Category: UK

We met Diana and Hanna Friedman at the Princess Diana’s Playground in Hyde Park. After chatting and watching Hanna play, we went for lunch. Diana brought us up to speed about the goings-on of our mutual friends in Sarasota; her wit as sharp as ever.

After lunch, Dennis and I visited The London Towers. Fortunately there was not a lot of stress on the tortures and beheadings. The Beefeater (tour guide) presented historical data for about thirty minutes, and then we toured the tours on our own.

I particularly liked the info on the Royal Menagerie, a zoo developed from gifts of exotic animals. There were lions, ostriches, monkeys, porcupines, snakes—even a polar bear. For entertainment, people would bring cats and dogs for the wild animals to prey on. The polar bear was tethered and then allowed to fish in the River Thames. With all the pollutants in the river during the 18^th and 19^th centuries, I am surprised the animal survived. Eventually the animals became part of the London Zoo.

Tomorrow we set out for Wales. I will have to walk into town for WiFi, so the postings may be more sporadic.

We purchased Day Travelcards at the Visitors Center. With these one-day tickets, we can get on-off the bus, subway, or local train as often as we wish. This is a lot less than the tours they sell in the city. After a 25 minute subway ride, we came out of the tube at Oxford Street and bustled through the crowds by world-renowned stories until we arrived at Trafalgar Square and took pictures of Icarus.

On The Mall, we gazed at the enormity of the buildings and monuments; prior to skyscrapers they built monstrous stone edifices. We strolled through St. James Park stopping to watch the ducks and admire the gardens. There are many parks in London, and this one was filled with people, even though it was a weekday. Some were in bathing suits others in work clothes. Kids romped in the grass while older people on canes slowly inched along on shaded paths or sat feeding the pigeons. People gregariously chatted or listened to iPODs while texting. I heard various languages and saw people dressed in native clothing or fads such as grunge and heavy metal. There was even a model doing a photo-shoot.

We were too late to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Place and too early for the queen to offer us tea–I will need to return later tomorrow to sip the brew and enjoy the crumpets.

It is an honor to guard the queen, but it must be difficult to stand so still in the hot-looking uniforms at 90 F.

In Hyde Park we sat on the ground in the shade of a chestnut tree to eat hot dogs. I don’t usually like tube steaks, but this one was delicious. At the Speakers Corner, I was so disappointed to learn that the speakers are there only on Sundays that I had to console myself with a scoop of double chocolate ice cream. Yum!

We saw Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, but I had no interest in exploring either.

The highlight of the day for us was the Jack the Ripper walking tour. Andre, the guide is an historian who has been studying Jack the Ripper for 25 years. He led us to the sites of the murders and described the incidents and police findings and gave us his own conclusion about the identity of this serial killer. I now want to see the Johnny Depp movie From Hell and Dennis wants to read Jack the Ripper:The Final Solution by Stephen Knight. Have you seen the movie or read the book?

We decided to stay a few more days in London. Since we could not extend our stay our current hotel, we went in search of another. The Tourist Office suggested the Mitre Hotel, which is smack in the middle of Greenwich. We will move there tomorrow. After completing this chore, we went to the train station to book our tickets to Wales. I could not believe how inexpensive the tickets were (about £52 for the two of us), thanks to the senior discount.

We then enjoyed the panoramic view of London from the Royal Observatory. As we climbed the hill to the lookout, Dennis was amazed at how much prime land England gives to the people to enjoy. Greenwich Park, surrounded by a 12-foot high, two-mile long wall, covers 73 hectares (183 acres) and is the oldest enclosed Royal Park. People were sunbathing (yes, some in bathing suits) or sitting in the shade, playing games, strolling, or paddling boats on the pond–just having a good time.

The Shephard Clock Gate welcomes you to the Royal Observatory. The clock was probably the first to display Greenwich Mean Time to the public, and is unusual in using the 24-hour analogue dial.

The displays demonstrate how important having accurate time was for seamen. With it, they could determine their exact position (longitude and latitude) and avoid wrecking the ship.

The museum had models and anecdotes about the various attempts to develop a way to accurately determine time. Once such story is the Powder of Sympathy. It was believed that anyone cut with a weapon that was dipped into the powder would feel pain whenever the weapon was dipped into the powder. The plan was to cut a dog with a knife that had been plunged into the powder, and take that dog aboard the ship. Someone at the South Gate Clock would plunge that same knife into the powder at noon causing the dog to yelp and providing the captain with the accurate time. Of course, it proved absolutely useless.

In the past, the Prime Meridian (the first longitude) varied by country and mapmaker. Obviously, this caused a lot of confusion. In 1884, 22 countries voted to adopt the Greenwich meridian as the prime meridian of the world. You can see the prime meridian in the picture on the right. Nowadays, a green laser shines at night to indicate the the meridian; the green beam can be seen for about 15 miles.

Since we have not been using our packs, I am concerned about out-eating my caloric expenditure. While backpacking, I burn three times more calories per hour than when I am just walking. Notice how much Dennis at 180 lbs burns compared to someone like me at 130 lbs. It just isn’t fair! Do you think that if I gain weight, I will burn more calories?

The cabin we are going to in Wales on Saturday does not supply sheets or towels. Since we cannot backpack them after our stay, I did not want to spend too much. The  hotel concierge recommended ASDA as a place to buy inexpensive sheets. Once we got there, we discovered that ASDA is an English subsidiary of Walmart. Unlike the American chain, these had limited clothing and supplies; it was mostly a grocery store. Like the American version, it was mobbed.

Many street crossings are marked which way to look before crossing. I guess I am not the only one who had to be reminded about the safety rule to always look first in the direction of vehicular travel.

By chance, we stopped for breakfast at Alacosta Coffee. The cafe latte was superb, the garden where we sat was cool and peaceful, and the owner Eddy Wong (right) and his worker were energetic and friendly. Eddy developed his own blend of coffee to produce an excellent brew. He took time from his work to describe Greenwich and its attractions. I am looking forward to returning tomorrow to have another perfect java and to converse with Eddy and staff. I can’t think of a more perfect way to start the day.

We visited the Maritime museum  and learned about England and its relationship with the sea. There was a special exhibition Visions of the Universe which explained the planets and the showed pictures of the universe taken with the Hubble telescope. We spent about four hours visiting the various rooms.

While Dennis slept beneath a tree on the museum lawn, I visited the Queen’s House. It originally belonged to Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I. In the 1800s, the house became an orphanage and school for training boys for maritime careers. Now the building is a fine arts museum. I loved the Tulip Staircase, the parquet entrance, and decorative ceilings.

We explored the Cutty Sark. It was interesting to learn about the ship, its travels, and cargo. The sailors’ quarters were miniscule; I can’t imagine laying in the short and narrow bunk that is just slightly longer than Dennis’ arm. Of course, the Captain and mates had more luxurious cabins and dinning area, but even these were not very roomy. I think it must have been a very difficult and dangerous life, at nature’s mercy, without communications, medical services, or guarantee of return.

We walked under the River Thames via a pedestrian tunnel. The air was cool, in contrast to the 90 F temperatures topside. Once on the London side, we walked east on the river path, hoping to get to the Thames Barrier, structures used to protect London from tidal flooding. We never got there. After walking for about two hours, we decided to take the train back to the hotel. Unfortunately, the closest station was several miles away and we walked an additional hour before arriving. It has been a full and tiring day.

Don’t you think Dennis could have been an Old Salt?

We arrived at the Charlton Station in Greenwich, England, a suburb of London, about 1 pm. From there to our hotel was a short jaunt. Once settled in, we walked about 2 miles to the center of Greenwich. We ate at the Gipsy Moth, one of Greenwich’s favorite contemporary pubs. Coincidentally, while we sat there, a moth fluttered by our table and then landed on the salt shaker. The eatery is near the British clipper ship, the Cutty Sark, so named because the maidenhead is wearing a sark (chemise) which is too small (cutty) and exposing her breasts. In her hand she holds a grey horse’s tail. According to the Alexandria Burn’s epic poem, Tam o’ Shanter, Cutty Sark was chasing Tom who was riding a grey horse, but all she got was the horse’s tail. It is an indication of the ship’s speed.

We then took a tour boat on the Thames, London’s river, to see the skyline and some of the many bridges that span it. One of the prettiest is the Blackfriars bridge. Others of interest are the Waterloo Bridges, sometimes referred to as “the ladies’ bridge” because when it was bombed in WWII, women reconstructed it. Londoners nicknamed the Millennium Bridge (built in 2000) the “Wobbly Bridge” after participants in a charity walk to  open the bridge felt a swaying motion; the bridge was then closed for two years to correct the wobble.

London has an easily identifiable skyline. Some of most famous buildings that we saw include the Whitehall, London Tower (left), Big Ben, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the OXO building, Westminster Abby, and the replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, where you can see a Shakespearean play for £5. All these places I had read about were coming to life and adding a different perspective to mine.

Some of the more modern structures include a dildo-looking building, 30 St Mary Axe, nicknamed “the gherkin”, the London Eye (a giant Ferris wheel on the south bank of the River Thames; it is the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom and takes a half-hour to complete one revolution), and the Glass Shard,  the tallest building in the UK and EU. I need to return to see the skyline after dark; I am sure the lighting will enhance the experience.

The tour ended at the Tower Bridge. To catch the train back to the hotel, we had to walk across the London Bridge. I was disappointed in its ordinariness; it lacks character, unlike others spanning the Thames.