot chocolate and then took a bus to the Westminster Marquis (a pub) for dinner. Dinner was good, strange with vegetables (peas) in the spaghetti and loud. Finally a stop for some cool bottled water and a short four block walk to the Sdyney. Collapsed in the room, watched England play a poor game against Algeria, and worked on blogs. By 10:00 we could hardly think straight and so went to bed.

17,028 steps—really more because uphill steps are worth more right? According to our figures it is around 6.5 miles.