Greenwhich

So, Grace and I went down to Grenwhich on Sunday, home of the Prime Meridian and Greenwhich Standard Mean time. We went with my London relatives, who recommended it highly.

We had to get up painfully early to catch the train and we arrived in London around 9:15 am. We were trying to meet my relatives at the Tate Modern so we took the tube down to the nearest stop, across the Thames at St. Paul's Cathedral. As we walked down to the Millenium bridge we started seeing people in T-Shirts with some TV station on them. And cameras. And lots of people inflating those giant rubber balls you sit and bounce on (while holding onto a handle). All these giant rubber balls were gold and people were standing in line and signing a petition or something to get them. We also saw TV cameras.

As we got onto the bridge we stepped into a strange world. People on top of bouncy gold balls had taken up the entire bridge, from one end to the other. There wasn't a lot of room to move through. As we got to the middle of the bridge one or two people began telling us to stop, but Grace ignored them and I followed. By the time we reached the other side of the bridge we heard over a loudspeaker an announcement to all the bridge bouncers. Apparently they were setting some kind of bizarre world record courtesy of the TV station. Whatever. We found my relatives on the other side of the bridge and took the long walk down to the Tower of London.

We were going to the Tower to meet up with a tour group that would then take a boat down the Thames to Greenwhich, a town or something that's not really distinct from Greater London. We walked about between half an hour and an hour, and by then we were beginning to feel the sun. It was the hottest and clearest day I've seen yet in England. The sun just beat down on us relentlessly all day from up in the completely cloudless sky. I was actually worried about getting a sunburn.

So, we met up with the tour and walked down to the boat, learning a little about Roman London, William the Conquerer and so forth before getting on board and setting sail. Naturally, since the weather was so nice we sat on the top deck with no roof and a bird dropped a poop that somehow managed to hit Grace, one of my relatives and me in one go.

The rest of the trip was nice but so bright. There was an almost there headache all day. An old captain type person gave us a tour on the way. We learned that wharf got it's spelling from Ware House on A River Front(!). We learned about pubs, saw one where Charlie Dickens wrote Great Expectations (it's the Grapes, by the way). We saw lots of new luxury condominiums, one built to look like a sailboat(!). There was one point when we passed a luxury condo and there were some elderly people standing on the balcony and they waved. The announcer said, "They must have a couple of bob to live there," sort of like he resented them.

We made it down to Greenwhich and disembarked. We still had some touring to do though. Greenwhich has, among its myriad attractions, the Royal Naval Academy buildings, an old Observatory, the Naval Museum, a former house of the Queen (which now houses an art collection), the highest hill in London (a staggering 183 feet above sea level!), and markets.

The hill was a really idyllic scene. It's in a big grassy park with one or two trails going up it and on the top is a whimsical structure, the old observatory (formerly the best observatory in England, I think). On top this observatory there's a ten foot tall pole. A giant red ball goes up this pole at five minutes to 1 and then drops at 1 o'clock sharp. It has done this once every 24 hours since the 1800s so the sailors can set their clocks properly. The weather got bad one day though and the ball came off and rolled down the hill and now it doesn't fit so nicely, so on hot days it gets swollen at the wrong parts and doesn't work. Oops.

Anyway, the hill is idyllic with this Seussical building with a giant red ball and everything. Coating the hill are hundreds of people on blankets, sunbathing and tossing frisbees or "vortex" footballs around. It reminded me of the national mall only with nicer grass, more trees for shade and a hill with a nice view (one of the best in London).

We climbed the hill after lunch. We had lunch in the market and we were sitting on plastic chairs and I was leaning back in mine and the leg busted and I fell over. So, two embarrasments, getting pooped on by a bird and falling over in a public place.

But yes, we went up the hill and saw London spread out in it's sprawl. The city is so big. It just goes and goes. The tallest buildings are on Canary Wharf, which we passed on the way to Greenwhich. It's called Manhattan on the Thames, because there are five or six "sky scrapers" there, the only ones in London. The tallest building in England is there, some whopping 38 stories or so (higest building in Ireland - 8 stories).

From on top the hill we could also see the Millenium dome, a gigantic white dome with a hideous crown of jutting supports. They make it look like it's a permanent construction site. Apparently it's one of the only man made structures visible from space, and it is one of the first things you notice if you look at London with google earth.

While on top the hill Grace and I went over to see the Prime Meridian and get a picture straddling the Eastern and Western Hemisphere. We had to wait in the line twice because the first time someone took our picture he didn't include the meridian, just Grace and I from the torso up. Idiot!

Why is Greenwhich the seat of TIME ITSELF, you ask? Apparently just because they really wanted it and they argued well at a big conference in DC to establish world time. Oxford still feels slighted and keeps it's own time, which is five minutes different. Tools.

So we went down to the Queen's old house and looked at the Navy's art collection, which, surprise surprise, features lots and lots of ships, at least half of them on stormy seas. By now we were totally exhausted with the walking and the sun so we cooled off in the Naval museum cafe and checked out some exhibits there as well (all admission is free).

Afterwards we headed off. There's a pedestrian tunnel at Greenwhich that goes all the way under the Thames river so we took that (it was, as you can guess, a very long tunnel. You couldn't see either end when you were in the middle). We then took a train to Canary Wharf, were our relatives are thinking of moving.

Canary wharf is completely different from the rest of London. My relatives think it feels like America but that's not really it. It just doesn't feel like Britain. It feels like any other clean, brand new, high rise and shopping district. There are wide open expanses of that nice sand colored pavement, tons of high end chains, lots of nice, new aparments. There's not a lot of greenery and the little there is has been brought in to add some cheer, though it's confined to little hexagonal garden-parks or running down the middle of two way major streets. It's sort of the post globalization planned city. It reminds me a lot of the design aesthetic of somewhere like Jordan Creek Mall, only applied to everything.

I make it sound drab and soulless, but my relatives liked it a lot. It is bright, safe and nice. As they put it, they would take sterile over dirty. And it does have lovely views of the Thames.

We walked through here looking for a waterfront pub, but everyone in the district had the same idea and no seats were available. Eventually we ended up at a restaurant instead, but the cold peroni beers were just the right thing to end the day on. We parted and barely caught the train to Cambridge.