Return to Zero

Claire's time in London is growing ever shorter. It is mere days from when she leaves Merry Olde England for colder Norwegian climes, and, I'm told, a diet of reindeer and walrus. Except that Claire is a vegetarian, so I expect it will be tofulrus (or reinfu?).

Either way it doesn't sound pleasant.

Anyways, what this all means is that she is making one last tour of the city to visit all her favorite sights one more time. Great for me, as there are many places I've been too lazy to do once.

This weekend it was a short jaunt over the Thames to Greenwich, as in Greenwich Mean Time. It is like travelling to another world, having all the appearances of a tiny English village, but only requiring a venture into Zone 2 on the Tube. It is literally right across the river from Canary Wharf.

As illustrated in my attempt at an arty photo of old overlooking new. . . and Claire.




It was a rather stormy day, but we did not complain. Storms meant a cool front coming through, and I'll take wet over hot any day.

First stop as we disembarked from the Docklands Light Rail was the Cutty Sark, a clipper ship from the mid-19th century.



You can go inside, but we did not. Instead, we continued past and found an ice cream stand, which was a much better way of spending a bit of cash.

Once our innermost desires were sated, we followed a riverside path up to the Royal Naval College, where young men were once trained to assist Britannia in ruling the waves.



This was the inside of their mess hall:



Their MESS HALL.

After meandering through there for awhile, we crossed the road and took shelter from the rain in the National Maritime museum.



It was alright, except that I'm not really into boats and stuff. We were in there mainly to keep dry and to get tickets to the Royal Observatory. Everything was free, but you still needed tickets for whatever reason.

Once the rain settled down, we hopped skipped and jumped next door to the Queen's House, built for Queen Anne.



Pretty tiny, in my opinion, for a Queen. Also, it was mostly just paintings of boats on the inside.

Our next stop was to visit the Observatory and the Prime Meridian. Which involved climbing this hill:



It's much steeper than it looks, I assure you.

But I climbed it and did not die, and this was the view from the top.



The Queen's House, the Royal Naval College, the Thames, and then the modern 'scape of Canary Wharf.

Here is Claire adjusting her pants in front of the Royal Observatory.



The mass of tourists on the left were all hovering around the official manifistation of the Prime Meridian, but we are smarter than they, so we headed indoors out of the rain and found the inside, much dryer version.


Here is me on the Eastern hemisphere, while Claire rocks the West.

We slipped and slided down the hill again, and having "done" Greenwich, we decided it was time for some lunch. We located a cheap all-you-can eat Chinese buffet, much to the delight of both of us, and rejuvenated our spirits.

Then we dodged some Yuppies for awhile as we browsed an arts and crafts market. Finally we were worn out of the countryside and pseudo-English village charm, so we hopped back on the DLR, crossed the Thames, and re-entered civilisation.

I slept through the remainder of my weekend, and now it's Monday morning, and this is the week I'm going to write most of my dissertation. I've declared it.

As you can see, I'm off to a smashing start.