England 10: Saturday in London; visit to Greenwich

But first, in an exciting story related to my very last entry about the zoo, the London Zoo’s first tiger cub in 17 years was born a few weeks ago! They just announced it, and didn’t even tell the public that the tiger was expecting until well after the cub was born. You can read about it and actually see it being born (with lightening speed) – and wobbling adorably around its mother here . Either the mother, Melati, or the father, Jae Jae, is the owner of the cute tickle-inducing paws in my previous entry. And the other is sleeping on the fence. Awwwwww!!! They are rare Sumatran tigers, and one of the things that impressed me about the zoo was the work they are doing to preserve Sumatran tigers.

SO, on to… our last day in London. We kept wailing over how we couldn’t believe it was already over….almost….but at least we got to go on to our next leg of the Big Adventure. And Baker B was really happy that our London Time was nearly over. Having adventures on his own was getting a little old by Saturday, and he was ready for some company.

We devoted Saturday to Greenwich. We went to Greenwich on our last visit, but didn’t really see much of it because we’d gone too late in the day and had to catch the boat back (we took a City Cruise ferry – it was included in the All Important In Touring Decisions London Pass) and it was so rainy we couldn’t really enjoy it. We’d planned to go back another day last time but — what a shock! – we ran out of time.

We had a market on the list of Top Things We Wanted to Do, and since the Camden Lock market didn’t work out on Friday, we went to the Greenwich market on Saturday. I enjoyed it quite a lot — it’s in a kind of small area, with a bunch of vendors packed in, but the stuff they were selling was mostly hand-made and good quality, and the prices were surprisingly reasonable. I bought several things- it was the first shopping I’d done for souvenirs and presents. Little things, of course, since we were having to haul it around. A red pressed-flower necklace for Miss Artsy who checked on my cats, a pair of really cool spiraly light blue metal with etchings earrings for me (I’ll have to take a picture – they are gorgeous and the woman who made them ran the booth)(picture taken and included way down below), a little cloth cat lapel pin … no idea why, it was cute and teeny and only a couple of pounds. Kim got a pretty scarf for her mom, and I think a couple of other small things. Later we went to a touristy souvenir shop nearby and I got some little red post box keychains for the other coworkers. It was a nice market– and interesting to compare to the Portobello Road Market, where we went on the last trip. Portobello Road Market is HUGE, something like two miles long — and right in the middle of fancy Notting Hill. Greenwich was in an enclosed area and smallish. On the plus side, it certainly didn’t wear us out like Portobello Road Market did. And didn’t take all that much time, so we had plenty left to walk up to the Observatory.

I am always on the lookout for a fantastic view, and I’d read that if you want an amazing view of London, the park at Greenwich Observatory is the place to get it. We didn’t go into the museums, although I think several were free and now I wish we had. But we did walk up the hill to the Royal Observatory and get the amazing views, And amazing views are always my favorite thing of all.

And now, pictures:

We caught the City Cruise ferry at the pier by the London Eye. So had all sorts of great views of the Westminster area:

Jubilee Pedestrian Bridge near Waterloo Station:

The London Eye from Jubilee Bridge. We didn’t go up in it this time, but we did last time and it was fantastic….a stunning view!!!

Extreme close up of the Houses of Parliament while we were waiting on the ferry:

Blackfriers Bridge footings from the ferry:

This teeny little white house was very important. Sadly I have forgotten why. The oldest tavern in England??? That may be it.

Hahahahaha!!! OMG, the Interwebs are the coolest thing EVER. Yes, that’s what it is. I googled images of the oldest pub in England, and … tada! The Prospect of Whitby, which dates from around 1520. Dickens and Pepys supped there.

I think it was about here that I realized the waves were getting awfully rough.. and huge splashes were coming up through the floor gaps. And right onto my seat. So yes, my entire rear was soaked! Yippie! We moved down to a spot with a poorer view but less water splashing up through the floor.

The Cutty Sark greets you when you embark at the Greenwich Pier. It’s one of the last and fastest tea clipper ships, built in 1869:

Greenwich is a very pretty area:

I love that they paint “look left” and “look right” on the pavement (all over the place, not just Greenwich) It is very helpful in reminding you to look before you step out into the traffic so you don’t get hit by a car coming from a direction you didn’t expect since the traffic is going backwards from our traffic.

We ate dinner at this place last time. I took its picture because it was raining last time and I didn’t get a picture of it…and it was SO GOOD. It’s a Chinese noodle house: a total dive, you sat on long benches at long tables, it was insanely cheap and the noodle bowl I had was absolutely delicious. We were tempted to go again but it was too early for dinner and we wanted to wait later to have our one substantial meal.

We did stop in here for a beer:

What you can’t see in that last picture is their speciality:

No. Did not have an eel pie. Ewwwww. They were serving pies of several varieties in a kind of cafeteria-style, but again, not hungry enough to eat and just got liquid refreshment.

I took a picture of these same phone boxes last time (among the few pictures I got of Greenwich last time, as it was raining pretty hard). They are very photogenic and are well worth additional documentation:

Okay, I don’t know if it’s my internet having issues or OD having issues (crossposting), but I am having problems getting these pictures to show up. I think I will finish this later, especially considering I have about a trillion more Greenwich pictures to post. And I’m at work so really should get back to it. Eventually I need to make a work entry, as we are going through some big changes. Not bad, hopefully, but… changes. I’m also having the first free time I’ve had in months – all of a sudden I’m in a lull. So I wanted to make the most of it. Oh, well, this is too much for one entry anyhow. Laters!